What led you to buy your Forte?

I drove an '01 Rio and hated every day of it but it was cheap transportation for a student. When i got a grown up job it was time to get a serious vehicle. I always said "i'll never get another kia". Then one day i was at burger king and saw the back of a car and was like "damn, that's a nice looking car". I got to the front and saw the kia badge and saw that it was a forte koup.

After a little research i test drove a Forte Koup EX and loved it. But i still wasn't sold so i test drove....get ready for it:

Mitsubishi Lancer, Mazda 3, Chevrolet Cobalt, Ford Focus, Ford Mustang, Ford Fiesta, Ford Escape, VW Jetta, VW Golf, Hyundai Tucson, Hyundai Elantra Touring, Hyundai Genesis, Honda Civic, Honda Accord Coupe, Toyota Corolla, Toyota Matrix, Nissan Sentra, Nissan Altima Coupe, 2011 Kia Sportage, Kia Forte Koup SX, Kia Forte Sedan EX w/sunroof.

After all that was done i returned to the forte koup EX and said...let's make a deal.

a 3 month process just to end up where i started and i haven't looked back at my decision because i know it was the right one.

I owned a 2005 Toyota Corolla for a while before getting my Forte. Talk about a cheap car. I own tupperware containers that are made of higher grade plastics than what was inside that Corolla. Panels were not lined up correctly, and some were loose as well. Stereo sounded tiny and the left rear speaker blew after a few months. The final nail in the coffin was the fact that the driver seat was horrible. It had no back support and no thigh and knee support. On drives longer than 20 mins, my back and knees were aching so bad and I'm a relatively young guy. Once I started doing a 40 km one-way commute for a job, I couldn't take it anymore. There was also a 2 or 3 km stretch of uneven road on my commute. That Corolla would bounce, shake, rattle and buzz like some kind of cheap carnival ride. I knew I couldn't stand driving it anymore. The only thing I liked about it was that it got really good gas mileage. Luckily I traded it in a month before Toyota started to issue all those recalls otherwise I'm sure my resale value would have suffered.

I considered a couple of other cars before getting my Forte. I looked at the new Honda Civic at the dealership. I opened the door and immediately noticed the cheap plastic interior. Panels were loose and not tight fitting. Interior cloth and fabric were also horrible. The buttons, knobs and switches also looked extremely cheap. I didn't even feel like test driving it. The interior completely turned me off the whole car. I then understood why the Honda Civic was losing sales ground to the Mazda3.

Next up was the redesigned Mazda3. Now this is how car interiors should be done. Very nice quality and finish, probably even slightly better than the Forte's. The only thing I didn't like about the interior was the tiny radio display and some of the radio buttons were really small. However, I could not get over the new exterior design of the Mazda3. I tried to look at it from different angles, tried to tell myself that I would come to appreciate the look over time but never could convince myself enough. Also the fact that dollar for dollar, the Mazda did not offer as many standard features as the Forte gave the Forte the final edge.

The Forte just really hit the mark on all my key criteria over all the other cars. It is a clear step above the Corolla in almost every aspect. I have owned my Forte for over a year and while it's not a perfect car, so far it has made me happy.

i drive ~80mi roundtrip to work every day, and i needed something that was
A. affordable monthly payment
B. good on gas
C. relatively cheap to maintain
4. high mileage warranty
Q. still fun to drive with some bells and whistles

my wife works at a ford/lincoln/mercury/kia/suzuki dealership, and initially we were looking at the soul, but they seemed a litte bit more pricey for fun stuff, and not quite as good on gas.
so i popped for the forte ex.
just about $13k out the door and it had 10 miles on it.
picked it up monday morning, and so far im loving it.

Well, I needed a car for college, and I was looking at getting a used car, but then we saw an ad in the paper. So we started looking at new cars. The Kia Forte immediately popped up. We also looked at the Ford Focus and the Hyundai Elantra. The Chevy Cobalt got a quick glance.
One of my local dealerships had an instant rebate of $5,500 off all new Fortes on the lot. My dad took me to go check out the very last 2010 they had on the lot.
We haggled a little and got another $1,500 off. $14,400 was the final sticker price. We drove home with a fairly new Forte with 1200 miles on it from tests drives and the such. It was broken in for me!

We figured it was better to pay a little more for a new car and get the amazing warranty then get stuck with an older used car that could have major problems down the road.

2010 EX in White with tinted windows and Home Link. Coffee interior. Also came with the trunk badge. Since it was last years model I couldn't really choose any options, but I'm fairly happy with what I got.

