Overview & Reviews

Kia Motors is a South Korean automaker that's relatively new to the United States. In its early years, Kia largely catered to budget-minded consumers with well-equipped vehicles priced below competing models. More recently, this growing brand has kept value a priority while also emphasizing technology and sportiness.

Founded in Korea in 1944, Kia started as a producer of steel tubing and bicycle parts. The company's name has its roots in the Chinese language, and means "to arise, to come up out of Asia." By the early 1950s, the company had produced Korea's first bicycle; by the latter part of the decade, Kia had branched out into motor scooters, with the rollout of the C100.

The 1960s saw Kia expanding its lineup to include motorcycles and three-wheeled cargo vehicles. Naturally, the next logical step was automobile production, and the company began moving in this direction in the early 1970s. By 1973, Kia had built a facility designed to make its automotive dreams a reality; its Sohari plant held the distinction of being Korea's first fully integrated automobile production facility, and went on to spawn Korea's first internal-combustion gasoline engine. A year later, Kia unveiled the Brisa, Korea's first passenger car. By the end of the decade, Kia's technology was being used to manufacture vehicles like the Peugeot 604 and the Fiat 132.

By the late '80s, Kia's lineup included new models like the Concord, Capital, Potentia and Pride. In 1987, Ford brought the Pride to U.S. shores, rebadging it as the Ford Festiva. Seven years later, Ford dealers got a replacement for the entry-level, subcompact Festiva in the form of another Kia constructed product, the Aspire.

Kia finally began selling vehicles in the U.S. under its own name in the early '90s, trumpeting its presence with the introduction of the compact Sephia. The car's rollout was gradual; in the early days of its production, the Sephia was only available in select Western states. By the mid-'90s, SUVs had emerged as a phenomenally popular and profitable vehicle segment. Kia responded with the 1995 Sportage, a compact SUV. By the end of the '90s, Kia's nationwide rollout was nearly complete.

Financial difficulties in the late '90s prevented Kia from expanding its lineup beyond those two models. Hyundai, South Korea's other major automaker, acquired the company in a merger in 1998.

Kia has been on a major upswing since its purchase by Hyundai, with improvements in build quality, performance and overall refinement. Reliability, previously a weak point, has also improved markedly and consumers' confidence was further bolstered by Kia's substantial warranty program. Today, Kia is on a dramatic upswing and offers a broad lineup of well-built coupes, sedans and crossovers that stand out for their value, performance and sporty styling.

User Reviews:

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  Best car in its segment! - 2010 Kia Forte
  By Muhammad Waqas - November 2 - 2:33 pm

  I bougth this car couple of months ago. I dont think there is any car better in this segment than forte. I have driven almost all the major cars in the segment, and forte beats them all. Civic might be a little more refined, but forte has more power and features. Mazda 3 is fun to drive on short routes, but on highway, forte beats it and it has better fuel economy with more space. Lancers engine is very noisy, and it has a terrible fuel economy.

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  Great little sedan - 2007 Kia Spectra
  By joshatl - November 2 - 12:46 pm

  What can I say? Im impressed by the overall performance of my 2007 Spectra. I had driven Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla and Hyundai Elantra in the past until I decided to try Kia Spectra. This car handles well, engine is strong and very responsive, also great on gas. Based on my experiences, I would say it drives better than Corolla and Elantra, and somewhat similar to Civic. The only difference is probably in the material quality used to build the interior. But considering the price I paid for my Spectra, I feel okay about it. It has now 112K miles on it, and I just got the drive and timing belts, water pump and engine mount replaced. I will at least drive this car until it reaches 200K.

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  AWESOME CAR - 2004 Kia Optima
  By BUDMAN87 - October 30 - 10:56 am

  I just love my car.If you buy the EX V- 6 leather interior you will hard pressed to tell it from a 30,000+ dollar luxury car.

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  Lexus? - 2003 Kia Sorento
  By ken10 - October 30 - 10:00 am

  No its a Kia Sorento! for the Past 3 years I have drove a 1999 Lexus Rx300, decided in stead of trading it in for another Lexus RX330 at 41000, I opted for the Kia Sorento 4x4 ex luxury Package for 27,500 fully loaded! It rides if good or not better than my Lexus RX300. With the money I saved I am driving my Kia Downtown!

