The 2025 Kia K4 Looks Like a Step Up from the Forte

Chris Teague
by Chris Teague

Kia is revamping its entry-level car. The 2025 Kia K4 will be revealed later this month at the New York auto show as a replacement for the long-running Forte. We won’t have full specs on the car until next week, but its styling and design mark a significant step forward for what will likely still be Kia’s most affordable model.


Like the larger K5, the K4 features sleek styling and unique lines with a futuristic look. Kia retained its signature “tiger nose” grille and gave the car vertical headlight units with large LED daytime running lights. The rear features vertical taillights and an integrated diffuser in the lower bumper.

Kia said it designed the interior with two themes in mind. The driver’s space is focused, with displays and controls oriented toward the seat, while the rest of the passenger cabin focuses on comfort and space. The car is available with a range of interior lighting options, and Kia retained physical controls for often-used functions like maps and the climate system. Kia also offers new interior colors, including green, gray, brown, and black.


We don’t have powertrain specs for the new car yet, but Kia’s expected to offer similar configurations to what was seen in the Forte. That would mean a standard four-cylinder engine with an available turbo. The automaker is also expected to develop a hybrid model and a small electric sedan called the EV4.

The 2025 Kia K4 will officially debut on Mach 27 in New York, so we don’t have long to wait for more information. Pricing details will likely wait until closer to the car’s release date later in 2024.


[Images: Kia]


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Chris Teague
Chris Teague

Chris grew up in, under, and around cars, but took the long way around to becoming an automotive writer. After a career in technology consulting and a trip through business school, Chris began writing about the automotive industry as a way to reconnect with his passion and get behind the wheel of a new car every week. He focuses on taking complex industry stories and making them digestible by any reader. Just don’t expect him to stay away from high-mileage Porsches.

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  • Danddd Danddd on Mar 22, 2024

    That rear quarter panel is just lazy design trying to interpret futuristic 60s. Who would approve this?

  • Lorenzo Lorenzo on Mar 24, 2024

    The 1986 Accord hatchback coupe has returned!

  • Tassos You can answer your own question for yourself, Tim, if you ask instead"Have Japanese (or Korean) Automakers Eaten Everyone's Lunch"?I am sure you can answer it without my help.
  • Tassos WHile this IS a legitimate used car, unlike the vast majority of Tim's obsolete 30 and 40 year old pieces of junk, the price is ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS. It is not even a Hellcat. WHat are you paying for? The low miles? I wish it had DOUBLE the miles, which would guarantee it was regularly driven AND well maintained these 10 years, and they were easy highway miles, not damaging stop-go city miles!!!
  • Tassos Silly and RIdiculous.The REAL Tassos.
  • Lostboy If you can stay home when it's bad out in winter, then maybe your 3 season tire WILL be an "ALL-SEASON" tire as your just not going to get winters and make do? I guess tire rotations and alignments just because a whole lot more important!
  • Mike My wife has a ‘20 Mazda3 w/the Premium Package; before that she had a ‘15 Mazda3 i GT; before THAT she had an ‘06 Mazda Tribute S V6, ie: Ford Escape with a Mazda-tuned suspension. (I’ve also had two Miata NAs, a ‘94 & a ‘97M, but that’s another story.) We’ve gotten excellent service out of them all. Her 2020, like the others before it, is our road trip car - gets 38mpg highway, it’s been from NC to Florida, Texas, Newfoundland, & many places in between. Comfortable, sporty, well-appointed, spacious, & reliable. Sure, we’d look at a Mazda hybrid, but not anytime soon.😎
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