Owner Review: The price is very reasonable compared to Toyota Vios and Honda City - My 2013 Kia Forte 1.6 SX

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Basic information about my car

• Make and Model: 2013 Kia Forte 1.6 SX

• Time of Purchase: November 2013

• Price of vehicle: RM85, 900

• Year-End Promotion: Cash Rebate, Free Body Kit

Reasons why I bought this car

Looking for a car that can replace my old car.

1. I love travelling throughout Malaysia, so I wish my new car can provide a stable and comfortable ride on the highway and during long journey drive. The comfort also needs to be accepted by my passengers.

2. Sometimes I need to carry some large-sized stuff from my office to a fair, so I do need a spacious boot space as well.

3. Safety is also one of my consideration points, both the safety features and body strength.

Car Selection Process

• I had a budget of below 100K

• Model(s) that I have considered include: Toyota Vios, Honda City, Proton Preve

Reasons why I chose this car:

The Price is very Reasonable in the class especially compared to the smaller class Toyota Vios and Honda City. This car, it has all the sporty and fancy function like large 17’’ wheel including the spare tyre, keyless entry, push start button, auto dim rear mirror and auto headlight. The most important is the solid and comfortable feeling while driving during my test drive. The Space for both passengers side and boot is spacious, I love also the 60:40 folded rear seat that can provide me with extra space while I carry long and large items.

User Experience

• I have already done 83K++ km

Since the purchase, my thoughts about the car are:

At first, I was worried about the quality of the Korean Branded car as my father owned a Sonata before. The problems of the Sonata are terrible, my father sold the car within two years because he can’t stand it anymore. So I scared that the same situation goes to this car. But what I get is fair enough fuel consumption as the car was weighed about 1.3ton. It can do 9.5~11L/100KM during city drive, but it can be doing a 5.5L~7L/100KM during a long-distance highway cruising.

A very stable driving experience, the car makes a balance between sporty and comfortable. I’ve tried cruising above the speed limit for quite a long time because of rushing time to the airport with 3 adults in the car, it gave me a very confident drive during that time. And ya, I really love the auto DIM rearview mirror, this can make my eyes feel comfortable when the ALWAYS ON High Beam Driver appear behind me.

But, the power of this car really not as good as I expected. The 1.6L Naturally Aspirated MPI engine provides 128 hp@6000RPM and 157 Nm of torque, this results in quite a low power-to-weight ratio. I need more time to complete an overtake action especially on the speed between 60-100.
The big problems I've met until now are the absorber, steering rack and lower arm, changed when it was 50K, and the absorber and lower arm almost done AGAIN with now 80K++ mileage. And the common problems for the CKD model which is the weird sounds (sounds like a rat inside it) came out from the dashboard, fix with turn the song's volume up~XD

But then the other problems are only all the wear and tear parts, the price is also quite reasonable and easy to find, as all the parts are sharing with Hyundai (Elantra), so I can still find new genuine parts with a reasonable price. So these are not problems to me, as long as always take care of it and service on time will do. And I'm quite lucky (I think) that never met the famous ECU problem since 2013 until now.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Stable and comfortable ride and handling.

• Very strong car body met a chain accident before, I’m the middle one, both front and rear are Japan’s car, their car seems horrible but my car looks quite good.

• The design and the fancy function still not looking out of generation even it was a 10-year ago’s car design.

• Nice materials using in the car. Quite a number of soft touched materials used in the cabin.

• Fair enough fuel consumption.

• Nice Sound Quality from the Speaker.

Cons

• The power of this car is really just enough.

• Quite a lot of sound came out from the dashboard when it hits 40K mileage, sent to SC but can’t fix. I fixed myself by turning up the volume of my song...XD

• The reverse camera designed on the rearview mirror was too small and some more the resolution was not good enough, so it's hard to see during day time especially big sunny day. Spoiled the 4th year and changed a new one from outside as it is not included in the warranty.

• Feels weird when the gear shift from 2nd gear to 1st gear, it feels like the manual car let go the clutch too early. Sent to SC to reset the gear ECU but still the same after few weeks. Used to it after a few years...XD

• Common problems for absorber and steering racks. Especially after 50K.

• NVH not as good as I expected especially tyre noise after 60KM/H.

Ratings

• Total Score: 4.5

• Performance: 3.8

• Quality & Features: 4.4

• Space: 4.8

• Ride Comfort: 4.5

• Fuel Economy: 3.5

• Price & Cost: 5

Summary

This is the best car in this class and with this price range. I love the car since I get the car until now with no regret. There is a sentence that can test out is that the car you buy is your perfect car, which is “You will turn and see the car every time after you parked and get down from the car”. Yes, this is happened to me even until now...I will purchase this brand again for sure if I need to change my car.

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