Stunning Kia Forte revealed!

jetsetter

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Just the other day, we were all looking at a teaser pic and speculating wildly, and now, here it is. Kia dropped official images of its Spectra successor, the Forte, on the interwebs, and it is one sharp little car. The styling that the Forte introduces is Kia's new look, from the pen of Peter Schreyer, also responsible for the first-gen New Beetle and TT. The face of the Forte combines chunkily-flared front fenders with a new corporate grille, and there's a distinctive depression down the lower part of the flanks that works well with the prominent swage line to lend a stone-hewn look to the car. The term Forte in musical notation means "play loud," but this new Kia is restrained and maturely drawn. Additionally, the two-door variant of the Forte should look even better.

While there's no new design ground being broken, the overall effect is clean and handsome, reminiscent of many other higher-end vehicles. Check out those rear lamps -- remind you of any 40-something thousand dollar luxury car? When the Forte hits Korean showrooms in August, a new four-cylinder engine will be under the hood, employing 1.6 liters of swept volume. A 2.0 liter will follow on directly, and may be the only engine we get in the US when the Forte arrives on North American highways and byways in 2009. Compared to the Spectra, the Forte looks worlds better, and even on its own, we think it looks like a million bucks. Okay, $500,000. Let the endless string of "it looks like" comments begin.

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/07/02/stunning-kia-forte-revealed/

I like it. Quite the step up.
 
Yea its not ugly - a bit Ford Focus-ish. Depends upon price and engineering now, still has to be quite a bit better priced than the ASTRA or FOCUS (or your equivalents) and the engines and transmission needs to be reliable - which if I recall Kias are, and finally they need to pack it with extras. Should do OK.
 
"Stunning"? Well I suppose if you've always fancied a scaled-down proletariat Lexus IS then sure. :dunno:
 
its got a whiff of honda/toyota/lexus about it, but its a good looking car none the less. its not a corker though.

front reminds me of an accord, the rear of some kind of lexus/toyota that was obviously so bland i forgot which one it is.
 
Is this the new mini-Accord?
 
Its a handsome enough car! :D Kia are really stepping up with their new cars! :D The C'eed, then the pro_c'eed and now the forte! :D Now bring on that gorgeous coup?!
 
Yep Civic/Accord knock off. A nice looking one however and considering that Kia's have been pretty good mechanically lately I would say it's a pretty good choice for a DD.
 
Just from looking at that car and not seeing the badge I would never guess it was a Kia. Regardless of what cars it's ripping off I think it looks absolutely fantastic.
 
I almost never mention when a car looks like another car but... I thought new civic and new corolla blended together when I saw this
 
Looks like a ugly mix of a Honda Civc and Lexsus IS.
 
it looks like a saturn and accord made an ugly baby, an Accorturn? Sat-ord?
 
The front looks like a civic/accord hybrid while the rear looks like the new Acura TSX....overall it looks like a shorter, fatter TSX.

eh not bad but not especially nice.
 
I certainly wouldn't say it's "stunning", but it is a very professional, clean design - easily one of the best to come out of Korea (which admittedly is faint praise).
 
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