HANDSOME LITTLE DEVIL
COMPACT SEDAN HAS EXCELLENT DYNAMICS AND WELL-FINISHED, BIG INTERIOR
Reg Furoy, national training manager for Kia Canada, was hosting the introduction of the new Forte compact sedan at this glorious ski resort north of Montreal.
He chose to drive one of the new cars from Toronto rather than fly or take the train.
“I took Highway 7,” he told me, “rather than the 401. It’s more interesting, a little twisty in spots, with some hills and few towns. I was going with the traffic, may- be 100 — 110 km/h most of the time.”
And he recorded a fuel consumption number of 5.1 litres per 100 km.
The new Forte, now on sale starting at $16,495, is not a hybrid, nor does it have anything particularly fancy on the fuel economy side of the business, except perhaps for the Continuously Variable Automatic Transmission (CVT), about which more anon.
But this fuel consumption number is a reflection of how efficient cars have become without resorting to environment-killing dead-end technologies like battery-powered electrics.
The Forte is a handsome little car, borrowing unashamedly from the new star in Kia’s constellation, the brilliant Stinger sports sedan.
It’s not only sleek-looking, it’s sleekacting, with a good drag coefficient of 0.27.
I gave the car two cookies for having proper amber rear turn signals, but had to take those cookies away because they are located far too low in the rear fenders, and especially those people driving around in huge SUVs will never see them ‘way down there.
Forte is larger than its predecessor, perhaps the main beneficiaries being rear-seat passengers. Adults might actually fit back there. OK, no NBA stars.
Cars in this class tend to be bought by younger people, often on the cusp of starting a family. Upon that happy occasion, the fact that the rear doors open almost a full 90 degrees will make loading baby seats much easier.
Typical of Kia, there’s a boatload of goodies even at the lowest price point. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard even at that sixteen-grand starting point, as are heated front seats and steering wheel, and Bluetooth cellphone connectivity.
That’s also the only trim level available with the six-speed manual transmission.
The trim level Kia is featuring in its ads and the one they expect to account for over half of Forte sales is the mid-level EX which lists at $20,995.
At this point you get LED headlights, alloy wheels, something called a “Supervision” LCD instrument cluster, and the always redundant and pointless blind spot warning system.
Except that in Forte, you cannot adjust the driver’s side-view mirror far enough out to reveal the traffic to your left (the passenger-side mirror is fine).
Geez, you don’t think they do this deliberately to justify the blind-spot warning system, do you? I didn’t get a chance to try my clothes peg fix as I did in the Subaru Ascent a couple of weeks ago, but seriously people... Both company president Peter Schreyer and chief engineer Albert Biermann learned to drive in Germany where they actually have proper driver training, so they know what should be done. They have no excuses.
This trim level also brings a wireless charger for compatible cellphones.
But a Quebecois colleague told me that might present a problem in La Belle Province because a recent law here makes having a cellphone accessible anywhere in the car could lead to a fine. They must be stowed out of sight. Forewarned is forearmed.
At the one-from-the-top EX Premium trim ($25,065) you get “smart” cruise control, advanced forward collision warning, the again “smart” key with push-button start just like cars had in the 1930s (I call it “dumb” key; what’s next — hand-cranking?) leather seats, to which Kia on their website adds the word “synthetic.” So, plastic...
You have to move up to the top EX Limited trim level ($28,065) to get Sat Nav.
Funny how even in modestly priced cars we have come to expect this feature.
Regardless of the trim level, the cars have a high quality feel. Fabrics and trim pieces seem well above the grade level you could expect at the price, and assembly quality was very good.
The engine is a 2.0-litre four cylinder running on the socalled “Atkinson” cycle, which in this case is a very mild Atkinson cycle — essentially, extremely variable valve timing which manages to squeeze out about the same amount of urge (147 horsepower and 132 lb.-ft. of torque) as before. That’s a fairly modest peak torque value, typical of engines running under the Atkinson regime.
While a six-speed manual is offered on the base trim — that’s the $16,495 car — by far most Fortes will go out the door with the new CVT.
Kia is trying to get us to call it an “ITV” — “Intelligent Variable Transmission” — because of the negative connotation most CVTs have earned for vague shifting and a whiny exhaust note.
To this end Kia has made the CVT act more like a stepped transmission. This actually reduces its efficiency a little, but as Furay’s results showed, it’s still pretty impressive in realworld driving.
It allows the engine to stay at or near its torque peak for more of the time, and acceleration is satisfyingly responsive and brisk.
You occasionally might feel the engine hunting a little, such as when climbing hills at part throttle, but I’ll bet most drivers won’t notice anything unusual.
Ever since Schreyer and Biermann moved to Korea from Audi and BMW respectively, cars from Kia (and sister company Hyundai) have made huge strides in vehicle dynamics. Forte’s ride is firmer than in most cars in this class, but even on the pockmarked roads around “Trembling Mountain” (it is a semiactive earthquake zone) I didn’t find it at all harsh. The payoff is sharper steering and crisper handling.
It was mildly amusing that when Kia was presenting the competitive set for Forte, they included such as Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla, but not Hyundai Elantra. I mean, it is its sister ship!
But the corporate strategy ever since Hyundai rescued Kia from bankruptcy more than 20 years ago is to almost ignore each other’s existence. An odd form of sibling rivalry, perhaps.
Whatever, it seems to be working. Every new vehicle that comes out of either garage door these days is impressive, not only from a price-value perspective, but from a dynamic perspective too.
The Forte is another feather in Kia’s cap.
Now if they’d just do something about that side-view mirror.