New Kia Forte5?
 

Hello, just wondering if anyone here owns or have any experience with the new Kia Forte5? My brother is looking at a new car and its currently a toss between a Mazda3 GS or Kia Forte5 EX.

With the promotion going on at Mazda they are roughly within $1000 between the two cars. To me Mazda is a more established brand though Kia has been doing pretty good lately, plus they have better/more features for the price. We would love to wait a year for Sky-Activ stuff from Mazda but we need the car in the next 2 months or so.

Also another suggestion for hatchbacks around $23-25k, new, after tax?

Thanks.

just got the Elantra Touring GL $20k after taxes.. got it on the 0% for 84months.
very roomy.. not bad car so far.. price is decent... this promo is over now...

i would get a elantra sedan....those things are nice.

my boss got a forte5 a couple of months back and likes it. doesn't look too bad. i don't remember why he chose it over the mazda3 though.

ever thought about the ford focus hatchback?

He wants a hatchback, and only a hatchback.

Mazda3 list price is 3k more, maybe that's why, but they are doing a promotion right now which closes the gap.

We did look at the Focus, but a higher price and higher interest rate makes the monthly payments significantly higher than the Mazda3 or the Forte5. Coupled with skepticism about the longevity of the DCT gearbox, we passed on it.

buy it cash and you can get a better deal generally. plus you won't get hit by interest rate, just an immediately depreciated asset.

I'd try to do a short-term lease take over on say, a Mini cooper/civic, and then pick up one of these bad boys.. (It's supposed to come with either the Sky-G or Sky-D diesel engine in North America)

That I understand, but he doesn't have 20k to put out on the car hence why low interest finance is attractive.

I know about the CX-5, I like it a lot, but we are avoiding SUV/CUVs (pointless) and I don't think the CX-5 is going to come under 30k new.

On top of that, my parents are basically letting him take the family surplus minivan to trade in for a new car.

^The CX5 is basically a raised Mazda3/5. It's almost like a RVR (a taller Lancer). I would think it's fair to think the base FWD model to start at around 21-22k. It's one class smaller than the CX7, and that car starts at $28k with the 2.5 I4 GX model (the 2.3 Turbo is no longer standard, but the GX is at least $5-6k cheaper)

I like the styling of the Kia, but their suspension damping is really horrible compared to even a Corolla. Also, I dont think they've updated the 2.0 engine on the new batch of Kias yet (the engine is quite coarse sounding.) I would lean towards a Mazda 3 GX hatch over a comparable Kia based on the ride quality and resale value alone.

As an aside, I noticed Nissan is offering the Rogue at 0% financing on up to 84 months (Nissan Canada - Buying - Nissan Finance). I believe MSRP is about 25K, so if your brother likes it, it might be worth checking out.

^ The CX5 possible consideration then. We did try out the RVR, nice car, but terribly slow, and expensive imo.

Interesting about the engine on the Kia, are they still running the 2.0/2.4 "world engine" without DI in it? I was expecting the Kia to be quite stiff as I had a Elantra Touring as a loaner for 2 weeks and it was stiff as hell. The old engine was ok in the Elantra, gas pedal was more of a volume control than acceleration control lol.

We went to test drive the Mazda3, my brother likes it a lot. Coming from a Caravan, I don't think any small car would be disappointing. He also tried out the Focus and actually likes it better, but didn't believe the extra "niceness" was worth the 4% finance rate.

EDIT: TheStig posted while I was typing this.... But the Rogue. Isn't it a little on the big side? If anything we would be more interested in the Juke, which.... costs too much.

I am 100% biased when I say this, but Honda Fit! Traded in my IS in December and have absolutely no regret.