Please read all the posts before they hit the reply button.
This thread will be about 2014 econo compact cars. It has nothing to do with mid size, sport cars or supercar wannabe’s. It’s not about subcompacts, trucks, boats or things that go bump in the night.
Below is what I said in my first post titled “New Compact Car.” In that entire thread I did not mention or refer to Forte as a sports car, nor did I call it sporty. I did call it an econo car, and those that want to try and put words in my mouth or in the mouths of other posters, do it in a direct quote and not from memory.
With nothing on the horizon coming from GM with decent hp to weight in a econo compact we went out and bought my wife a 2014 KIA Forte EX 173hp 2.0L. Go look at the specs, go look at what the car comes standard with, go look at the options, go look and see how easy it is to spec out a car you’d like. Than build one and see what it would cost to have a Chevy Cruze dressed the same way.
After more years buying GM cars than most of you are old, we bought an import from Korea. A big step for me, it feels very odd to say the least. We were not looking for a compact performance sedan, nor were we looking for a luxury or near luxury compact sedan. AKA Caddy ATS or Buick Verano. We were looking for an economy car with decent hp to weight. We didn’t want less equipment than we had in the 2007 ION 2.4L. We found it in the 2014 KIA Forte EX. It has “decent” hp to weight. It comes standard with auto headlamp’s, backup camera, and much more. AUTO DIMMING rear view mirror was a must, and we didn’t have to buy a mosly unwanted pkg to get it. Now her remote can be put in a drawer and forgotten. We looked at many cars in it’s class and segment and for the money it is where we spent it. I hope it proves to be a good car. I don’t want to be taking it in for warranty work every six months.
Now for those of you interested go look at what the Forte EX comes with, add other options you’d like if any. When done be honest with yourself and put it side by side item for item and see if you can get a better deal. First for us it had to have enough hp to get out of it’s own way. Something the 2014 gas powered Cruze can not do at any trim level. But hey the Saturn ASTRA had the same problem so we never brought one home. I’ll not bring up other things the ASTRA did not have because without decent power it’s a moog point to me.
Now to the Solstice…..that was my wifes go to work car as this Forte will be. After 8 years it was time for it to find a new home. Leather was rotting, was in need of a new roof, headlamps had the treatment a few times and needed to be replaced. It needed a few other minor things replaced. I’ll say it was a fun little car, no headaches with it at all. If GM was building a good replacement for it we’d have bought it.
With all that said I’m not beating the Chevy Cruze up. It’s just not a car we wanted for a number of reasons. GM is only building one car that I would buy, and one car that comes close.
That’s if we were looking to replace a third car we have.
