2010 Kia Forte Koup EX
I wanted to keep the prices as close to the Koup EX Manual as I could to keep everything comparable. So we are left with the Cobalt Coupe LT $16,470, Focus Coupe SE $16,875, Civic Coupe LX $17,405, Forte Koup EX $16,595. I knew it wouldn't even be fair to throw the Civic DX into this mix so I went with the step up, LX, it's more money (obviously) but it might have some of the features as the competition.
Since we are now on the pricing page anyways lets talk about warranty.
Basic (more or less Bumper to Bumper) Chevy 3 year/ 36k, Ford 3 year/ 36k, Honda 3 year/ 36k, Kia 5 year/ 60k. Right now Kia has the Advantage.
Drivetrain: Chevy 5 year/ 100k, Ford 5 year/ 60k, Honda 5 year/ 60k, Kia 10 year/ 100k. Again Kia has the advantage, if you are a normal person you will drive between 10k and 13k a year. With the Kia warranty it will actually cover you the full ten years. Chevy has you covered for 5 years or 20k miles a year.
I will move past the Crash Test for now because the Forte Koup has not been rated. I would like to mention that the Forte Sedan and out going model (Spectra) both have a 5 star rating all the way around. Not going to mention the 4 stars and 3 stars I am seeing in the competition.
Lets move to the Performance of these compacts. The Koup offers a 2.0 liter inline 4 cylinder DOHC engine with Continuous Variable Valve Timing. Weighing in with 156 hp @ 6200 RPMs and 144 ft/lbs of torque @ 4300 RPMs it leads the group. Chevys larger 2.2L has the torque advantage by 6 but the Kia makes 1 extra HP.
Gas mileage is pretty important to most new car buyers these days so lets go to those specs. Its a pretty even match; the Civic wins in the city with the smallest engine in the class and the Cobalt wins on the Highway at 37 MPG. Averages are 31 for the Cobalt, Focus 29.5, Civic 30 and the Forte 29.5. Surprisingly the Cobalt wins the category, the Civic has the smallest/least powerful engine and barely beats the Forte and Focus.
Kia and Ford have made 16" Alloy wheels standard while Honda and Chevy still install hub caps. Honda made their hubcaps 16" matching the Kia and Ford's size they left Chevy behind with a 15".
Inside all of these cars you are going to find front bucket seats. Edmunds has the Koup listed as "sport" explaining the extra bolstering in one word. Ford is the only one leaving the seat height in a fixed position, everyone else allows height adjustment. According to Edmunds the Cobalt is the only one offering Heated front seats, I didn't think that was true so I checked out the Kia website. It looks like the Forte is only available with Factory Leather and Heated Seats with an automatic transmission. Forte, Focus and Cobalt come standard with a split folding bench seat while the Civic features a one-piece design. Unfortunately the Focus is the black-sheep of the group to not offer an "easy entry" into the rear seats.
Power windows and door locks are standard in the group. Outside mirrors can be adjusted with power assist on the group but the only vehicles with Heated Outside Mirrors are the Focus and the Forte, this feature is not available on the Civic or the Cobalt.
Civic LX and Forte EX both come standard with cruise control, this is an optional feature on the other two. The Civic is the only one not offering map pockets on their model as it comes standard on the rest of the group. Again the Forte is the only one in the group to come standard with an overhead console for sunglass storage.
Air Conditioning and Floormats are standard throughout, although the simple things like reading lights are only standard on the Forte and Civic, not available on the Focus and optional on the Cobalt.
As for Safety Features everyone offers standard Front Disc Brakes but the Forte is the lone model to offer STANDARD rear disks and Braking Assist. ABS comes standard on the group besides the Cobalt making it an option. Traction Control comes standard on Forte and Focus, not even available on the Civic or Cobalt. Stability Control is not available on the Civic but the Cobalt offers it as an option. Exterior lighting is improved on the Forte offering standard side mirror turn signals, not available on the rest of the group.
Steering wheel mounted audio controls come standard on the Forte and are optional on the Focus and Cobalt but not available on the Civic. All come with a standard CD Player with AM and FM capability. Civic falls short here being the only one not offering satellite radio. The Civic and Forte both offer a standard 6 speaker stereo beating the others with their 4 speaker systems. Although you can subscribe to OnStar to get "voice-prompt" navigation on the Cobalt no-one in the group offers navigation as a factory option. Chevy also uses OnStar as a Handsfree device, the Forte has built in Bluetooth with the ability to sync up to 5 phones. Kia has made USB/ iPOD connectivity standard on all of the Forte models, still "being researched" by Edmunds on the others.
