News & Reviews- Make: Kia

I read in December that Hyundai Motor Corp. and affiliate Kia Motors Corp. just hired Albert Biermann, now ex-chief engineer for BMW's M performance division, to develop the automaker's performance models and improve ride and handling overall. Now the South Korean dynamo won't only have one of the best designers in the industry making some of the best looking cars available, but Peter Schreyer's rolling sculpture will likely soon get the same wow factor when it comes to driving dynamics.

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 dazzlingly Read Full Story

When it comes to cars, typically you can follow your heart and get something fun or follow your head and get something practical. A few cars, however, do an impressive job of straddling the line between practical and fun. The Kia Forte Koup, which was freshly redesigned for the 2014 model year, is one of them.

Like the Scion tC, which is perhaps the little Kia's most direct rival, the Forte Koup offers genuinely engaging style and a sporty driving experience together with a surprisingly comfortable back seat, good trunk room, and commuter-friendly convenience features. Sure, there are other compact coupes out there - including the Honda Civic Coupe, Hyundai Elantra Coupe and even, arguably, the Volkswagen Beetle - but none of them really look the part quite as well as the Kia Forte Koup does. It's a genuine stunner thanks to the styling efforts of former Audi designer Peter Schreyer, and my test car drew favourable comments wherever I went.

Powering the Forte Koup's Read Full Story

With all the talk surrounding Kia's latest K900 luxury sedan it might be easy to forget about the slightly smaller front-wheel driven Cadenza, but that would surely be a mistake. Not only will the Cadenza easily outpace the pricier K900 on the sales charts but it's an especially refined luxury car all on its own, and likewise does a similarly excellent job of imitating, or should I more appropriately say emulating its premium-badged luxury competition.

Where the softly sprung K900 most decidedly targets the pampering perfection offered up by the Lexus LS 460 instead of the autobahn-born German class originators, the Cadenza hones its HID headlights in on top sellers like the same Japanese luxury brand's ES 350 and Lincoln's MKZ. It's not the first up and comer to target the comfortable front-drive Lexus, the MKZ also falling into this camp, and won't likely be the last, even Toyota's own Avalon making a credible case for staying with a mainstream nameplate, but as with each and Read Full Story

Have you ever questioned what the word "new" means in the automotive marketing dictionary? Obviously if a vehicle has never been licensed before it's new, but that's not what I'm referring to. Rather, I'm talking about when some brands say a given model is new when in fact it's a "refresh", "facelift", or "mid-cycle update".

Kia could have quite reasonably called its 2014 Sorento all new, being that it rides on a new platform architecture design, incorporates a new direct-injection V6 engine, features new interior design with nicer materials, offers new telematics, and boasts a new infotainment system, but they didn't. They rightly stated that the updated Sorento was "significantly redesigned" and much more than a "freshening," being that 80-percent of the 2014 model is new, and factoring in that its arrival last year made it four years since this second-generation went from the original truck-like body-on-frame design to unibody, its styling has only been mildly refined, albeit Read Full Story

Kia is riding high in newfound popularity lately, for good reason. Its cars look better than most rivals' offerings, overall quality is good, standard and optional feature sets are more plentiful than the competition, and according to J.D. Power, dependability is at least mid-pack, while its five-year comprehensive warranty beats most peers as well. Today's consumers aren't stupid. We recognize good value when we see it, so it's no wonder the South Korean brand is enjoying sales success.

Nowhere is this more evident than with the sharp looking Forte Sedan. Redesigned for 2014, the Forte has gone from a sporty albeit cute little compact four-door to a sophisticated city slicker. Like its larger Optima sibling, you could put a premium badge on the hood and trunk lid and easily fool those unfamiliar with the car into thinking it's worth a lot more than its $15,995 base price suggests (plus $1,485 for freight and pre-delivery prep).

Maybe it's because the base car is so Read Full Story