Kia Forte Photo Gallery

Kia's "tiger nose" grille. Large lower grille well-integrated, and within the bounds of good tast

LED running lights, of course. The Technology Package adds HID headlamps beneath them.

A clean, moderately muscular design.

Civic Si exterior clunkier than the Kia's. For 2014, wheels are 18s, like the Kia's.

Previous generation Civic Si was more attractive the the current one. Clearly influenced the Forte.

Athletic proportions.

Lovely rear quarters, the Forte's best angle. Not a bad way to go to Hell (MI).

An artsy fartsy photo, with ducks.

Sportily raked shoulder, classy rear pillar.

Interesting trim breaks up an otherwise overly dark interior.

Upscale but not flashy interior styling.

Civic's interior dominated by massive bi-level instrument panel. Seats went red for 2014.

Well-designed controls, including close-at-hand knobs for key functions.

Cleverly, only the part of the instrument panel likely to be touched--ahead of passenger--is soft.

A good driver seat becomes an exceptional one on hot days.

You can't tell from this pic, but there's plenty of rear legroom even in the Koup.

The rear seat in the sedan and hatchback is easier to access, plus another inch or two of headroom.

Sufficient trunk in the Koup. For more cargo versatility, get the hatchback.

GDi indicates gasoline direct injection. Honda is the only competitor without it.

Good torque from the 1.6T around town, needs another 400 cc to fully challenge the segment leaders

Upscale headlights, modest grille. If only the luxury makes still exercised this level of restraint.

VW/Audiesque bone line along shoulder.

In the previous pic, a CPL suppressed reflections--and obscured some artful body side surfacing.

The Honda Civic makes a stronger statement, but includes some regrettable details. Trying too hard?

Decent proportions for an affordable compact sedan.

Few extraneous details. They didn't even cheat the side window opening.

Restrained styling inside as well.

The Honda's interior is also more distinctive.

hi

Kias tend to have well-designed controls. Their steering wheel hubs look cheap, though.

Comfortable driver seat.

Rear seat mounted comfortably high off the floor.

Trunk typical of the class.

For 2019, only this 147-horsepower 2.0-liter was offered.

Adequate power and very competitive fuel economy. CVT behaves better than most.