The bang for the buck factor is there when comparing the Forte Koup to these other models. Standard warranty is better, your safety is not looked at as an option, you will have the most power and very good mileage. Plus just look at the standard features compared to the competitions' Optional equipment.
Kia has a real winner here. Rowing through the gears with this smooth shifting 5 cog manual transmission is fun. Its definitely got the least amount of road noise of the compact class. It's powerful, yet economical and your car and piece of mind are covered at a MINIMUM of 5 years or 60k miles. Watch out Honda and Toyota, "The Koreans are coming, the Koreans are coming".
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2010 Kia Forte SX Koup
A Review of the 2010 Kia Forte Koup
On a mission to mark their territory in the American car market Kia has released three brand new vehicles in the last 12 months. They have made some excellent changes to their team, mainly the man behind the wheel of their design crew, Peter Schreyer who, as you may know, is the original designer of the Audi TT.
In late summer 2008 Kia released the 2009 Borrego, a very nice (and their first) addition to the full-size SUV market. Starting at $26,245 before the generous factory rebates and incentives, its mile long list of standard features includes such items as: 7 Passenger seating, Tow Package, Projection Headlamps, Side Mirror Turn Signal Indicators, Roof Rack, Skid Plates, Sirius Satellite Radio (with a 3 month Free subscription), FULL iPOD Integration, Cruise Control, Keyless Entry, 7 Air Bags, 4 Wheel Disc Brakes, Stability Control, ABS, Brakeforce Distribution, Hill Start Assist, Traction Control, Backup Sensors and on and on and on. To say the least, they hit the nail on the head with this one.
Unfortunately they had a few circumstances stacked against them when releasing the Borrego. We were in the worst economic downturn of the century and gas prices were about $4.00 a gallon. Not exactly the best time to release a Full-Size SUV. Great vehicle, great ride, plenty of power, very functional, just bad timing.
Things got better; earlier this year they released the brand new Soul into its niche market, taking over where Scion left off after the re-design of the xB. This time around, the release smelled like money. We were just going into summer and the CARS program was soon going into affect. I haven't personally seen the number of Souls sold during that period but I will tell you that nearly every Kia dealership on the West Coast was sold out...
Today Kia is again entering into a market they have no experience in... Compact Coupes.
Having great success in the Compact car market with the Spectra over the past few years, Kia knew there was more to be had. The Spectra left a lot to be desired, originally released as a 2004.5 model it had lots of plastic, a loud engine that didn't seem to make the power they suggested and the Corolla'esqe bland styling didn't help either. There had been a few face-lifts over the years but the car stayed the same. Anything would have been an improvement in the styling category but we never expected something like the Forte to carry the Kia badge.
And the icing on the cake... the Koup.
The coupe market was huge in the 90s but today leaves slim pickings. Compact Coupes are becoming a rare breed especially with cars getting bigger and bigger every year to match the ever growing popularity of McDonalds and Burger King. The Koup's competition is limited to the Civic, tC, Focus, Cobalt, and Cobalt with Pontiac Badges a.k.a Pontiac G5. We can probably go ahead and eliminate those last three from the list as competition.
Only having an opportunity to drive the EX Koup with the Automatic transmission, I cannot vouch for the SX in this article nor the EX 5-Speed Manual. I have driven the SX Sedan with both the 6-speed manual and the 5-speed Automatic and they are great, I mean great. I am really looking forward to the SX 6-speed Koup so that I can actually take advantage of the extra bolstering the Koup offers in its front buckets. This Koup has excellent aggressive styling that is actually backed up by some power.
For the entry level Forte EX Koup you can plan on shelling out roughly $17,290. But wait before you say I can get a Civic for that much take a look at the standard features on the EX Koup.
