[sube]

Hi It is my intention to buy a Forte5 Sx turbo in 2015. I generally like to see a new car have at least 1 year on the road before buying. Besides my 2010 Mazda3 Gt still has only 25000 kilometers on the ODO so I am in no rush.
However I would like to hear from owners what their experience has been with their Forte5, what bugs you, what you would change. Would you recommend it, I have heard that the gas milage is not great I am not too concerned about that. I am more interested in reliability issues, mechanical problems if any.

I have found researching on a particular car forum as the best way to get an honest assessment of a car I am interested in buying, and start my research well ahead of buying. As of now I am 99.99% sure this is the car I will buy unless something comes along in 2015 that attracts me more.

What bugs me is the scarcity of the SX premium models they as rare as chickens teeth and sell as soon as they hit the dealers lot. I don't know if this is a ploy on the part of KIA in order to reduce bargaining leverage. Anyway they need to start making the model more plentiful if they want it to be a success. I have yet to see one in the flesh.

At the rate they are appearing on dealers lots you would almost need to order one now to be sure of having it for this time next year. LOL. This is in Ottawa Canada.
Pat.

 

[6thElementEngineering]

Koup here too. Mechanically all are the same anyway.

I had a 2010 Kia before this car, and when I boought that 2010 i thought Kia had really stepped up their game.
For this car, that seems even more when compared to my 2010.

The drivetrain is very stout, makes good power and responds to mods very well so far.
Looks damn good, and has a ton of options for the price.

I have 4K miles and not a single hiccup. I did have a transmission issue with 4th gear when I bought it, but that was due to dealer salesmen negligence when delivering it.

I think you will be making a good decision with getting one. Kia has made me a bigger enthusiast for the brand with this car, i just wish it had more power

 

[Norrie]

Do it mate. You won't be disappointed. I'm in a Koup too. Had it since March and still look for excuses to get in for a drive

 

[Markus]

Local dealer certainly had an SX in, though it was a sedan and not a 5. Mine was, I believe, the first SX Premium they sold. So far I'm happy with it. It's quicker than I thought it would be, not that I race around like a loon, just seems to get up to 100 on the highway rather quickly.
The only things that bug me are;
a) audio does not auto power off when you turn the engine off, nor does it have an option to do this (I use my iPhone for music playback, so if I unplug the phone before turning the car off it goes to the last audio input, typically XM radio, and so it blasts that out. I have to power off the car, open the door, which powers down the audio, and then unplug the phone)
b) does not keep it on the last audio source, as mentioned, I use my iPhone, when I unplug it, I would like to to keep it on the iPod option, even though it's not connected, just leave it silent but selected unless *I* decide to switch the source to something else.
c) 60/40 split on rear seats is the wrong way round for me. 60 is passenger to middle, and 40 is behind driver. I have a child seat behind the passenger seat so I can see my son, and so he has room as at 6ft 4in my seat is back quite a bit. I would much prefer, as is the case with my Santa Fe, that the split is reversed, so the 40 is behind the passenger.
d) SX Premium is currently AT only, would be nice if there was an MT option, and perhaps 2015 will allow for this. Not convinced I'd go that route anyway, but the option would have been nice

All of those things aren't items that make me regret purchasing the car, and are pretty small things that probably only bug me. They certainly don't make me regret purchasing the car at all.

My shortlist was; Hyundai Elantra GT Tech, Forte 5 SX Premium, Golf GTi, Fiat Abarth (yeah, oddball choice), Focus ST, and Mazda 3.

One thing I would recommend, use unhaggle.com to get the dealer invoice price for the car. In my case, simply using it got an email sent to the dealer, and when I went to sort out the paperwork is was an instant $900 off the price, which isn't bad for using a free service (think it's only free the first time you use it, you do then have to pay, so unless you have narrowed it down to the car you want, you may wish to pay them) and not having to do any haggling at all.

 

[ragg]

I'm a F5 owner. I must say overall it's a good choice. There's two of them here in town. Mine and a guy named Daniel I met the other day (Going to see if he wants to join). We both agree, they're a blast to drive. They accelerate faster than expected. He said he test drove the Veloster which has the same engine and felt like the F5 accelerated faster.

Goods: Fast. Easy to mod from the looks of the Veloster. Sporty looking. Great room on the inside, I'm 6'1" and I can put a full sized adult behind me and not move my seat. Decent gas mileage. I drive like a bat out of hell I've been told, but still I'm getting 28.3 MPG as of this morning mixed city/highway. Decent sound system, easy to add a sub.
Bads: The suspension in the rear is a torsion beam suspension setup. It's not per say a horrible thing but they were probably leaning towards the cheaper option rather than performance. Under heavy brake load and certain bumps, the rear end feels unnerving. (See: Rear Suspension - 2014 Kia Forte EX Long-Term Road Test). Other: The wheels seem a little too narrow for the power band at places. I've been able to peel all the way through 3rd before it stopped slipping.

Overall, I love it. It's fun to drive, gets a lot of looks, and it's comfortable for daily driving.

 

[Dalas]

I have 6500Km on it and no problems, I love the car. My advise is go for the turbo option and if you can the premium trim.

 

[sube]

I have 6500Km on it and no problems, I love the car. My advise is go for the turbo option and if you can the premium trim.

This is the only model I would buy. In Canada any way the the only two models with turbo are SX which has cloth trim, no HIDs no Power seat noNav. THe SX premiun has the whole works.
My short list originally was Mazda3 since I already own one, followed by Elantra GT TECH still sadly lacking a lot of stuff that is standard on The Forte5 SX premium Prices are close for the Elantra and the Forte5.

When I saw the new Mazda3 in the flesh yuck! I hate that dash could not look at it on a daily basis. did not like the hatch styling either looks out of proportion. Like I said in my first post unless something comes along in 2015 to change my mind the Forte5 SX premium is my car of choice.. Also something that is also a consideration is that both my summer and winter wheels & tires are a direct fit for the Forte. Since I have over 3 grand invested in both sets of wheels and tires this is a major consideration. The rims on the Forte would be the first thing to go as they don't appeal to me. The summer and winter tires are brand new this year, neither even installed on the car yet.

Pat.

 

[Markus]

Just watch out for the pressure sensors in the Kia wheels. I tried a set of rims off of a friends car and they looked good, offset was a little off but the damn chime for low tire pressure wouldn't shut up.

That won't be a problem for the OP as he's in Canada and we don't get TPMS fitted as standard to the cars.

 

[sube]

One more question I have, how is the road noise and is it quiet on the highway. Usually on most cars just dumping the OEM tires makes a vast difference in road noise. The OEM tires are usually the cheapest thing that will hold air. LOL I don't know why that bloody TPMS was ever mandated in the US I am glad it is not a feature in Canada. They are a particular aggravation in winter when the tire pressure naturally drops. If you add air then when the tire warms up it is too hard.

Pat.

 

[ragg]

Came from an Optima, equal road noise which is impressive to me looking at the price difference.