Kia's New Spectra Replacement Is A Looker

I haven't visited any car blogs lately, so this bit of news came of a surprise to me. Kia is Hyundai's sister company and the Spectra is a C-segment car like the Elantra, so they are in a way sister cars, which is why I was researching it earlier to see what people think about it and if Kia was planning a refresh soon. I found nothing. My search for new news turned up nothing, because the new Spectra is called Forte. (It might still be called Spectra when it hits the US in 2009 or 2010, but it called the Forte now).
This car is very nice looking. A YouTube video leads me to surmise it is designed in Germany or at least the lead designer is German. It hints to me of so many cars I like. The front lights have a Civic feel to it. The first side view picture reminds me of a previous generation Acura TSX. The concave sides and tail lights are remotely like the Lexus IS. And lastly the lines of the side glass remind me of a Pontiac G6. I see some Corolla-ness in there too. Even so I am not saying it is a hodge podge of other designs; stand back and look at it as a whole, it is its own car.





While the old Spectra was sporty in a vanilla kind of way, the new Forte has captured what Kia has been trying to do for the last couple of years...be a sportier nameplate than Hyundai. Sigh...I have to say it looks a lot nicer than the Elantra. It looks kind of large, too. While some amateur car enthusiasts have cried that the front end is a unabashed rip-off of the Civic's distinctive face, from all other views, the Civic looks like a toy next to this car. While I have not found any dimensions on it, it looks big. I wonder if it will class out as a mid-size like the Elantra is.
If Kia can get their reliability and quality a little more on par with Hyundai and Honda, the Forte might kick some butt and really challenge people's perception of Kia.

Elantra at One Year Old

Odometer: 7,700 miles
MPG: 33.5 at the end of the day

This is the one year report on the Elantra SE, which I purchased late August 2007. Today was actually my first extended highway trip (over 2 hours) in the car, so I was able to finally gauge true freeway MPG over a continuous amount of time. I drove from Millbrae down to the Monterey Bay Aquarium which is over 90 miles. After filling up the tank I reset the trip meter and off we went. On a Labor Day morning, the traffic was brisk all the way down. Averaged 71 mph and 35.2 mpg when we got down there. Maybe I could've gotten 36 if I stayed under 65. (2007 EPA MPG figures on this car is 28/36. 2008 is 26/33) AC or fan was on 40% of the time.

Coming back we hit some traffic on 101 and 156, so of course the mileage wasn't as good. So by the time I got home the MPG was 33.5. Pretty decent for 10% street vs 90% freeway driving. My usual driving is more like 90/10 which you can tell from previous posts, I've been averaging 25-26mpg.

How's the car? Everything is working as it should be except for the turn signal which sometime fails to auto-shut off after a left turn. I will check if that is a warranty fix next time I go in to the dealership. Pet peeves: The door arm rest isn't in the right place for me. It is too far away. The thick C-pillar and high back do hamper visibility some. I knew that was something I needed to live with going into the purchase, but I did not think the beefy A-pillar and large sideview mirrors would also pose visibility issues. I find myself being extra careful that there are no short kids crossing from the left or when I make a left turn that I avoid the center island on a street, because the mirror and A-pillar can make seeing these thing hard sometimes. I am not saying it is an unsafe design, but the driver needs to take extra care. I am guessing many of today's cars have visibility issues, because of sportier styling and wider pillars needed to accept airbags.

How is my head? I think the new car fever is finally fading. I haven't washed it is over 3 months. The trunk is a little dirty from bricks and stuff I've been hauling from OSH.... and I don't care. I don't consciously look for other Elantras on the road.