{"id":25819,"date":"2019-06-21T18:14:07","date_gmt":"2019-06-22T00:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=367765"},"modified":"2019-06-21T18:14:07","modified_gmt":"2019-06-22T00:14:07","slug":"mountain-wheels-import-econoboxes-go-upscale-with-kias-forte-and-toyota-yaris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/local-news\/mountain-wheels-import-econoboxes-go-upscale-with-kias-forte-and-toyota-yaris\/","title":{"rendered":"Mountain Wheels: Import econoboxes go upscale with Kia\u2019s Forte and Toyota Yaris"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
The 2020 Kia Forte GT. Power is provided by a breezy but capable 2.0-liter four-cylinder providing 147 horsepower, a setup that offered entirely capable and confident freeway cruising.<\/strong>
Courtesy Kia Motors<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

This week, back to basics, with a couple of grown-up versions of vehicles now perfectly suited for budget-minded drivers \u2014 each uniquely involved from its more rudimentary roots.<\/p>\n

First up, the 2019 Kia Forte sedan, which retails for just under $22,000 and came to $26,220 with an all-boxes-checked-off list of options. And yes, sharp-eyed readers, the Forte\u2019s Australian cousin the Cerato does not actually look like a gigantic Toyota Land Cruiser, as we may have implied in last week\u2019s column. Sorry, mate. That Land Cruiser is still the most macho vehicle I have ever seen.<\/p>\n

But Forte, in fact, is a pretty sexy little vehicle. Sure, you might have overlooked it in the past, but for 2019, it\u2019s a very different automobile, reborn and redesigned in a fashion like the new Toyota Corolla.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s even stronger in Forte\u2019s case, with the sedan transformed with a design aesthetic that makes it look like a light version of Kia\u2019s surprisingly high-end Stinger sports sedan. That means a longish and heavily dimpled hood with massive headlight clusters and an attitude-heavy face, plus attractive 17-inch graphite-finish alloy wheels and a rear spoiler. A 2020 GT-line trim model will also be on sale this summer, with even punchier looks.<\/p>\n

Power is provided by a breezy but capable 2.0-liter four-cylinder providing 147 horsepower, a setup that offered entirely capable and confident freeway cruising. Click it into sport mode and it gets a little more buzzy, but the overall feel was relaxed and enjoyable. The fact that it got 41 MPG without really trying was also quite pleasant.<\/p>\n

Forte definitely feels like it now blurs the compact\/mid-size category, more spacious and, true to form with Kia, abundant options that might cost you as much as the car\u2019s base price to add to a German import. <\/p>\n

My extra extras on the EX Launch Edition included Harman Kardan audio, the upgraded navigation system and an 8-inch touchscreen, a handy wireless phone charging pad, LED headlamps and forward collision avoidance and smart cruise control systems, all for $3,210. <\/p>\n

Lots of plastic? Sure, but the Soul-like touches and plenty of piano black surfaces plus perforated and stitched leather seat trim all made it quite pleasant. <\/p>\n

Equally eye-opening is Toyota\u2019s relatively new Yaris sedan, which is one of the few vehicles I\u2019ve had in years that was under $20,000, but was still totally decent for basic transportation \u2014 maybe a first car for your college-bound kid. In a world where college-bound kids do not get Tahoes as their first cars. Call me romantic, I guess.<\/p>\n

I got to ride in the current 2018 model but a considerably redesigned 2020 based on the Mazda2 is looming on the horizon, so let me take care of what I actually drove. <\/p>\n

What exactly do you get for $19,470, approximately half of the average new vehicle transaction price in the United States? It\u2019s basic, but pleasant, and certainly a step up from its even more austere beginnings. Like, it now has power windows, which my friend\u2019s 2007 Yaris does not. <\/p>\n

Power is indeed on the austere side, with a 1.5-liter four-cylinder producing just 106 horsepower, but get it on the flatlands of a Front Range college and you\u2019ll get way more than 40 MPG every day of the week. If your kid asks for a lot of gas money, that cash is going somewhere else. A five-speed manual or a four-speed automatic both add to the efficiency.<\/p>\n

An impossibly basic rendition of the car earns 15-inch wheels, but my XLE got 16s that helped provide a not-terrible ride and handling that seemed very pleasant for entry-level motoring. The whole car is just 2,300-plus pounds, so power and performance reflect the total basics.<\/p>\n

A synthetic leatherette interior gets spiced up a bit with leather on the wheel, shift knob and parking brake. You also get LED headlamps and a 7-inch color touchscreen display; navigation is extra, as you might expect.  <\/p>\n

As a great gag for April Fool\u2019s Day this year, Toyota announced it was releasing a Subaru Brat-styled micro pickup version of the 2020 model. Apparently you are going to need to take a metal saw to your own Yaris if you want that to see the light of day, cool as it sounds.<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2020 Kia Forte GT. Power is provided by a breezy but capable 2.0-liter four-cylinder providing 147 horsepower, a setup that offered entirely capable and confident freeway cruising.Courtesy Kia Motors This week, back to basics, with a couple of grown-up versions of vehicles now perfectly suited for budget-minded drivers \u2014 each uniquely involved from its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-25819","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-12 06:37:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KIFT - The LIFT FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25819\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}