Topic: CTC Review: 2010 Kia Forte Koup

[rrocket]

I hope I never have to hear about this car again. Its a KIA people!

Here is what I suggest. Find the cord that goes from the back of your computer to the electricity jack in the wall and pull it. This should solve all your problems.

Oh...I thought you were going to tell him to chew on the cord.....while sitting in his bath tub....

[Brig]

I would average 14L/100km in an Odyssey
From EPA rating 14.7 city 10.2 hwy
So you would drive an Odyssey with an egg under the gas pedal

Or a floor mat.   

[quadzilla]

I hope I never have to hear about this car again. Its a KIA people!

Here is what I suggest. Find the cord that goes from the back of your computer to the electricity jack in the wall and pull it. This should solve all your problems.

Oh...I thought you were going to tell him to chew on the cord.....while sitting in his bath tub....

Actually, that is a better idea.

[Snowdog]

Just a quick update on the gas mileage I averaged 7.5 from Ottawa to Montreal at 120

Actually at 120 km/h that seems quite decent.  Probably helped by the relaxed highway gearing. That is also my normal highway cruising speed.

I think this will be a fine drivetrain once they reprogram the drive by wire throttle (assuming it is).

I am looking for a new hatchback in the next year or so. Fix the throttle and do a decent job on the Hatch and this Kia will be high on my list.

[Canada Stig]

Whoa, my comparison of a Mazda 3 and Kia Forte touched off some anger.

Power is not just measured in Bhp - it is how the car responds.  I am willing to give Kia and Hyundai a chance, believe me - anything that wakes Honda up to the needs of consumers is good - but I drove a "170hp" Forte last week as well as a "less powerful" Mazda 3 and an even less powerful 2010 Civic.  Sorry, no comparison.  The 3 (and the Civic, for that matter) and Forte are not even in the same league.  The Kia is a cheap car that will be bought by budget conscious drivers, not driving enthusiasts.  That is fine with me, but call it what it is.

My comment about fuel mileage is exactly that - driving the heck out of my 04 Civic Si, I never, ever average fuel economy worse than 8.5/100km, and that is even winding the snot out of it - all the way to 6500rpm btw shifts - to enjoy the VTEC power.  Highway mileage the last time I took it from Toronto to Ottawa was just under 40mpg - about 7l/100km.

[2JDM]

CR hasn't tested the Forte yet

I wonder if they will deem it "NOT ACCEPTABLE" for the stalling problem? Surely that is a real safety issue... and they haven't been able to feature that on a cover for 30 years or so.

They did on the Isuzu Trooper, because it tipped over in handling tests.

http://www.theautochannel.com/news/date/19960821/news01559.html

[leaverfast]

Power is not just measured in Bhp - it is how the car responds.  I am willing to give Kia and Hyundai a chance, believe me - anything that wakes Honda up to the needs of consumers is good - but I drove a "170hp" Forte last week as well as a "less powerful" Mazda 3 and an even less powerful 2010 Civic.  Sorry, no comparison.  The 3 (and the Civic, for that matter) and Forte are not even in the same league.  The Kia is a cheap car that will be bought by budget conscious drivers, not driving enthusiasts.  That is fine with me, but call it what it is.

What an insulting (or should say, ignorant) comment. It sounds suspicious that you actually "drove" the Koup. It is a real looker for sure.
Nevertheless, real driving enthusiasts would not drive a mundane fwd civic "SI", lol. You must be budget conscious as well because you could not afford a 350z or G35, etc. What a nonsense.

[dkaz]

Average 9.8L/100km? That's horrible. My 2007 Mazda 5 (MT) averages 9.1L/100km in day to day driving. It never gets worse than 10L in the city and can be as good as 7.5 on the highway (06 and 07 5s were rated 8.0/10.6 hwy/city, the 08 to 10 is even better at 7.1/9.6) And I can still do 0-60 in under 10 seconds. I'll stick with my sporty people mover thanks.

[2JDM]

Power is not just measured in Bhp - it is how the car responds.  I am willing to give Kia and Hyundai a chance, believe me - anything that wakes Honda up to the needs of consumers is good - but I drove a "170hp" Forte last week as well as a "less powerful" Mazda 3 and an even less powerful 2010 Civic.  Sorry, no comparison.  The 3 (and the Civic, for that matter) and Forte are not even in the same league.  The Kia is a cheap car that will be bought by budget conscious drivers, not driving enthusiasts.  That is fine with me, but call it what it is.

What an insulting (or should say, ignorant) comment. It sounds suspicious that you actually "drove" the Koup. It is a real looker for sure.
Nevertheless, real driving enthusiasts would not drive a mundane fwd civic "SI", lol. You must be budget conscious as well because you could not afford a 350z or G35, etc. What a nonsense.

