2007 Kia Optima Lx Sedan 4-door 2.7l on 2040-cars

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High-performance 2019 Kia Forte spied with dual exhaust

The 2019 Kia Forte compact sedan introduced at the Detroit Auto Show earlier this year showed off a handsome, subtly aggressive exterior inspired by the Stinger. But the sporty exterior was betrayed by a simply adequate powertrain: a naturally aspirated 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine making 147 horsepower. Now, one of our spy photographers has caught a disguised Kia Forte out testing that has a number of visual changes suggesting it's a more powerful version of the Forte. It might be called the Kia Forte GT to fit the Stinger's nomenclature, or Kia Forte SX to follow the naming scheme of past punchier Fortes. The most notable of this Forte's visual enhancements is its dual exhaust outlets. All versions of the current Forte have just one exhaust outlet on the right side and more exhausts usually mean more power. Along the side, the body and side skirts are the same as regular Fortes with the more aggressive body kit. But up at the front, we can see some adjustments under the camouflage. The upper grille appears to be larger, with bottom corners that push out lower and wider than on the basic car. The lower grille also looks a bit taller, and seems to have larger fog lights mounted farther inward than the regular Forte. View 20 Photos As for what might power the newer, peppier Forte,the likeliest candidate is the 201-horsepower turbocharged 1.6-liter four-cylinder found in the Hyundai Veloster Turbo and Hyundai Elantra Sport. As discovered by The Korean Car Blog and someone going by SHM, there is information saying that the Korean version of the Forte will indeed have that turbo engine paired to either a six-speed manual or seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. This wouldn't be surprising given that the new Forte shares its naturally aspirated engine with the base Elantra and Veloster. A version of that turbo engine was also used in the outgoing Forte SX models. Since the new Forte has been revealed and will go on sale later this year, we expect we'll hear about this high-performance version sometime early next year, with a release not too long after. Related Video: Featured Gallery 2020 Kia Forte GT spy shots News Source: The Korean Car Blog, SHMImage Credit: KGP Photography Spy Photos Kia Economy Cars Performance Sedan kia forte

Poor headlights cause 40 cars to miss IIHS Top Safety Pick rating

Over the past few months, we've noticed a number of cars and SUVs that have come incredibly close to earning one of the IIHS's highest accolades, the Top Safety Pick rating. They have great crash test scores and solid automatic emergency braking and forward collision warning systems. What trips them up is headlights. That got us wondering, how many vehicles are there that are coming up short because they don't have headlights that meet the organization's criteria for an "Acceptable" or "Good" rating. This is a revision made after 2017, a year in which headlights weren't factored in for this specific award. This is also why why some vehicles, such as the Ford F-150, might have had the award last year, but have lost it for this year. We reached out to someone at IIHS to find out. He responded with the following car models. Depending on how you count, a whopping 40 models crash well enough to receive the rating, but don't get it because their headlights are either "Poor" or "Marginal." We say depending on how you count because the IIHS actual counts truck body styles differently, and the Infiniti Q70 is a special case. Apparently the version of the Q70 that has good headlights doesn't have adequate forward collision prevention technology. And the one that has good forward collision tech doesn't have good enough headlights. We've provided the entire list of vehicles below in alphabetical order. Interestingly, it seems the Volkswagen Group is having the most difficulty providing good headlights with its otherwise safe cars. It had the most models on the list at 9 split between Audi and Volkswagen. GM is next in line with 7 models. It is worth noting again that though these vehicles have subpar headlights and don't quite earn Top Safety Pick awards, that doesn't mean they're unsafe. They all score well enough in crash testing and forward collision prevention that they would get the coveted award if the lights were better.

2020 Kia Cadenza shows its new face in mid-cycle refresh

When we drove the all-new 2017 Kia Cadenza a few years back, our main takeaway was that "it's fine." There was nothing particularly remarkable about it, but it's a solid sedan. With the facelifted and refreshed 2020 Cadenza just revealed today, Kia looks like it's reaching a bit more, in an attempt to move beyond general goodness. The 2020 Kia Cadenza, teased last week, takes a stab at bold design. A concave V-shaped grille is the main styling element up front, as our eyes constantly drift to that funky chrome every time we examine the car. It looks like Kia was just riffing off the old grille, and decided to make it bigger while adding in a crease. Those headlights are new, too. They're much narrower and smaller than the old units, and we think they help the face of the new car tremendously. Kia attacked the rear of the Cadenza in a similar fashion. The taillights now stretch across the entire rear of the sedan, connected by an interesting dashed line coming in from both sides and meeting in the middle. It's just another example of Hyundai/Kia designing taillights with a sense of style. We're reminded of the new Hyundai Sonata that went in a bold new path itself at the NY Auto Show. Changes to the interior are relatively significant for just a mid-cycle refresh. There's a new, widescreen 12.3-inch touchscreen that forced a new air vent layout. Along with the rethought center stack, the center console gets changed up with a new gear shift lever and button/storage layout below that. It all comes off as a much more premium design than before. Adding further to that motif is a digital gauge cluster seen on this model. The Cadenza is supposed to be a luxurious sedan, and Kia is certainly answering the call with added tech on the interior. Unfortunately, we're still in the dark from a powertrain perspective. The Cadenza is currently offered in the U.S. exclusively paired to a 3.3-liter V6 and eight-speed automatic transmission. This reveal today was for the Korean-spec K7, (same as our Cadenza), so U.S. powertrain options remain unspoken. We'll expect details on the U.S. spec car to drop before the end of the year, and for this model to go on sale later in 2019 or sometime in 2020.