The Kia K3, or the next-generation Kia Forte to us, was officially shown last month sporting an Optima K5-style face and more organic styling. Now, spyshots from China show a K3 with slightly altered styling to suit the Chinese market.
The most obvious change from the K3 we’ve seen before this is the addition of vertical chrome slats to the car’s tiger nose, in place of a honeycomb grille. This isn’t something new for Kia – its flagship RWD K9 limo sports the same grille.
Changes are more substantial at the back. The Chinese-market K3 has a unique tail lamp cluster design, and there’s a chrome bar linking both tail lamps. The bar “eats into the lights” and carries the Kia logo. The bumper appears to be identical to the Korean/international version. The set of pics are completed by an image of three different wheel designs, likely to be 15, 16 and 17-inch items for different trim levels.
We also get a first glimpse at the K3’s dashboard, which is more stylish that the current car’s. The button-rich steering (as seen here) follows the design of the K5’s wheel, but the general layout borrows more from the Sportage than the Optima.
Click here to see the officially released K3 pics.
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I will buy this car!
Another piece of Korean Junk ! Salvaging parts from here & there, those light look totally out of proportioned, typical lazy job.
Yawwwnnnn!!!
sam loo definitely cannot accept any korean and china cars
No resale value car
You have no resale value when it comes to your words. Burned? Yeah, go jack yourself with all the lies you can spew out. Pathetic.
Try buying a 2011 Santa Fe, Avante or elantra. Its really worth buying, coz you can easily get it at around 50% of ori price
Rear emulates the F30. This car will be a hit if they price it at RM70K-RM80K
front end emulate “pig” from angry bird..
perghhhh
no passion of design..
bet the ride is even worse..
better go for altis or civic which provides better ride/handling + retail
civic outdated , altis over oevrpriced
if civic is over price/dated why the sales and on the road figures/quantities are excellence?
hurm..
go check stats from MAA :)
Its all about resale value, I am afraid
vios also sold like hot cakes, but specs like ice aged cars
It’s about the price, bro. I agree with Nitro. Stop comparing apples and oranges. Someone had a bad day eh?
airplane cockpit?
The grille is so ugly. Hope Kia will change it before enter Malaysia.
ours will most likely be the honeycomb grille
Looks goods, though I think the honeycomb grille is kinda out of place.
Anyway, a new generation already? It feels only 2 years ago that we had the Forte launch.
forte korea was launched 1 year ahead of malaysia, mine first batch forte already close to 3 years old.
Not surprisingly, the existing Forte was based on the outgoing Elantra X20. Given that the Forte was launched globally in 2008, its also time for a new model, given most marques’ 5 year model rotation.
The new Avante is already out for 1 year so it isn’t surprising that the new Forte based on this new chassis would be long behind.
As for the Grill, the original chicken wire looked better….usually the case, designers would use vertical slats to give a more upmarket and elegant look, while horizontal slats tend to give it a more sporty look as it gives the illusion of a wider frontage.
Good looking package. Interior – esp the dashboard is a major leap over the current model! Current model’s dash is a turn-off – but great sheet metal.
Prefer the earlier one.
If only the PREVE has that kind of back design….
The grille is definitely ugly.. Prefer the international version than this. The back part however looks o.
I do really like the steering wheel though, looks just meaty enough and in the right size.
In my limited experience, I really wish more cars would emulate the excellent steering wheels from BMW M sport and Honda (EP3, Type R and Integra/RSX Type S). Just the right size and girth.
i prefer the current going Kia Forte. It looks more muscular than the new version.
for interior, the new one is better.
yuacksss….the front look so ugly ^_^
i will skip to buy current forte and wait for new k3 comes to our shore.
Ugly.
The design and shape looks good. How about the engine technology? Still the same? Performance wise can compare with Honda, Subaru, Mitsubishi or VW?
price should be cheaper at china!
the front grill looks fugly!!please redesign before entering bolehland…
the grill without the vertical thing is better
The chinese really loves lots of chrome… and often they prefer to add chrome to car bodies that WASN’T designed nor catered to tons of dripping chrome bits! :(
Anyway, even if the less than desireable vertical waterfall grill for the China market Forte, the new car still looked damn good ya :) The 2 deep encased instrucment cluster seems to be shared with the Elantra and it is used to a good effect here.
The new dash central pod is a big improvement over the current one . Looks so sleek and yes, airplane like :)
Can’t wait to see the final international version… for it will be the ones we will be getting.
The wheel design as shown in the 2nd pic is still the same unit as the current 17″ wheel in the Forte SX… not a big problem as the wheel looks really good to begin with.
Ohh… compare this beauty with the new FB POS Civic… can anyone still claim the Japs makes the best car out there? LOL
Proton Preve? :) Well I seriously wonder if Kia gave a damn on Proton in recent years at all… More likely, Hyundai/Kia top brass don’t even know the existence of Proton :D
Their main target is the Americans and Europoeans, having overrun the Japs these days
agreed jap don’t make better cars now they are just surviving on their long well known reputation to build reliable cars.
plus if you watched topgear uk you realize they are using a kia ceed for their “reasonably priced cars” segment and even their guest stars agreed that car is good plus topgear uk website even gave good reviews on most of kia/hyundai recent offerings
about proton… no comment on them but the koreans are certainly aiming european and american market then asia, i mean they know all of asia still long to drive a conti car in their life and that’s what the koreans are doing
Like overdone for the exterior….
The appearance still looks better than Preve. Anyhow, I prefer the non-chinese design.
I love the interior and hope we’ll be getting this also !
with skyactive n earthdreams comin to our shores, i hope this k3 will hv something new underneath as well,
is it really Kia or BMW?
confused!
A Korean will always be inferior
time to say gd bye to the new civic
Time to put on your thinking cap. What’s the point of buying a Korean make that devalues 50% in 2 years?
when you don’t care about resale value
Whats with the wannabe BMW grill ??
Peter Schreyer still there??
Yucks! Damn ugly!
THAT Y I ALWAYS SAY ONLI RICH MAN GO FOR KOREAN CAR….CHANGE LIKE CLOTHS EVERYDAY
And donate 50% away in less than 2 years, coz no one wants 2nd hand Korean Cars
I’m OK with the grille but the headlamps are too large and oddly shaped
No kick! The front grill looks ugly.
the current one look much better, my money goes to civic.. hurm..
Kia I going the Honda way again? From photogenic to ugly?
Damn man!
Bring in the international version and take my money godamnit
The current Forte is way bold looking and actually looks more expensive and interesting than it should! This new one however, looks cheaper, and too mainstream. Its ugly. Stay with the current Forte, its way better.
NO RV
And, whats up with the interior? Gone pre-millenium again?
All in all, the Koup still looks best
Still complaining on korea car junk??
But looking at gangnam style?
Please be open minded.
If u cant accept it! u r getting older!!
Korean Cars can look like Aston Martin for all they like, but their resale value will forever suck
see first..don’t say a word b4 see it.
stupid!
Frankly speaking, I am kinda tired of hearing people saying that the resale value of korean car is low.
If that is the case, go ahead and buy a car with high resale value (and shut up). Not everyone buy car to change it every year. Some folks, tend to choose a car that is within their budget and hope that the car can survive as long as possible. If you’re looking for car with high resale value, it has no point because the moment you bring the car out from the showroom, the price sure will drop. Go buy a house instead then. If you use the car for say 5, 7 or 9 years, have it not become a part of you? Have it not ‘been there’ when you need to go somewhere, buy something etc? So, what is the problem with resale value. If you buy car and resale value is your only concern, go look elsewhere (and again, shut up).