2014 Kia Forte Koup Sx on 2040-cars

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2014 Kia Forte Koup SX

The Kia Forte and Hyundai Elantra have long followed similar paths, with each available in a four-door sedan, a five-door hatch and (most recently) a two-door coupe bodystyle. The recent death of the Hyundai Elantra Coupe in the US may be threatening to change the narrative on these two affordable compact lines, of course, but the Korean two-doors have a lot in common under their distinct skins. Their most recent iterations came to market under the power of the same 2.0-liter, 173-horsepower four-cylinder paired with six-speed automatic transmissions and riding atop MacPherson strut front suspensions and torsion-beam setups out back. Each arrived weighing between 2,800 and 3,000 pounds and could be had in base form for less than $20,000. Considering this, the empirical performance stats figured to be similar.
There's an important distinction to be made, however. Rather than offer a simple two-door version of a four-door car, like Hyundai did with its Elantra Coupe, Kia has gone to lengths to craft a vehicle with its own unique attitude and attributes. Kia has embraced a sportier stance with its two-door Forte Koup, offering up a standard six-speed manual and going further in an effort to craft a more unique, aggressive coupe design.
That drive to be different was further accentuated last year, when Kia raided Hyundai's parts bin and plucked out the 1.6-liter turbocharged four-cylinder from the Veloster Turbo. The resulting car is decidedly different than any other Forte we've tested, while also feeling like a better all-around product than the smaller hot hatch it stole its engine from. To see just how much better, we drove the Forte Koup SX for a week and set about seeing how this enhanced model stacks up as a performance offering.

Kia Sportage makes a funny face in Frankfurt

The all-new Kia Sportage has made its big debut at the 2015 Frankfurt Motor Show, introducing sheet metal inspired by the brand's previous concepts. Our first post on the new model only featured a trio of exterior images, we now have shots of the redesigned cabin. As we said originally, both the Provo and Niro, a pair of 2013 concepts from Geneva and Frankfurt, inspired the exterior design. We still aren't sold on the new fascia, which reminds us of the old Subaru B9 Tribeca. Perhaps it'll grow on us. As for the interior, which we're seeing for the first time, it's, well, kind of exactly what we expected. The quality appears to be good and the overall design conservative. Conventional instruments flank a small color display that looks to be no more than four inches, while a larger touchscreen sits atop the center stack. Its main functions are controlled via a series of buttons found below the screen and above the HVAC controls. While the model on display in Europe sports a manual transmission, we'd expect no such gearbox to be offered in the US. Here, the smart money is on a six-speed automatic being standard, and we're betting there won't be any huge changes in the engine lineup. That should mean a 2.4-liter, four-cylinder in the base and volume models, while the range-topping SX will likely offer Hyundai/Kia's popular 2.0-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder, just like today's Sportage. We've got a full gallery of live images of the new Sportage available at the top of the page. Have a look and let us know what you think of Kia's work.

Kia negotiating to build $1.5B auto plant in Mexico

After a string of recent announcements from automakers, Kia may be the next business to break ground on a factory south of the border. The Korean company is reportedly nearly finished with negotiations to build a $1.5-billion plant near the city of Monterrey in the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon. The state's secretary of economic development confirmed the news to Reuters and anticipated talks to be completed in the first two weeks of August. Unnamed insiders also said that the location was aiming for an annual production capacity of 300,000 vehicles.
Rumors from a month ago first suggested the possibility of the new factory. It would reportedly build two models of small cars, and assembly could potentially begin as soon as 21 months after breaking ground. Currently, Kia only has one North American plant, in Georgia, that builds the Sorento and Optima.
In the last few years, Mexico has become of hotbed of North American automobile production. Mazda, Honda and Volkswagen all recently opened new or expanded factories to build cars there. There are even more on the way with a joint venture plant from Mercedes-Benz and Infiniti and BMW's announcement of its own $1 billion undertaking in Mexico.