The Forte and Forte Koup抯 design and details are pleasant to look at, without anything garish or shocking, with the only thing that stands out being the rather aggressive front bumpers. In fact at first glance the Forte Koup looks pretty much like just a 2-door Forte but the Koup actually only shares the engine bay hood with the Forte, with every other panel unique, for example the front fenders may look the same but the Koup抯 are actually more aggressive and seem to bulge out more to cover the front wheels.
In the US, it goes head to head against the Honda Civic Coupe (which it looks kinda similiar to), the Scion tC, the Chevy Cobalt Coupe and the aging Ford Focus Coupe. The chassis uses MacPherson struts at the front and a torsion beam at the back
We had two units of the Kia Forte Koup to try out, both automatic models, one with a 2.0 liter engine and the other with a 2.4 liter engine. The 2.0 liter engine produces 156 horsepower and 195Nm of torque mated to a 4-speed auto transmission while the 2.4 liter model puts out 173 horses and 227Nm of torque, mated to a 5-speed auto. Both models had pre-production interior panels without any texture but the dash looked finished.
First up was the 2.0 liter. It is from the Theta II engine family but with CVVT only on the intake, unlike the new Optima facelift抯 dual CVVT on the intake and exhaust. 156 horses felt quite spritely, which was expected really as it felt decent in the Optima so it should do better in the lighter Forte, and do better it did. Gearshifts are smooth and response to kickdown was quick and satisfactory, and so was the manual shifting with the gear lever. There is no Sport or S mode on the gearbox, you can either go into D or into manual mode. Push forward for upshift and pull back for downshift - I would have preferred it the other way around really as it feels more natural.
The 2.4 liter was pretty powerful though like the 2.0 it didn抰 sound particularly exciting, which is something every inline-4 engine faces. In stock form it just buzzes all the way to the redline without any rumble or grunt like a V6 or V8, and not even silky smooth like an inline-6. 173 horses and 227Nm of torque is nearly as much as the MINI Cooper S actually, so flooring it from gear 1 on the automatic did cause some protest from the tyres, though the engine is either 1) not powerful enough to cause any kind of torque steer or 2) Kia managed to sort out the driveshaft length and front suspension right.
Our cars were equipped with Kia抯 MDPS or Motor-Driven Power Steering. This is an EPS system much like in the Civic, which uses an electric motor to drive the steering instead of it being directly hydraulically driven. This allows variable steering assistance - heavy at high speeds but lighter at low speeds to assist with parking. But I found that Kia hasn抰 really got the speed, angle and assistance levels mapped out perfectly yet - it does not feel very smooth and natural and sometimes it switches from heavy to light when you don抰 feel like it should.
The Forte Koup has a slightly firmer suspension than the Forte sedan, with reduced ride height too. A sharp turn produced in no awkward reaction from the chassis, there was some body roll in protest to the sudden maneuver but there was no awkward bouncyness or etc so that抯 decent.
So yeah, it抯 quite a nice 2-door coupe actually and from what I hear our local Kia distributors are looking into bringing both the Forte sedan and Forte Koup in, with 1.6 from the sedan and 2.0 for the coupe. I reckon the 2-door coupe as a CBU unit could be priced at around the Honda Civic or Hyundai Coupe抯 level, matching the two cars as a 2.0 liter automatic C-segment vehicle but I think Naza Kia would have to load up the car with nice specs such as a sunroof to get around the badge snobbery
I can抰 wait to get the Koup down on some real roads to see how it really drives like because it looks good (looks are subjective of course, how many of you agree with me?) but as a coupe that looks like it has some pretty sporty intentions, how fun the drive is will be very important to maybe half the customer base out there, with the other half likely to buy it purely based on its looks. From initial findings it definitely drives better than the rather softly setup Hyundai Elantra which it shares a chassis and alot of parts with, except the engine where the Kia uses a newer, better and more modern family
wuishhhhhhhhhh...cam beh lak kia forte neh...tapi die nya engine system dah upgraded? meaning,in terms of fuel consumption..huhuhu...my fren pakai citra,beh,tapi saket laa bab minyak neh..huhuhu..tapi forte neh mmg lawa gaban aar....hehehe.. ..agak2 bulan brape masok mesia??
Originally posted by ShaCroft at 30-4-2009 14:45
wuishhhhhhhhhh...cam beh lak kia forte neh...tapi die nya engine system dah upgraded? meaning,in terms of fuel consumption..huhuhu...my fren pakai citra,beh,tapi saket laa bab minyak neh..huhuhu. ...
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Post time 22-4-2009 09:12 AM
..... ikut citarasa Pak Abu le... 