- 2.0 Liter 156 HP 144 FT/LBS of Torque
- 5-Speed Manual Transmission (optional 4-Speed Automatic)
- 25 City and 34 Highway Fuel Economy
- A 6-Speaker Stereo System with 3 Months of Free Sirius Satellite Radio
- USB Port for use of a Thumbdrive and full iPOD Integration
- CD player with Mp3 Capabilites
- Bluetooth with support for up to 5 phones
- Air Conditioning
- Power Windows
- Power Locks
- Power Steering
- Keyless Entry
- Tilt Wheel
- Cruise Control
- Padded Center Console
- Overhead Map Lights and Sunglass Storage
- 6-Way Adjustable Drivers Seat
- 60/40 Split-Folding Rear Seat
- Carpeted Floor Mats
- 6 Airbags including Side Curtain and Side Impact
- Active Headrests
- 3 Point Seatbelts for all 5 Passengers
- 4-Wheel Disc Brakes with ABS
- Electronic Stability Control
- Traction Control
- Brake Assist
- Tire Pressure Monitoring
- Electronic Brake-Force Distribution
- Lower Anchors and Tethers
- 205/55-16 Tires with 16 Gunmetal Grey Wheels
- Dual Body Colored Heated Side Mirrors with Turn Signal Indicator
- Body Colored Exterior Door Handles
- Auto-Off Headlamps
And So On.
Moving onto the SX model, you are looking at a starting price of $18,390 with the 6-speed Manual Transmission. Adding the Leather package and Sun roof, a steal at $1,700, will bring the total to $20,090.
Going to the SX isnt just throwing a different engine in there. For that extra amount you are going to get (Including the Leather and Sun Roof Packages).
- 2.4 Liter 173 HP 168 FT/LBS Torque
- 6- Cog Manual Gearbox w/ 22 City 32 Highway Fuel Economy
- Optional 5-Speed Automatic Transmission w/23 City 31 Highway Fuel Economy
- 215/45R-17 Tires with 17 Alloy Wheels
- Sport Tuned Suspension
- Fog Lamps
- Power Sun Roof
- Leather Trimmed Seats w/ Heated Front Buckets
- Red Accented Stitching Throughout
- Gloss Black Front Fascia Accents
- Supervision Gauge Cluster w/ Trip Computer
- Tilt and Telescoping Steering Wheel
- Leather Wrapped Steering Wheel and Shift Knob
- Metal Finish Interior Accents
- Metal Pedals
- Windshield De-Icer
To say the Forte is an improvement over the out-going model would be an understatement. Fit and Finish is top notch, horsepower is higher, fuel economy is better, standard features are through the roof, interior is fantastic and the warranty stayed the same!
Although the Koup EX does not have the sport tuned suspension of the SX it still handles precisely, it has a quick turn in, good power coming out of the corner with almost no body roll. It is quieter than its competitors at highway cruising speed and just plain looks better!
Ford re-entered the market with the 2009 Focus Coupe, they decided to steal the design from the B-Pillar back right off a 2001 Hyundai Accent 3-Door. The front end stayed pretty much the same as the sedan. Its ugly but ugly sells cars, it seems that buyers dont want to fit in anymore they want to drive something that will stand out from all of the good looking cars in their local mall parking lot. Hence the success of the Soul
Honda has kept their design almost exactly the same since the release of the new FG2 in 2006. Apart from a minor facelift for 2009 its the same car. Not exactly a bad thing, but theres always something to improve upon. As for styling its mediocre, it was o.k. 4 years ago but they are behind the curve quite a bit. The availability of the Si is the only real thing it has going for it. Since the release of VTEC in the very early 90s Honda has hung their hat on small displacement high horsepower engines. Their newest engine the K20Z3 is a 2 liter twin cam i-VTEC screamer producing 197 hp but very little torque and what torque it does make is out of the usable range coming in at 6200 RPMS.
I will not say that the 2.4L World Engine found under the hood of the Koup is better than its competition. Like I said before, the Civic Si makes 197 HP, but is low on torque. Horsepower sells cars, torque wins races. Kia has the torque.
As I just mentioned a few lines ago this is a World Engine. If you Google the World Engine it might bring you to a Wikipedia page explaining what Im talking about or look here www.gemaengine.com . Basically Chrysler, Mitsubishi, and Hyundai have a joint venture to build the best four cylinder engines on the market, they have already produced over one-million units so far. A variation of THIS engine can be found in the Dodge SRT-4, Mitsubishi Evolution or in the Hyundai Genesis Coupe. These are probably, aside from the Chevy Small Block, the most tested engines in the world.
Anyways enough of the history lesson, the Koup has a huge bang for the buck factor and is going to do great in this market. It will be interesting to see what Honda does to their Civic Coupe to keep it competitive.
I would have to say that Hyundai and Kia are the new Honda and Toyota. Sorry guys...
--Written By Josh Hixon on Oct 10, 2009
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