[ Background sounds and music ] >> It's part of Kia's new mission to not make you cringe. The 2010 Forte SX certainly doesn't but neither is it a tech tour de force. ^M00:00:11 [ Car sounds ] ^M00:00:17 >> Now inside we've got the corporate deck for Kia here. Their small cars have a very similar layout across the models. Let's go to the head unit first- the head unit. There are no audio options on this car as of this time. Your sources are AM and FM without HD radio, satellite radio choice here is Sirius. CD is a single slot right here that will also eat MP3 disks. You've got axillary here which gets you several places. First of all, you've got a USB port right here. I can put a thumb drive in there and quickly it reads the files it does a pretty good job and displays them rather well as well and you've got the info button here where you can change what tag you're looking at; pretty good interface. You've also got an aux jack here which his part of the aux setting and this case going to an analog output on my Smartphone or whatever device you happen to have but then when you connect this proprietary Kia gadget which basically goes to USB and the aux jack you now have a harness for an iPod or an iPhone and this is a decent way to get that connectivity done for very little money because it's built it. When your iPod or iPhone in this case are connected though you're not getting a bunch of track information; as I go through the info settings it's just basically track number. 6 speakers around the cabin, non specific amount of power and your sound shaping settings are pretty straight forward; bass, treble, mid range is nice, fader, balance. So this is very basic stuff. The rumor is they're working with Harmon Cardon [assumed spelling] on developing a 9 speaker, 360 watt more advanced audio rate available on this car but haven't decided how to offer it or when so bear that in mind if you're looking for one of these that may have been updated as an option by the time you get to the showroom. Bluetooth hands free is as it should be on just about any car these days standard on this Forte SX trim level. And you've got your control buttons for that here on the bottom of the wheel. A small concession to luxury is a power glass sunroof available for a pretty cheap 600 bucks. [ Background music ] >> If you kind of like the lines of this Kia don't feel bad about yourself. The Forte was designed by the companies new styling Chief Peter Shrier [assumed spelling] who's best known for his work at Audi including the original TT. Under hood is a biggish 2.4 liter inline 4 that works well, coupled to either a 6 speed manual base or an optional 5 speed automatic with a sport shift gate, that's what we have. In spite of the largish disk placement the Forte SX doesn't move very smartly probably because it's tuned for economy. 23/31 are the EPA numbers and that eco light there on the fuel gauge tells you when you're driving the engine at optimal fuel efficiency which Kia says can save you around 10% in gas consumption. A Forte SX almost 18 grand and that's the top trim level, automatic add $1000. Sunroof 600. Not a big tech story on its face but it does remind you that automotive technology in general means that there are very few lousy cars these days. ^M00:03:15 [ Music ]
