Looks like a cut rate Audi A5.

This is killing me to watch the Koreans expand as the domestics die off.

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It has a pillar .Visit the website and look at the side window.The pillar is a dark shadow behind the flush glass.
Would've been nice though.Guess it's too costly to produce.

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Still, even the pillarless "effect" is a pretty neat design touch. I was surprised to see that feature make it from concept to production... the only other bits of the Concept that didn't look doable were the headlights, flush doorhandles, and glass roof.

It's too bad the bodywork seems to have been designed around the Concept's 20" wheels instead of the production car's 15"-16"s, which look pretty lost in those tall fenders. But then, European automakers and Honda are the only ones who don't regularly make that design blunder, and besides, this is already looking better than most ~$18K cars.

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PJ are yoy saying having 15-inch wheels like Honda and some European car makers is a good thing? They look pathetic. One of the best things about my Mazda3 is that it came with 17s when Honda offered me 15s in the Civic.

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No, I'm saying it's a good thing for stylists design to their bodywork around wheels that are actually close to production-spec. This is all too rare, and with the current trend towards taller cars with elevated seating, often results in proportions that make 18"s look like shopping-cart castors.

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"" Kia/Hyundai really show what it's all about, product is what matters, it's not politics, lobbying, corruption,unions, buying senators, that's what Detroit is all about, Kia and Hyundai are all about product.""

Ya gotta laugh at the comment above.

Being Chairman of Hyundai-Kia is practically automatic grounds for criminal indictment in Korea.

Hyundai-Kia only started manufacturing in the US to escape the endless unionized labor violence back home.

And Hyundai-Kia have only survived due to a home market that has been totally closed up to the past 2-3 years, and due to heavy government subsidies procured through kickbacks to corrupt politicians in the ROK government, including at least one former ROK President who have was jailed as a result.

Nice fantasy you have there though.

And ya gotta love the name Forte, so close to Fart, I lol'ed.

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"Kia/Hundai always made good cars"

You can't be serious.

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Well Blake, maybe i should have said lately. Lately the cars have been great, but some were down right ugly, and it looks like they are solving that issue.

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AngeloD, Please do not write your own fantasy in public.

Imported car sales of South Korea has bigger and bigger fast these days. Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association(KAIDA)'s report said that 2009 will be the first year of decreasing in 10 years because of global and Korean economy environment.

http://www.ajnews.co.kr/uhtml/read.jsp?idxno=200901291011402670856§ion=S1N4§ion2=S2N149

Go and see correct statistics of the domestic and imported sales number of South Korean car market. You can find it year by year.

http://www.kaida.co.kr/site/kaida_eng/chart/DomesticCarChart.html

Where's the totally closed up market to the past 2-3 years?
You may say North Korea not South, But North is always closed.
And Hyundai and Kia are South Korean Companies.

Who is the jailed former ROK=Republic of Korea=South Korea president?
Kim, Young-sam 1993~1998
Kim, Dae-jung 1998~2003
Noh, Mu-hyun 2003~2008
and now Lee, Myung-bak 2008~2013.
No one above jailed after to be a ROK president.
Only Jeon, Du-whan(1980~1988) and No, Tae-woo(1988~1993) were jailed after their terms because of their coup d’état in 1979.
Please, let me know the name of jailed because of your fantasy.

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"Kia/Hyundai always made good cars"

Did you miss the 80s and most of the 90s?

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MaineCoon:

Your own link shows that imported cars made up less than 2% of all registrations in ROK prior to 2005. They are still today at less than 5%. Color me unimpressed. Less than 2% is a CLOSED domestic market.

The former ROK President jailed for corruption was Roh Tae Woo:

""Shocked, but gripped by the spectacle, millions of Koreans couldn't turn off their TV sets. There on the screen, looking fragile and bowed by disgrace, was former president Roh Tae Woo emerging from the state prosecutor's office, accused of taking $307 million in bribes from businessmen.""

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-17786582.html

And let's not forget the endless parade of other ROK politicians, political aides, and relatives also jailed as your own list attests.

Sorry, as far as Hyundai and Kia are concerned, for most of their history they have produced shoddy garbage, and would never have attained an international presence for themselves without a closed domestic market and heavy subsidies from the Korean Government.

