I drive the 2023 Kia Forte GT Manual, and I couldn’t recommend this car more!! The only complaint I have is now that I’m trying to find a new car with a more fancy name to impress clients, I can’t find anything I enjoy nearly as much. The car is built on a BMW M3 chassis, has the luxury features and interior to match with an average combined fuel mileage of 34mpg and the reliability of a newly redesigned Kia. It handles phenomenally well and is unmatched within its price point. It loses value quickly (until the general population realizes their tech and reliability recently surpassed Toyota and Honda) so buy a used 2023 or 2022, and you’re smooth sailing. I drove this car from Philadelphia to Los Angeles and was complimented by strangers in almost every city I stopped in along the way!

This a review after one year of ownership of a 2022 Kia Forte GT with 6 speed manual transmission. The positives.... There is a lot of car for the money. Lots of safety features including blind spot monitoring, lane keep assistant, front collision avoidance, back up camera with cross traffic/pedestrian warning plus the standard stuff that come with all cars. Convenience wise, it came with apple CarPlay and android auto compatibility and a nice 10 inch touch screen that is bigger than what comes in many premium cars. Appearance wise, it's an attractive car with red accents in the grill and around the rear facia on the exterior and inside it has nice red stitching in the black pleather seats with GT stitched in the headrest of the front seats. On the not so positive side.... I think the car is meant to be a sport sedan. It has a 1.6L turbocharged engine rated at about 200 horsepower, a 6 speed manual or 7 speed paddle shift automatic, and 18 inch wheels with 40 series Michelin Pilot Sport 4S summer tires. Should be a Civic SI competitor. And it may be, but it doesn't feel that sporty. It has two driving modes, normal and sport. In normal it feels down right slow and you're liable to get embarrassed if you get into a streetlight drag with even some family mini vans. In sport mode, it feels a bit quicker, but you have to drive it hard. With this being said, the Pilot Sport tires will break free if you get on it. Even with traction control on. So maybe it is quick but just doesn't feel like it. Definitely not sporty. Fuel economy wise, the 6 speed manual gives up 4 or 5 MPG to the automatic and has averaged right at 30 MPG combined city and highway driving over a year and about 13K miles. Not bad, but not great. Wouldn't mind if it felt sporty... To the tires. Even though it is possible to break them free if you try, they are too much tire for the car. And they, along with the 6 speed, come at a $1000 premium. Also they're terrible in snow or wet and will wear out quick if you don't rotate them and keep them properly inflated. Back to convenience...The CarPlay is wired. In the lesser model it is wireless. The 6 speed also comes with heated manual seats. I believe the automatic can be had with heated and ventilated power seats. So, all in all, not a bad car for ~$26K. But not an enthusiasts car either.

Car auto brakes with out any other cars around. Dangerous, would recommend but for this defect. Handles well, good gas mileage. Large trunk and comfortable seats.