KIA New K3

Driver’s Comments
Acceleration:
Welp, sorry Civic Si fans: This automatic Forte is officially faster than your car. The engine feels pretty responsive off the line and the transmission does a good job of shifting and getting that power to the ground. Powerbraking surprisingly improves acceleration by a hair, even if the car’s dual-clutch automatic doesn’t seem excited to do it (it’s usually better for traditional torque converter automatics). We selected Sport shift mode and Sport drive mode and turned traction and stability control off. The revolutions per minute slowly rise to just below 2,000, which is enough for it to leave the line a tad quicker than just stomping the go pedal. Shaves off a tenth or two of a second to 60 mph.
Braking:
It feels pretty stable and controlled under braking, with mild nosedive, decent straight-line stability, and even the brake pedal throw is relatively short and firm. But these tires just stink for longitudinal grip, which means shockingly long stopping distances for a small performance-ish compact sedan. At least the distances are relatively consistent, which means the weak link is most likely the tires. An easy fix though Kia no longer offers the once optional Michelin Pilot Sport summer tires.
Handling:
Pretty decent at turning a corner, especially on these Kumho all-season tires. The tires deliver a predictable amount of grip and don’t completely fall apart either. The Forte offers a nice amount of steering feedback and a nice progressive increase in steering effort especially in Sport mode. Kia steering used to feel way too artificially heavy, but I think they’ve found the right balance now. It’s heavy enough to feel just a tad sportier and provide some feedback. Front to rear balance is also pretty nice, making it easy to place on line and hold it. Understeer is mild and easily approachable. With stability control on, the car does reel things in on occasion, but it’s not overly intrusive. It’s quicker with the system off, however. The automatic transmission will hold a gear in Sport shift mode as long as you don’t touch redline, and it rev matches pretty nicely as well.