Used 2013 Kia Forte Sedan Consumer Reviews
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2013 Forte SX
I've had my Forte since Sept of '12 and thus far I have to say my major gripes are the crappier than expected fuel mileage... a tire that buldged out on me that they wouldn't cover under the warranty "because I must have hit something to make it break", and the leather on the steering wheel is so soft that if you happen to get out of your car with your keys in your hand, it tends to scrape the leather on the wheel as you grab it to get out and tear it... so within the first month of having it, they had to totally replace my steering wheel. Ride gets a tad stiff after a couple hours of driving for a long ways but awesome style and love the features
Honda/Acura Dreams on Kia Credit & Income
Very fun to drive! Was a lovely car at first, but now I have to turn my air off while on the interstate so it will move in traffics. Love the leather wrapped shift knob. Basically the seats are cheap uncomfy and hard, the interior materials are cheap too , the paint cheap and cheaper. I know it's supposed to be cheap but now it looks cheap and rides cheap. My radio and satellite radio keeps going out every 5 minutes. I'm paying more for this than I should but oh well better than being carless. The led signal lights on the side mirrors are cool. I've got 23,000 miles on it in its 2nd year and brakes and alignment and tired needed...too quick
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Perfect little ride for an urban dweller.
Since the age of 16 to present (will be 40 at the end of 19) I've owned over 100 different cars. Some people drink, I buy and sell cars. Only 2 of my cars were ever bought new and the Kia is the first. My Mom is a displaced homemaker so she doesn't have a lot of money. I've always taken the lead in making sure she has safe and reliable transportation. I purchased the Kia new in 2013 for her. Whenever it needed maintaining she would take it to Firestone and put it on my account. Thing is, she always did this late... In 2015 I bought my second new car which is a Ford Focus Ecoboost. Also a really great car. Over the years I had driven the Kia every now and then and always liked it but recently I decided to trade cars with my Mom. I no longer travel for work and my Ford ends up sitting in the garage during the week and only comes out for weekends or the occasional grocery run. My Mom on the other hand drives my niece and nephew around as well as various other things she has to do. It made better sense for her to have the car with the better mileage and lower miles. So, I bring the Kia home knowing it was behind on maintenance but not realizing it was 13,000 miles behind (thanks Mom) so I took it to Firestone and had them do all the basics from oil to air filter as well as check all the majors. Turns out Mom did have them change the coolant and transmission service 13000 miles ago. I'm sure I paid for it but don't remember. So all that was golden. What impressed me was that even though this car had not been serviced in 13000 miles it still drove AMAZING! Normally a car will feel sluggish and weak but not the Kia. I had the people at Firestone do a full check and they said everything was perfect. The only thing I need to do is have the brakes replaced ($1200 for all 4 discs) which I find impressive for a 7 year old car driven by a woman who is constantly slamming on them... The servicing I did last week only cost me $250 so I am not only impressed by how long this car can go without service but also how cheap it is to service! At 63,800 miles this car is running strong and can even withstand some abuse. As for styling, I love the look of it! I think the 2010 to 2013 styling is much more attractive than the new styling. I love the ride. It is stiff but it is also solid. You feel planted in the ground where as the focus made me feel like I was floating all the time. So, I have more fun taking corners in the Kia than I did in the Ford. The seat material is cheap but at 7 years it is still holding up nicely. Even the back seat looks decent regardless of my niece and nephew. I am 6'2" and I fit perfectly in this car. I do have the seat all the way back and I raised it with the lever about 4 pumps. I actually find this car to be more comfortable than the Ford when it comes to driving and I feel it would be just fine on a long car trip. The only thing I will say is that over the years my Mom had me replace several headlight bulbs and brake light bulbs. It seemed this car just burns through them. Even when I went down to trade her, I discovered the brake light was out... My solution was to move to LED's. I replaced all the back lights with LED's which I'm sure will pay off in the long run. I have a set of low and high beam lights ready to throw in the front but I'm going to wait until one of the current bulbs goes. I'm sure I won't be waiting long. I don't drive much and when I do it's usually on a motorcycle so I anticipate putting another 100k miles on this car which means I'll be running it until it falls apart. However, I wouldn't be surprised if it's still going even after that. The paint is crap! I agree with that. Taking it in next month and having it repainted with better paint and having the windows tinted. The speakers are also crap and I will be upgrading all of them this weekend. I presume that upgrade will make the stock stereo sound much better so planning to leave that. However I may upgrade it later. I am having a backup camera installed via rearview mirror next week as after 4 years in the Ford I realize I cannot live without that anymore. It's an upgrade I would recommend for any car but once I do it on the Kia it will actually end up with more features than the Ford had. If I were in the market for a used car today I would likely buy this car. The service it has given my family over the last 7 years has been great. My Mom has not been stranded anywhere once.
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Overpriced Cheap Money Pit
I've had it for about 1.5 years...seemed like a lovely little deal with the XM radio, I got an ex...I was wrong about 1 yr in the amfm and satellite radio acquires signal every 5 or so minutes, the heat barely wants to work, the steering wheel looks horrible, the seats look horrible and the drivers seat sits like a hard church bench, it takes longer to stop running the ac and now it's starting to drink gas. Yes I've taken it in for service and had gas treatments...at first I was in love now I'm very unpleased and am stuck with it bc it's worth nothing, come to find out its not even that safe to drive...so when they wanted me to trade up to the new body style I was like no
Not worth it
Bought this car back in 2015. Still have it. Have had issues since day one. Break issues since before the recall. (I got it fixed but still have issues At least once a year). Transmission issues, but the cars not worth a brand new transmission. The alignment goes out too fast. I can’t take it on a road trip anymore and it’s only got 130k on it. Last road trip I took it on was only a 6.5hr drive and it just decided to stop driving for no reason. Does this a lot. The Heating went out drivers side in the floorboard. The radio doesn’t work on the channels. I’m constantly having to re- pair my phone for the bluetooth. I can’t skip forward with the buttons on the steering wheel. The voice command doesn’t work 90% of the time. It’s just a shitty car. Don’t ever get a Kia. I’ve heard bad things about other kias as well. It’s as moody as a stick shift. It sort of stalled on me in the rain. Like I hit the gas and it wouldn’t move. Then it finally moved. It does this a lot in the rain. It hates the rain and the heat, don’t even have to be driving long, 15 minutes max before it decides it’s not going to move. There’s weeks where I’m having to floor it to move, where other days all I have to do it touch the gas and it’ll go without any issue. It’s got a nice get go when it wants to.
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