And frankly, the Kia Farte looks like a cheap knock off of the Scion. It will undoubtedly have KIA's rotten build quality as well. Just another completely unremarkable rolling transport appliance from Hyundai-KIA.

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AngeloD :

You said totally closed up to the past 2-3 years,
but the statistics shows that imported car sale in Korea had been increased to the past 2-3 years.
Totally closed means 0% but even increased.

Your link of jailed president was written at November 27, 1995, almost about 15 years ago.
I already mentioned that Roh Tae Woo(No, Tae-woo) was jailed.
He’s term was 1988~1993 and he is in a hospital now.

Please let me know the jailed president these days for the automotive industry.
Ok, not a president, just a politician, who was jailed for Hyundai or Kia past 2-3 years?
Words without the correct source are just a fantasy. Ha Ha Ha.

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MaineCoon wrote:
""AngeloD :
You said totally closed up to the past 2-3 years, but the statistics shows that imported car sale in Korea had been increased to the past 2-3 years.
Totally closed means 0% but even increased.""

Wow, the Korean Government allowed foreign automakers to capture a stunning 2% of the Korean domestic market, and now have DOUBLED that to an ASTONISHING 4% in 2008. Talk about free traders!

""Your link of jailed president was written at November 27, 1995, almost about 15 years ago. I already mentioned that Roh Tae Woo(No, Tae-woo) was jailed. He’s term was 1988~1993 and he is in a hospital now.
Please let me know the jailed president these days for the automotive industry.
Ok, not a president, just a politician, who was jailed for Hyundai or Kia past 2-3 years?""

Rho Tae Woo was jailed for accepting kickbacks from Hyundai in 1995, that's very recent. This kind of corruption is STILL endemic in the Korean business community.

As I said, a ROK President WAS jailed for accepting kickback from Hyundai, do you deny that?
Hyundai-KIA is a corrupt company that has built shoddy crap for decades. (KIA still does according to most surveys).

""Words without the correct source are just a fantasy. Ha Ha Ha.""

You're living in your own fantasy world apparently.

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AngeloD :

Where’s past 2-3 years?
Where’s TOTALLY closed?

Government allowed? There’s no quota for car import in South Korea.
You lied again.

And you don’t know much about Hyundai.
Hyundai is not only Hyundai Motor Company.
Hyundai Heavy Industry (No.1 ship yard in the world)
Hynix – former Hyundai Electronics (No.2 memory semiconductor in the world)
Hyundai Mipo Dockyard (No.4 ship yard in the world)
Hyundai Samho Heavy Industry (No.5 ship yard in the world)
Hyundai Construction (No. 34 constructor in the world)
Hyundai Merchant Marine (No. 6 marine transporter in the world)
Hyundai Department Store, Hyundai-Rotem, Hyundai Capital, Hyundai Assurance…etc
Hyundai was a huge cartel called Jae-beol in Korean until the founder’s dead in 2001.
Now his son and family divided the cartel.
The Kickback founded in 1995 is not for the Hyundai Motor Company but Hyundai Corporation the biggest company of the cartel in that time.

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Angelo -

Let's not overexaggerate here.

It's not like SKorea has a tariff on auto imports like Vietnam - which is something like 80%.

SKorea's tariff is 8%.

In comparison, the EU's rate is 10%, Australia is also at 10%, Taiwan's is 20-30% (depending whether it is w/in the quota system), Canada is at 6.1% - so as you can see, it's not like SKorea's import duty is out of line.

And if the Korean market is a "closed" market as you say, then so is Japan's since it had roughly the same % of foreign import sales last year.

As for corruption - yeah, there is corruption in SKorea, but there is corruption in Taiwan, Japan, Russia, Italy, the US, etc. - pretty much everywhere.

And oh, btw, Hyundai's reliability is rated in the top 5 by Autobild which probably does the most comprehensive analysis of reliability in the industry.

Granted, Kia's reliability is lower (since they started their quality focus later than Hyundai), but it's still tied w/ VW.

And if Kia continues w/ the success of the Cee'd (reviewed as being BETTER than rivals from Honda, Nissan and Toyota) and the Soul (again reviewed as being better than the xB and the Cube) - the Forte should be competitive, if not better, than its rivals.

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