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  Great Buy And Full of Value And Safety - 2008 Kia Sedona
  By Douglas lower - October 28 - 1:00 am

  I previously owned a 2006 Sedona and loved it. I traded it in on a 2008 Dodge Gr Caravan SXT. I was very unhappy. I purchased a new 2008 Sedona LX w/rear DVD system. It comes very well equipped in LX trim. Extended wheelbase is the one to choose over the short. Safety features are the best in the industry. I would prefer power seats, but it was not worth the extra money of the EX. The powertrain is fantastic, powerful and smooth. It possesses confident handling. Braking is excellent. I chose Midnight Black w/Beige interior, the interior color is very soothing to look at. My 2006 was White w/Grey. I became tired of the grey w/the grey skies of Seattle. I love all the room, especially the headroom. PLEASING !

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  pleasantly surprised - 2017 Kia Forte
  By joe mccorry - October 26 - 11:38 am

  first let me say tis is the first brand new car I purchased/leased since 2001. Until oct. 2014 I was driving a Chevrolet cavalier. in 2014 it was going to cost me over $4000 just to get it ready to pass inspection. surprising to mea s it only had about 80,000 miles on it. so I traded it in on a 2008 Hyundai elentra. very pleasant surprise. it got about 6 mpg more then the cavalier. had the elantra for about 2 and half years. had 78,000 miles on it. when I traded it in on the 2017 kia forte lx it had a little over 86,000 miles on it. as you can see I dont do a ton of driving in a year. decided to check out a deal I heard on the radio from a local Pennsylvania dealer. very misleading ad. in the ad they stated that they would guarantee $6000 for your trade and $9000 off list price of a new 2017 sonata. called the dealer as I did not want to drive over an hour for nothing. the salesman told me I had misheard the ad. it was either the $6000 trade in or $9000 off list price. I was not the only one who heard the ad the way I did. so I started looking at other Hyundai dealers. after talking with the sales people they informed that an elntra might be a better fit for me. as the incentives were better.got some ok deals. then remembered that kia was the sister company of hyundai so I called a couple of kia dealers and asked about the optima. but since I wanted to stay at roughly the same monthly payment I was at they recommended the forte. took one out for a test drive and found I liked it better than the 2017 elentra I had test driven. comparing the elantra and forte to me I found the forte better handling and as good a ride. the interior of the forte again to me seemed better quality. got the forte on 4/7/2017. have had it a month and I am very happy with it. I am getting over 30 mpg in what is basically local driving. would recommend this over the elantra. also have to like the 5 yr warranty.

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  Great Bargain - 2009 Kia Sorento
  By Judy - October 24 - 4:33 pm

  I purchased my 2009 Kia Sorento just one week ago. What a great SUV for the price. I really thought that I would not be able to afford another SUV, but the pricing on this vehicle was great. Fun to drive, easy handling, and great look. I cant say enough about this vehicle. For under $20,000 you get a lot of truck.

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  Great vehicle for the money - 2003 Kia Sedona
  By fancypnts4 - October 24 - 10:00 am

  Overall, this is a great van. 5 Star safety crash test rating and you can get one fully loaded for less than the stripped down model costs for the others. Cornering is not the best, but other than that, this minivan is great!

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  Great Budget Van - 2003 Kia Sedona
  By Wild One - October 24 - 10:00 am

  If needing a new car with more room and are on tight budget this is the car for you. If rides and drives nice. For the money you can not beat it. Comfortable to drive and ride in. My child who just turned one hated riding in the car, since we have purchased the van he loves it and we have been to IN and back to MD.

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  Love my KIA - 2017 Kia Sorento
  By Joseph Mitchell - October 23 - 10:20 pm

  This 2017 KIA replaces my 2012 KIA and is much improved over the 2012. The 2012 is the very first 4 cylinder that I had ever purchased and it exceeded my expectations for performance particularly speed increase. The 2017 is every bit as good if not better.