Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
As for the Forte5, it’s already a pretty impressive performer, especially in top-line SX Luxury trim. That’s the way Kia suited up my tester, and whoa does it look fabulous. Put the Forte5 SX Luxury next to any of its hot hatch competitors and it’ll pull its fair share of eyeballs. A deeply sculpted front fascia filled with multiple chrome and faux-carbon detailed grille openings plus a sweet set of chrome-rimmed LED ‘halo-style’ projection fogs immediately sets the tone, followed up with
Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
What I like most about the Forte5 SX’ design is that it’s not trying too hard to grab your attention. It’s completely devoid of go-fast boy racer aero add-ons, loud racing stripes or any other types of look-at-me kit, but rather it goes about making
Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
The same goes for the cabin. Kia has become an industry leader when it comes to well designed, well made interiors, the Forte5 SX Luxury delivering the right amount of high-quality soft-touch plastics including a padded sculpted dash ahead of the front passenger and pliable front door uppers, a white stitched leather-like hood overtop the primary gauges, carbon-fibre patterned trim on the dash, the latter
Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
Opulence in a compact produced by a volume producer? That’s right. Kia is shaking up the status quo big time, delivering the kind of features that would make
Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
If you think everything you’ve heard so far sounds good, just wait until I list off all of the gear you get added on from the regular SX trim level. How does proximity sensing Smart Key with a pushbutton ignition system sound? A dual-zone automatic climate control system? Yeah, I thought you’d like that. I’ve already mentioned
Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
Along with everything above, SX Luxury models also get a lot of the equipment that comes standard on the EX, such as a really nicely shaped leather-wrapped steering wheel, a leather-wrapped shift knob, an auto-dimming rearview mirror, automatic
Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
On top of these features much of the base LX model’s gear gets added, including a tilt and telescopic multifunction steering wheel, power windows and door locks, powered and heated side mirrors with integrated LED turn signals, a six-speaker AM/FM/CD/MP3/satellite audio system with aux and USB ports, Bluetooth, a centre console sliding armrest, a handy sunglass holder overhead (I always appreciate this), map lights, a rear cooling vent, solar glass, a windshield wiper de-icer, front and rear splash guards, four-wheel disc brakes with four-sensor, four-channel
Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
Feel free to exhale a collective whew! When Kia decided it wanted to make a major dent in the market, it wasn’t messing around. There isn’t another volume manufacturer in the compact five-door segment that comes anywhere near as well outfitted as the Forte5 SX Luxury, except Hyundai and its top-line Elantra GT, but the fun doesn’t stop here, it’s only just beginning.
Behind
Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
Yes, once again we’re talking about a compact Kia here, not a BMW M car or any other performance-oriented premium machine. EX models and above come standard with the FlexSteer customizable steering system as part of the standard electric power steering setup, and it’s an impressive bit of kit. It features three selectable modes, Comfort, Normal and Sport, all accessible via a button positioned just above the group of cruise control switches on the right side of the steering
Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
On that note the Forte5 SX is a hoot around corners, although there are others in this class that can be pressed harder with less tire squeal and more poise. For the majority of drivers its handling will be more than good enough to impress, but for those just hopping out of a VW GTI, Honda Civic Si, or glory be a Subie WRX STI or Mitsu Evo, just enjoy a relatively quick ride and all the fabulous features your cars can’t be had with. While Mr. Biermann might
Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
It’s a practical car too, by the way. The Forte5’s four doors and rear hatch make for good passenger and cargo flexibility, the front and rear seats plenty roomy for four and easily wide enough for three abreast across the rear as long as you’re loaded up with middleweights instead of super heavyweights. As per usual the rear seats fold 60/40, allowing its minimum of 657 litres (23.2 cubic-feet) of cargo space to expand into the passenger compartment for longer items.
Practicalities in mind, the Forte5 SX Luxury is EnerGuide rated at a claimed 9.7 L/100km in the city and 6.7 on the highway,
Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
As you may have gathered from my enthusiastic tone, the Forte5 SX Luxury is anything but par for the course in most other capacities. It’s a leader in design, interior refinement, features and more, while delivering fun-filled performance and good economy. A little suspension tuning by the automaker’s new engineering maestro and the availability of a manual gearbox in top trim will make it just about perfect. All I can say is for all the aforementioned hot hatch legends to keep their eyes on their rearview mirrors, because a superior Kia will soon be gaining on them.
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