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.