By the way, we payed in full to avoid stupid insurance and payment plan bullshit.

I had an 06 Maxima that cost me WAY too much to maintain and wasn't worth it. Right when the 3 year/36,000 mile warranty expired, my engine died so I had to have that fixed. Hit a pothole and BARELY dented the inner lip of my rims and it cost me $1200 to replace ($600/per OEM wheel). New wheels cost me about $1200 for economy. Every time a light bulb died it was nearly $300 to replace because they don't sell my bulbs at any auto store and they have to be replaced by removing the bumper (sneaky bastards). They say you get 19/21 mpg but I got barely 18 and I drive nothing but highway. So 35mpg, a whole set of wheels AND tires for less than a grand, generic light bulb changes, and standard features such as homelink, bluetooth and ipod that my Maxima didn't have..... LOVE IT! The perfomance was a bit of a change though but I don't regret it at all!!

I drove a '92 Lumina (280k) and the gasket was breaking down for the second time. After fixing it the first time, I decided that I was not paying to get it done again.

I was already looking into buying a car before she died and tested the Accent, Cube and Soul. The Accent was too under powered (but price competitive), the Cube was way too slow (but was very spacious and had a HUGE rebate), LOVED the soul (and was actually the first car that turned my eyes to Kia), but was WAY over-priced.

We (wife and I) actually had a very bad experience from the first two Kia dealerships that we went to (first Kia didn't even break down the cost of the car for us, he just said "this is what you are paying each month", after a bit of paper and pencil math, it was thousands MORE including a 3 year old trade-in that we had). Went to another Kia and timing just didn't work out (didn't have the car to test drive the first time, when they had the car the second time, it was blocked off by another car so we still couldn't test drive and also, they were very adament about the sticker price (claimed they didn't make much money off the sale of the car)). So I decided to check on www.carcostcanada.com to see if the claims were indeed correct. Which of course, they were not.

Surprised myself that I wanted this car so bad even though I had such a bad experience from two prior dealerships.

Didn't know that signing up on carcost allowed someone to actually call you (I never read fine print lol) and received a call the next day. Bought it that weekend when my "Red Rocket" Lumi died *sad-face (T_T)

Love the new car, love the A/C and finally turning heads on the street (for the right reasons).

Cheers!

I haven't bought one yet, but I almost started a long thread on this, but since this one was appropiate: (And I have some things that most people wouldn't consider):

• Price/Features compared with competitors like Honda Civic, Ford Fiesta/Focus, Hyundai Elantra, Hyundai Accent, etc.
• 60K BtB warranty.
• Aftermarket radio can be installed easily and radio doesn't interface with other systems (HVAC, OnStar, Chimes, etc.)
• Kiatechinfo.com - Pretty cool you have a free factory shop manual online.
• Standard features had what I want without things I didn't want - cruise, power windows, power locks, color-matched door handles and mirrors, turn-signals in mirrors, heated mirrors, rear armrest with cup holders.
• Has technology that I wanted and not technology I didn't - has ESC, SRS, etc - does not have a maintenance minder or capless fuel tank.
• Good maintenance intervals - OTOH, a bit concerned with no fuel filter replacement due to no filter except in the tank, and I think no auto tranny filter replacement due to no filter - but ...
• Seats fold at least semi-flat. (You need to look at a new Fiesta or Focus to understand this, but their seat hinge points are about 3 inches above the trunk floor - so there is a hump between the seat back and the trunk floor). Kia might have this also, but at least the carpet makes it into a gentle slope.
• Hub caps bolt on - and both hub caps and alloys look decent for factory wheels.
• I wouldn't buy the car solely b/c of this, but I kinda like that you can't accidentally drop the car into D2 or D1 from neutral.

Things that I am not crazy about:

• Hard to find colors I like on the EX trim - Ford has 9 colors for the Fiesta SE alone. Kia has 10 for the entire Forte line. I really like the Red Candy Metallic Fiesta. Spicy red is similar, but more subdued - but probably the best, I might go with that or might go with Bronze b/c it seems unique.
• Can't get factory alloys on the EX sedan without getting a sunroof. Can't get hubcaps on the EX hatch period.
• As another member said - Ford did some nice things on the 2002 Focus that you don't think about: Dome light comes on when you unlock the door, goes off on timer or when car starts - comes on when car stops and stays on until door locks - or on timer. One of the members is working on this for the Forte, but it should be standard.
• That's about it - wish they made a factory fog-light kit.