Hey Scotty, I’ve recently purchased a 2021 Kia Forte but I’ve noticed that it Kia isn’t known for their reliability unlike Honda or Toyota and I’m starting to get worried. Do you have any advice to have it last for a really long time?
Sell it and buy a Toyota or Honda if you want a long lasting car with minimum repair.
Best advice ever, here from Yaser.
The Forte might come with a GDI engine. GDI stands for gasoline direct injection, which is great for performance and fuel economy, but has The potential for carbon build up. Make sure to use some cleaner to clean out the carbon build up every so often. Search this forum for how to do it.
If your transmission is a CVT, make sure to keep up, or even do more frequently, fluid exchanges for the transmission.
And as always, follow the basic maintenance in the manual.
My forte has a multi port injection system if that’s better?
MPI is theoretically better for longevity, because the valves get “cleaned” by the gas in port injection, thus minimizing or even preventing carbon buildup.
GDI engine bypass the valves, and inject gasoline directly into the cylinder. So there is more potential for carbon buildup.
Ok that’s good to know. Thanks for your help!
You say you want the vehicle to last a long time. Unfortunately, you made a bad move getting that Kia Forte. You can improve your odds by changing the engine oil/filter every 5,000 miles and automatic transmission fluid every 40,000 miles but it still won’t make up for the lack of quality/design on Kia’s part. I would not own that vehicle past the warranty period, and good luck getting the dealer (and Kia in general) to honor warranty claims. I’ve had family, friends, and co-workers have a tough time getting all their claims honored with dealer saying “That’s normal” or just doing a lousy warranty repair. They were unhappy and left the brand.
I’ve been fooled apparently thinking the Kia brand was improving but I was wrong. I’ve had it for a bit over 2 months now. Just 2 days ago on my Facebook account I’ve seen my Facebook friends share a post about how bad the Korean car makers are and the bad experience of their cars. That’s when I realized I screwed up.
Unfortunately, the terms "Kia" and "last a long time" are incongruous terms.
I’m loving the car so far don’t get me wrong and I’ve learned that Kias back in the day were terrible but now they’re not that bad at least what I’ve thought. I’m just hoping with good maintenance I’ll keep it rolling as long as I can but this will definitely be the only Kia I will have.
They're still just as bad, or worse. The make really bad engines, and the quality of their manufacturing is garbage. They are constantly issuing new recalls for millions of vehicles. They're currently under investigation by the government for knowingly selling cars that kill people. As crooked as they get.
Wow that is just terrible and I wish I would known this earlier. I’ve made a foolish mistake. I know people who drive a Hyundai or Kia and everything seems just fine with their vehicles.
They got lucky, or haven't owned them long enough. There are plenty of them that aren't fine. See here for a sample:
https://carkiller.com/scottykilmer/qa/why-all-the-hyundai-hate/
Thanks for the link!
I totally agree with Yaser's opinion; sell it while it's still new and not many miles on it and buy a Honda or Toyota if you want a car that lasts a long time and does not have problems all the time. Currently used car prices are high so it would be a good time to sell it.
Definitely seems like a plan. The crazy thing is that I traded in my last vehicle for this.
To make it last the longest, you are better off selling that thing immediately and making it sit on the dealership lot. If you manage to get most of what you paid for the car, use that to buy a Corolla or a Civic unless you want to keep it and let the IVT transmission and 4 cylinder engine perform a show on the highway where it will blow up and start a fire (I would probably get a lot of hate for saying this to all the Hyundai and Kia fanboys).
done some digging on that car..... tranny is kia ivt (intelligent variable transmission) which known as cvt i think. as long you change tranny oil every 20k miles, it should last about 100k miles before needing major service.
my neighbor currently owns kia van and is about 175k miles (auto tranny with gears in it) loves it but, she hates repair bills and showed to me... 1 side mirror cost 500$ without labor, oil change is about 150$. gives you an idea that kia makes its own parts and control price like volvo cars which is expensive to maintain.
Ok gotcha I love it so far. I heard that Kia and Hyundai were improving so I decided to buy the forte.
Care to please tell us what’s your source for the crystal ball prediction of ‘as long you change tranny oil every 20k miles, it should last about 100k miles before needing major service’, in a brand new vehicle with unknown long term reliability?
any cvt tranny needs to be change every 20k miles... gear auto tranny.... 60k to 100k miles
change cvt tranny oil in 100k miles more likely destroy belt inside tranny