Thumbnail review from a decade ago:
Rental car for the weekend: 2014 Kia Forte.Photo was taken in April of 2014 using a Samsung Galaxy SII.
Base 148-horse 4-banger with a six-speed slushbox. Lotta slack in the torque converter. It takes it a second to realize you've pressed the gas pedal from a standing start, especially in "Eco" mode, then the drivetrain spins up a lot of sturm und drang that seems oddly disconnected with the languid pace with which the trees are moving past the windows. Solid build quality. Useable cockpit. Driver's seat is reasonably comfortable and the controls all fall readily to hand.
I'm not used to the decoupled feeling of an automatic after so many years of driving a manual. And the six speed box combined with the modest torque output means the gnomes are always busy shoveling gearshifts down in the boiler room.
