The 2010 Kia Forte looks sharp on the outside, but its interior has too many cheap bits. See detailed photos in today's slideshow.
Interior quality was one of the first things Hyundai and Kia were able to master. It made sense; soft-touch plastics are easier to master than, say, engines or suspensions. The redesigned-for-2004 Kia Spectra compact sedan had a class-leading interior, with excellent materials and assembly quality and a very simple and clear instrument layout.
But the Spectra's replacement -- the 2010 Forte, whose sporty SX version is spending a week with the DC Car Examiner -- has lost some of these talents.
Even when fully loaded with leather seats and a sticker price of nearly $20,000, the Forte's cabin is filled with hard plastics and a few too many misaligned panels.
Notable quality lapses:
-The glovebox is surprisingly heavy and doesn't latch cleanly.
-The handbrake operates clunkily.
-The door panel armrests are sloppily assembled, partially disguised by the leather trim on the uplevel SX models.
-The roofliner has the texture of the center portion of a Band-Aid, but it's not as thick.
This listing should not give the impression that the Forte has a terrible interior. It doesn't. But its overall ambiance is adequate at best by the ever-heightening standards for the economy car class -- especially for a car on the high end of the price spectrum -- despite some strong points like well-dampened controls and perforated leather trim on the seats and door panels.
The Forte's controls also retain the Spectra's ease of use. The red-rimmed gauges are large and clear, and the major stereo and climate controls are easy to figure out and quickly operate without looking, and Hyundai/Kia's cruise control setup remains among the industry's best.
Unfortunately, Kia's original weakness with the 2004 Spectra hasn't been remedied to offset that. For all its quality, the Spectra offered unremarkable seat comfort, and Kia has been too willing to carry on that legacy. The Forte's front seats are hard and flat, with minimal lateral support for the fast cornering a sporty car is supposed to be designed for and less than ideal long-distance comfort. There's plenty of space, and the seats aren't terrible, but the shape and padding scream "basic."
The Forte SX comes with a height-adjustable driver's seat and a tilt/telescoping steering column to help get an ideal driving position, and forward visibility is excellent over the low dash and acceptable to the rear.
The Forte's rear seat is wide for a compact car and comfortable for two adults, though a higher cushion and a bit more leg space would make things a bit better. A fold-down center armrest is a nice touch for a small sedan, and Kia didn't skimp on its function by just letting it plop onto the seat -- it's suspended high enough where it would be most useful for elbows.
Fold the armrest back up, and the seat's width offers enough hip space for a third adult passenger, but the seat is shaped for the comfort of two, not three, leaving the middle passenger perched on a high spot and straddling both the floor hump and the front-seat center console. If he's at all tall, he'll need to duck or rest his head on the roofliner, too, and the folded armrest makes for an unpleasant seatback. Also, all three rear seat positions suffer from overly aggressive seatbelts that are far too eager to retract once they're unbuckled. (The front seatbelts retract more gently.) Nonetheless, the Forte rear seat's three-person comfort is still better than the small-car norm.
Also impressive for its class is the Forte's trunk space, at 14.7 feet and well-shaped. Only the pricey Volkswagen Jetta beats that with 16 cubes; 12 to 13 is more the norm among compact sedans. As is common, the rear seat folds in a 60-40 split to accommodate bulky items (see photos in today's slideshow), but the releases for the seatbacks are located in the trunk rather than on the seats, making you go back and forth when it's time to drop them down.
Check back for continuous updates on the 2010 Kia Forte SX -- including an upcoming comparison with four other powerful economy sedans -- and please ask any questions you have about the car in the comments section below or by sending an e-mail to dc.car.examiner@gmail.com.
Day 1: Introduction
Day 3: Stop-and-go driving
Day 4: Highway driving
Day 6: Inside the car
Vehicle tested: 2010 Kia Forte
Vehicle base price (MSRP): $13,965
Version tested: SX
Vehicle price as tested (MSRP): $19,490
Estimated transaction price as tested: $16,905
Odometer at beginning of test: 1,442 miles
Odometer as of this writing: 2,023 miles
Test vehicle provided by: Kia Motors America
Comments
Great slideshow. Love the dorm move. Now that is multi-tasking, Brady.
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