The compact Kia K4, formerly known as the Forte, has been completely reworked, as well as renamed. As we discovered spending a week with the sporty K4 GT-Line, you get an attractive four-door car with seating for five passengers that delivers a more appealing design, new technology and other new features. Here’s our review.
The 2025 Kia K4 is a big upgrade from the old Forte in terms of design, performance and features.
There’s no doubt that SUVs have been dominant in the American market in recent years, accounting for about 58% of U.S. vehicle sales in 2024.
At the same time, automakers have been raising prices on SUVs because of their popularity. If you want an affordable new car, the insider tip is to buy a sedan.
That is, of course, if you can find one. Several manufacturers, including Ford and General Motors, have all but abandoned the passenger car side of the business. But Kia is determined to maintain sedans in its line-up and recently gave the compact Forte a complete makeover – starting with a new name. We had a chance to spend a week with the 2025 Kia K4.
Overview
The 2025 Kia K4 adopts a new fastback roofline.
First unveiled at the 2024 New York International Auto Show, the Kia K4 is a much-need replacement for the aging Forte sedan.
What the Korean carmaker has delivered is much more than just a name change. It has been completely reworked and renamed. That’s in line with what happened when the Korean carmaker excised the Optima name for its midsize four-door in favor of the global K5 nameplate.
What you get is an attractive four-door car with seating for five passengers. K4 is convenient, quiet, easy to drive, and economical.
Exterior design
The 2025 Kia K4 also introduces a new take on the automaker’s familiar “tiger nose” grille.
The design of the 2025 Kia K4 is bolder and more distinctive than the outgoing Forte – and it gets a very different take on the familiar Kia “tiger-nose” grille.
The compact sedan picks up on design elements from several other recent Kia models, among other things, lifting the broad fenders of the EV6 battery-electric vehicle and the sharp, vertical lines of the Telluride SUV. The fastback roof, meanwhile, is likely to bring to mind the Kia Stinger.
The K4 is a good-looking sedan, and despite that fastback coupe roofline, it get a decent 14.6 cubic foot trunk capacity, plus good rear seat room.
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Interior design
The 2025 Kia K4 features a new widescreen digital display.
On the inside, the K4 provides a spacious, sensible, and more modern interior than the old Forte. There are subtle revisions, such as the flat-bottomed steering wheel. It rises out of a new, horizontally oriented instrument panel meant to emphasize the sedan’s width.
In the GT-Line trim, there’s a single pane of glass stretching across the dash, which houses both the driver information display and the infotainment system. Infotainment is a touch screen, but there are also audio buttons for convenience.
Climate control is also managed with traditional buttons below the infotainment screen, and there’s a traditional shifter on the console. In the back seat, the K4 offers class-leading legroom and decent headroom.
Powertrain
The 2025 Kia K4 offers both a naturally aspirated and turbo powertrains.
The standard powertrain for the Kia K4 is a 2.0-liter engine making 147 horsepower and 132 pound-feet of torque.,
The top GT-Line Turbo trim level gets a more powerful 1.6-liter turbo engine that bumps output up 190 hp and 195 lb-ft.
The standard transmission is a continuously variable unit, except for the top Turbo trim, which gets a traditional eight-speed automatic.
All K4 models feature front-wheel drive. One of the best things about the K4 is its fuel economy – which gets as much as 39 MPG on the highway, and 29 around town.
Safety and Technology
The K4 Hatchback GT-Line will join the sedan for 2026.
The K4 is an IIHS Top Safety Pick, which should come as no surprise. The base trim gets an array of useful safety features, such as automatic emergency braking, plus adaptive cruise control and automatic high beams.
Each trim up the ladder offers a bit more, with blind spot monitoring coming in at the LXS trim, and so on.
On the tech side, the K4 offers wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto on all trims. There’s an optional Harman Kardon audio system at the top models. Wireless device charging becomes standard at the mid-grade EX trim level.
Driving Impressions
The K4 GT-Line Turbo adds some welcome muscle over the base packages.
One of the pluses of the K4 GT-Line Turbo is its stiffer multi-link rear suspension, rather than the solid rear axle found on lower trim packages.
On the road, the K4 is nimble and easy to drive. It’s not fast compared to some higher horsepower cars available now, but you also won’t feel like it’s underpowered.
My only complaint after driving the K4 for a week was that I had to give it back. This compact sedan was convenient, comfortable, and a pleasure to use.
Wrap-up
The Kia K4 starts with its base LX trim at a thrifty $21,990, but you still get a 12.3-inch touchscreen infotainment system and adaptive cruise control.
Despite its compact footprint, the K4 offers a reasonably roomy back bench.
I find a much better choice is to spend an extra $1,000 for the upgrade LXS trim, which buys blind spot monitoring and LED headlights, among a few other things.
Moving up to the mid-grade EX trim is just another $1,000, and you get the dual 12.3-inch screens, a wireless phone charger, and 17-inch alloy wheels. Next up is the GT-Line trim we tested, which also includes a navigation system and heated front seats, starting at $25,190. The top trim gets you the turbo engine, and starts at $28,090.
All things considered, we’d suggest any of the middle-grade trims from LXS to GT-Line. For a little extra cash, you get some important features. It’s quite easy to find a very great value in features and still keep the bottom line under $25,000. The 2025 Kia K4 is on sale now.
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