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.
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