I have found a product that KIA should have put on the Forte engine from the factory. I had the Road Race Motorsports lightweight performance pulley installed on my Forte SX and the difference is night and day. Let me start with a little back story. I had been asked by KIA corporate engineering in Irvine, CA about things I like and dislike about the Forte. They are doing a lot of market research on their new car and they are very concerned to get the Forte right. At the time of that conversation, I told the engineer that the engine hangs on to the RPM's too long when you try to shift making it difficult to shift. I told him that the clutch action as well as the unresponsiveness of the engine makes it difficult to start in first gear at times, so much so that it results in stalling the vehicle. I also mentioned that the change between 1st and 2nd gear is rough. Finally I had mentioned that the vehicle just doesn't have the "free-spirited" feeling to it that I would expect from a sport-tuned model. The KIA engineer's only response was that they would have to look into some kind of change. I never heard of any change from KIA, but I found the change in the form of Road Race Motorsports lightweight performance pulley. This simple pulley install has totally changed the way my Forte feels. The engine is much more responsive now, all of the shifting problems are non-existent. The engine matches RPM's for shifting much better than it ever did before. Most importantly the seat of the pants feel of my car in the very usable RPM range of 3000 – 5000 is amazing. I can not believe that with just a simple change of a pulley you can literally feel it in the most useful portion of the RPM range.