To start off, I am a car guy. I can honestly say that I would never of thought to buy a Kia. The name just rings as cheap to me. With that being said, I decided to test drive a new Kia Forte5 SX. I was pleasantly surprised. Performance: For the daily driver, this car is very peppy. It has 201 hp which is more than enough to get around town. It has a very broad power band and mashing the gas peddle will get you going no matter what speed you are doing. Braking is excellent and the factory tires are plenty sticky. Unfortunately I had to test them after someone decided to make a right hand turn from the left turn lane without paying attention to who was driving down the road. The only downside to performance is a lack of throttle response when you completely depress the gas peddle. There is a delay and it is unnerving when you are expecting it to just go. Creature comforts: The SX is a very well equipped car. Mine came with heated leather seats all around and a vented drivers seat. It also has a sunroof, cruise control, radio with a 4" touchscreen, satellite, power windows, power drivers seat, adjustable telescoping steering wheel, led taillights, and HID headlights. I drive an hour and a half one way to work and I am not fatigued sitting in the seat. I have also made a 6 hr trip without feeling fatigued as well. Fuel economy: Fuel is good for what you are getting. It always depends on how you drive but I frequently get 33-35mpg with mostly interstate driving if I am not sitting in traffic. I sit in traffic for at least 1/3rd of my commute so that brings my economy down to around 27mpg on a standard tank. Storage: There is a lot of space in the back of this 5 door hatch. If you put the rear seats down it is significantly more. There is definitely small SUV class storage in this car. I was able to carry 6' boards from home depot with the rear seats down and the back hatch closed. I was impressed!

I bought this car three years ago, to drive for work. I have driven it 140,000 miles and it has not had any mechanical issues. It gets excellent gas mileage!