 

I drive a automatic Protege5. I guess I ain't an auto enthusiast then, since I can't afford a Porsche 911. 

[leaverfast]

I drive a automatic Protege5. I guess I ain't an auto enthusiast then, since I can't afford a Porsche 911. 

Um... 2hondas, sorry to say that you missed the point.
What makes him think that driving enthusiasts would not drive the Koup but the Civic?
Driving M3 myself, they are just another sporty cars (no offense).

By the way, an auto enthusiast and a driving enthusiast may not be the same.

[toolatecrew]

Whoa, my comparison of a Mazda 3 and Kia Forte touched off some anger.

Power is not just measured in Bhp - it is how the car responds.  I am willing to give Kia and Hyundai a chance, believe me - anything that wakes Honda up to the needs of consumers is good - but I drove a "170hp" Forte last week as well as a "less powerful" Mazda 3 and an even less powerful 2010 Civic.  Sorry, no comparison.  The 3 (and the Civic, for that matter) and Forte are not even in the same league.  The Kia is a cheap car that will be bought by budget conscious drivers, not driving enthusiasts.  That is fine with me, but call it what it is.

My comment about fuel mileage is exactly that - driving the heck out of my 04 Civic Si, I never, ever average fuel economy worse than 8.5/100km, and that is even winding the snot out of it - all the way to 6500rpm btw shifts - to enjoy the VTEC power.  Highway mileage the last time I took it from Toronto to Ottawa was just under 40mpg - about 7l/100km.

No anger. Your comment was clearly false.

You didn't say more refined. More responsive. You said more POWERFUL. Actually you said CLEARLY MORE POWERFUL. The only clear measures of power are empirical. Anything else is subjective and therefore not clear. I'll ask again how is a 168 hp Mazda CLEARLY more POWERFUL than a 170HP KIA. If you found the Mazda more responsive in back to back comparisons fine. Say that.

Check the 0-60 times. How is the Mazda "clearly" more powerful. All we ask is to say what you mean.

[Canada Stig]

What an insulting (or should say, ignorant) comment. It sounds suspicious that you actually "drove" the Koup. It is a real looker for sure.
Nevertheless, real driving enthusiasts would not drive a mundane fwd civic "SI", lol. You must be budget conscious as well because you could not afford a 350z or G35, etc. What a nonsense.
[/quote]

If you ever need a ride to work, just give me a call.  I'll be the guy in the Black Mercedes.

And FYI, the G35 became the G37 a couple of years ago.  I cross shopped that when I bought the Benz.

[dougjp]

Has Kia fixed the throttle tip in problem yet?

[wing]

no

[Mitlov]

Was the tester a preproduction model or a production model?  It sounds like there's a big difference in quality in the Forte's case:

Alright, Kia. Something's going on here. I went on the Forte first drive in Seattle back in June and had a chance to drive the top-of-the-line Forte SX, and I came away distinctly unimpressed. Body roll, squealing tires, eager understeer, sluggish throttle response -- this thing was sport-tuned in name only. But that was a preproduction model. We've got a production Forte SX in the garage now, and I'm not even kidding, it's a revelation. Excellent grip, good body control, highly responsive steering...someone at Kia obviously decided that the SX needed to get its act together. Check this out -- the Forte shot through our slalom course at 68 mph, outpacing the brilliant Mazda 3 s by about 1.5 mph. Much respect to Kia for listening to criticism and making significant changes on the fly. That's part of what makes revolution possible.

http://blogs.edmunds.com/strategies/2009/10/weekly-top-3-pleasantly-surprised.html

[wing]

Doubtful, it handled just fine, only issue is the throttle.  Drove the automatic at testfest it was brutal as well always spinning the tires on take off.

[Shnak]

Hey wing, someone wrote this comment on Autoblog's review of the Forte. I thought it was interesting and wondering if it might explain your problems with the throttle.

That throttle thing is normal for post-2006 Hyundai and Kia models with electronic throttle. I can remember leaving smoke in my wake just trying to pull out of my own driveway.

The ECM is designed to learn how you hit the gas and adapt to it, and at the same time your foot is adapting to the throttle. Eventually it evens out and becomes much more docile.

The throttle will resume doing these burnout starts if the ECM is ever reset for some reason, or if you force the throttle to reset. It will go through the learning process again and settle back down.

Do you think it's true?

[wing]

Doubt it

[blur911]

If it was true, wouldn't they be touting this as a new Super Adaptive Positioning Servo Controlled Automatic Responding Throttle.
But then they read the acronym....

It's not a bug, it's a feature

[Shnak]

Well, I don't recall anyone touting their adaptive transmissions, but they're getting more and more popular...