Owner Review: Reasonable price with features only available in premium brands - My 2010 Kia Forte 1.6SX

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Basic information about my car

2010 Kia Forte 1.6SX

Reasons why I bought this car

The 1st car launched in Malaysia with (a) KEYLESS ENTRY, (2) PUSH START button (looks cool to my friends and family back then when starting the car), (3) ELECTROCHROMIC rear mirror, and (4) full-sized (17”) spare wheel! And these features are nowhere found in any sub-RM100K car. Features only available in those premium brands like Merc, Beemers, VWs, Audis. AND this car is only RM82K! Not forgetting that it has ALL WHEEL disc brakes!

Car Selection Process

• My budget:

Basically, I budget myself to not buy ANY vehicle that cost RM100K and above. I cannot muster the fact of having a car the price of a single-story house (at that time), rolling on wheels on the road! So, just scouring around to replace my ol’ faithful Proton Iswara hatchback that is already 12years of service.

• Model(s) that I have considered include:

Honda Civic & Toyota Altis were THE 2 brand competitors within the same segment. Proton (Preve) was out of consideration at that time as I would like to try other brand makes. Civic was a little over-hype back then as it's THE king of RV (resale value as its a HONDA!), and also priced over RM100K. Altis would be nice but again, it was also selling over the RM100K mark, and that’s a no-no for me then.

• Reasons why I chose this car:

It is SO OBVIOUS…. a car that is priced lower than both the Honda (Civic) & Toyota (Altis) and in fact almost same pricing as the lower B-segment Vios and City, but packaged with a whole lot more stuff that none of the 2 brands offers! (Keyless entry, Push Start, Electrochromatic mirror, 4 disc brakes, 17inch wheels). And this is NOT even the top range 2.0 Kia Koup that has lots more to offer. The car looks handsome, test drove and feels reasonably good. Handles well. The deal is the seal!

User Experience

• I have already done 340,000++ km

Since the purchase, my thoughts about the car are:

This is a very under-rated car that buyers just shove over their shoulders all because it's a KOREAN brand. On top of that, past users of the KIA brand (especially the Kia Sephia for family C-segment) was a total disaster due to bad fuel economy and constant reliability issues. This Forte is THE replacement of the Sephia, headed by THE Peter Schreyer as the Head of Design. Peter was the ingredient to the beauty of the Audi TT. I bought the Forte in 2010 and have used it for the past 10 years with no major issues other than standard maintenance. The cost of servicing and spares is reasonable as it was under the umbrella of Naza Automotive. Spares are readily available that are comparable to any Hondas or Toyotas. Forte was launched in 2009 and I was one of the pioneer buyers that gotten the CBU batches before Naza started CKD and local mass production in 2011. I joined the MyForte car club and became one of the pioneer owners that are able to share and guide newbies on the technology and innovations of this car. Done many convoys to meet friends and owners alike. The car travelled over the states with no issues. And as all general male-owners, the “bug for the mod” started to creep in. The first mod started with the rims where changed the standard rims that weigh 10.6kg per rim with lightweight rims from Advan Racing (Made in Japan) that weighed 6kg. That will be 20kg weight shed from rims alone. Slowly but surely, more aesthetics mods were done, namely bumper change to the Koup version, installed boot spoiler from Tomato, upgraded the front and rear lights to be full HID and LEDs, upgraded the shock coils to HR coils. Overall, the car looks sporty and elegant but it purely looks alone. No touching of the internals such as engine as this is the HEART of the car. Any change in its tuning will require the whole car setup to be considered. Fuel usage is OK as a 1.6litre car that weighs about 1.3tonnes. Doing about 8.5L/100km. That's reasonably good for a 10-year old car.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• It has ALL the features that high-end models have but at a fraction of the price

• Smart design cues that are very “manly” without fancy curves

• Drives well and planted at all speeds; confident in corners and high speed (done 195kph before and still stable)

• Reasonable fuel consumption for daily use

• Get great stares and thumbs up wherever I go!

Cons

• Is a 4-speed model just before the 6-speeder was launched a year later

• Only with 2 airbags at that time (2.0 litre model comes in 6 airbags)

• NVH is not that good as Koreans are way behind Japanese or Continental designers especially in the Ride and Handling department. Tried to improve the ride by using adjustable absorbers as well as UR strut bars, but I am no original engineer for KIA. Just cannot get the right balance.

Ratings

• Total Score: 4.2

• Performance: 4

• Quality & Features: 5

• Space: 4

• Ride Comfort: 3

• Fuel Economy: 4

• Price & Cost: 5

Summary

This has been the BEST buy and experience for me as a car owner. KIA FORTE has opened my eyes and experience towards the technologies of how the automotive industry has progressed. Features like Smart entry, keyless start, auto-dimming, ABS, ESC are features that are MUST have in this new era of driving pleasures. I am just blessed that KIA brought this “transitional and affordable” model to a mass market in preparation for good things to come. If only our country’s tax system is favourable to the public, we would all be experiencing and enjoying the innovations of the future!

Interesting events that happened to my car

The best event was the PACG (Putrajaya Auto Convoy Gathering) in 2013. I was 1 of the Marshall convoy cars (out of 10) that led 144 Kia Fortes and Koups from MAEPS Serdang to Putrajaya Kehakiman in Precint 3.

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