The Kia Forte

My good friend Nick, whom I known from my work at TOVA and then when he was at Honda Malaysia, is now a senior figure in Kia Motors Malaysia. He have been telling me to expect a very attractive new model from Kia for many months now and when the new Kia Forte was launched recently, I finally know what he was talking about. Nick tried to invite me to his new model launches many times in the past. But then, I was still fully immersed in TOVA and do not wish to divide my attention and time on other car makes, much as my friends who are with other car manufacturers have been trying to encourage me to do. However, with the range of choices in Honda getting narrower and less interesting day by day, it is natural for a car-freak like me to start checking out other makes. So while I did not get the customary invite to the launch of this new model, such was Nick's good job at marketing it, I was able to check out a few units on display at various places, like the AmBank building along Jalan Yap Kwan Seng.

Firstly from the casual look-thru via the newspaper ads, I had thought the Forte was a Honda Civic/Toyota Altis competitor. I actually felt Kia copied elements of the Honda Civic Type-R front bumper design and from the Honda City as well. Also elements from current BMW 3-series. Now I write this as some sort of compliment because while being labelled a copycat is of course not flattering, what is flattering is the fact that I think Kia do not hestitate to learn and imitate the best points from their competitors.

When I checked out the Forte up close at the AmBank building, I realized my initial impression was wrong and it is actually a City/Vios competitor. It's pricing in fact confirms this as it is smack inside City/Vios territory.

Unfortunately the unit at the AmBank building had its doors locked. But taking a look at the interior through the door windows, I can see a high quality interior build, with very intelligent use and match of black and grey colours. The meter cluster looks it has a large speedo in the middle though unfortunately I can't see it clearly through the glass. Everything looks encouraging and I do plan to check it out more closely at a dealer once I have the time.

In the meantime, I can tell Nick that he did a good job with the Forte.

SIDE BY SIDE by TOVA

Side By Side is perhaps a rather unusual car-fan website. A departure from the normal approach where the writer attempts to tell you that his review is 'fair' and 'objective', Side-by-Side works on the basis that no-one is perfect and everyone has his or her own set of preferences and prejudice. It would be nice if someone can actually write an article completely without influence from his preference and biases but life itself is a journey of choices. From our name, to the clothes we wear, the car we buy to own and drive, the house we own and how we decorate it, even what we eat, all of these -ARE- dictated by our preferences, our likes and our dislikes. So, how successful can we ever be if we claim to be completely objective about our decisions and opinions.

So we decide to take a different approach. Instead of trying to fight and pretending to be successful in overcoming our preference, likes/dislikes, even our prejudices, we freely admit all of them and make a concious decision to take them into account in whatever we write about. We feel this is the best and most fair to you because we don't hide anything from you. And you -KNOW- upfront what you are dealing with and the angles and prejudices we are writing from.

So, we hope this site is a new and interesting approach to car review for you. Do feel free to give us your feedback and opinions.