Vehicle: 2005 Kia Spectra EX Luxury automatic
Price as tested: CDN$21095

Performance: The Spectra is powered by a 2 liter DOHC 16-valver 4 banger that bumps out 138hp and 136 lb/ft of torque. Gone are the sluggishness and roughness of the previous 1.8L in the outgoing car. This engine has plenty of torque and more than enough horses for high revving. Its also surprisingly quiet and refined. When driving at 100km/h, it clicks at just above 3000 rpm which is about average for an econocar. In terms of tranny, its willing to up and downshifts without hunting for gears. However, there is one huge drawback. Its too easy to shift between D and 3rd gear because of the lack of a proper detent. The throttle response is smooth and linear.

Handling: Other than the powerplant, another huge thumbs down for outgoing Spectra is the mesh mellow handling dynamics. With the new chassis that is going to share with the upcoming new Elantra, it got a new found dynamics that you never felt in a Spectra before. The chassis is stiff without any rattles and cracks. While the handling still no Mazda 3 kinda of sportiness, it handles relatively well through corners. Spectra finally gains confidence when pushing through twisties. Another thing it gains is the steering that has proper feel and response. The featherweight and numb steering are things of history. Although Spectra is a pretty softly sprung car to begin with, it remains a confidence-inspiring car to push through. The softly sprung nature has provided exceptional ride comfort that rivals cars that cost 2 times or more a.k.a Audi A4 and BMW 3-Series. The drawback is there are quite a significant amount of body rolls and understeer when hustled.

Brakes: The 4-wheel discs with ABS provides decent pedal feel. The stops are short and linear without any drama. However, you have to go with EX Luxury in order to get rear discs and ABS as standard is the biggest issue. Kia should make ABS an optional extra in base model. Its still better than the outgoing car which didn’t even have it as an option in Canadian market though.

Interior: Spectra’s interior has a very high quality, substantial feel to all the materials and upholstery. The instrumentation gauges are clear and analog. Driving position is easy to find thanks to tilt steering and adjustable seat height. I have to give thumbs up for Kia engineers for putting stereo on top of the climate control for ergonomics. The velour seats are very comfortable with excellent side and back supports. On the back, it got decent amount of head and legrooms with barely enough space for 3.

In terms of cargo space, it got a 40/60 fold down split rear seats and a trunk that has a low cut off.

Conclusion: Kia finally put the Spectra into the heart of the econocar segment that has enough merits to run with the big dogs. It got a good engine, decent dynamics and, most of all, a very comfortable ride quality. The biggest issue is when you loaded it up with ABS, you have to go with EX that costs almost 21 grand. That put the Spectra into a very fiercely competitive pricing category that has to run with many great cars.

OVERALL VERDICT FOR 2005 KIA SPECTRA EX LUXURY
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Performance: 3/5
Handling and ride/fun-to-drive: 2.25/5
Interior/ergonomics/user-friendliness: 4/5
Fit-and-finish/build quality: 4.25/5
Cargo/accessilibility/layout: 4/5
Value-f0r-money: 2/5

Overall rating: 3.75/5