The Kia K4: Can You Sell A Cheap Sedan If It Looks Crazy?

Imagine, you’re an auto executive in a product planning meeting at any point in the last five years. You open your mouth. “Why don’t we do a sedan?” Say that at Ford and they’d probably laugh you out of the room. Kia, though? It’s still digging the classic car body style, the default. Enter the 2025 Kia K4.

Some automakers have abandoned traditional cars almost entirely. Not so at Kia. The Korean automaker has stuck it out with sedans and hatchbacks while building out a potent line of SUVs, hybrids, and EVs to boot. It’s taking on all comers these days, and it’s had the Forte in the four-door fight for some time now. Now it gets to tap out, with the Kia K4 set to take over for the 2025 model year.

Kia has given the world an early look at the K4, with its full launch a week away. If it’s to match the six-figure sales of its predecessor, the K4 will have to do a lot. It’ll need to drive well, run cheap, and be affordable to buy in the first place. Looking good wouldn’t hurt a bit, either. Has the K4 got what it takes?  Let’s dive in.

A Look For Tomorrow

Right away, the first thing you’ll spot about the K4 is its looks. I want to open by giving Kia credit for not delivering a humble workaday sedan. Instead, it wears a hypermodern look with cutting-edge lighting and no shortage of bold lines. Most striking are the squared haunches at the rear, seemingly matched by the bulky front fenders. They give the K4 a mean, purposeful look, perhaps not matched by its ride height and fairly high-profile tires. Its predecessor, the Forte, was a good-looking car for the money. The K4, however, looks much cooler than its price would have you expect. That’s a good thing.

At the same time, there are some polarizing details. The overarching roofline almost makes it look like it’s supposed to be a fastback or hatch, rather than a sedan. It’s not a standard three-box design by any interpretation. There’s also the strange detail of the C-pillar (D-pillar?). It appears disconnected from the roof because of a clash in color and trim. It makes it look like someone’s tacked the back of a different car on \to the K4.

It’s an odd detail and one that conservative minds would have asked the designers to correct earlier in development. And yet, it’s strangely fitting given the design philosophy is known as ‘Opposites United.’ The public rarely responds well to bold moves like these, but we’ll get back to that in a minute.

It’s still early days and the K4 hasn’t been fully launched yet, so we’re light on exact details. In any case, inside, the K4 is very much on trend with other modern vehicles. It has a pair of large screens on the dash, one as a cluster, the other for infotainment purposes. You’d expect the usual complement of Android Auto and Apple CarPlay connectivity, assuming controversy around the latter proves overblown. Materials and colors are tasteful and hip, and Kia has planned a number of different colors and patterns to give the K4’s interior a luxurious feel. Bottom line? It looks pretty damn nice.

A key part of the interior design is based on the ‘Opposites United’ design philosophy. Kia wanted a driver-focused interior, something it says is expected of the segment, but it wanted to do so in an unexpected way. Thus, the K4 eschews the traditional method of just pointing all the controls at the driver. Instead, we’re told the cockpit uses a “bold graphic split” to delineate the driver and passenger areas of the vehicle. In practice, it just looks like a pretty typical dashboard to me. Still, Kia really feels like they’ve done something here, so power to them.

Touchscreen haters will not appreciate Kia’s statement that “physical buttons and controls are deliberately kept to a minimum.” With that said, the “Home,” “Map,” and “Search” functions all get buttons, while four more buttons are provisioned for the HVAC controls. It’s impossible to say at this stage how easy or hard it is to use the K4’s interface. Traditionally, Kia does a pretty good job of this. It would, however, be well considered to tread carefully in this area. A lot of buyers will flee from a car that proves too hard to figure out on a test drive.

Brass Tacks

The global premiere for the K4 is slated for March 27 at the New York International Auto Show. At that point, we’re going to learn full details about powertrains, features, and pricing. The latter is perhaps the most important.

Why? It’s because the compact market is a huge winner for Kia. The brand sold 782,468 vehicles in the US last year. 123,953 of those were Kia Fortes. That’s roughly 15.8%. Not only that, but the Forte has been consistent, almost incredibly so. Sales have stuck around the 80,000-120,000 level every year back to 2016. It hasn’t sold less than 66,000 vehicles a year since its US launch, barring 2009 when it entered the market mid-year.

Automakers love models like this. They’re good consistent money that can be relied upon, they make production planning easy, and they make customers happy.

The K4 will need to do the same. The question is whether it’s the right vehicle to do so.

The Forte is aggressively priced. The base model starts at just $20,915 including destination charges. In 2024, that’s pretty cheap. It’s going toe to toe with all kinds of cheap models from Toyota, Nissan, Chevy, and the rest, and it’s holding its own. If the K4 jumped the base price up by $3000, $5000, though, it could suddenly be a tougher proposition.

If the K4 can look this modern at a similar price point, though, it could be a winner. People love to leave the dealership in something that looks brand-new and on-trend. The styling of the K4 hits those points to a bullseye. The one thing holding it back is that strange pillar design.

Automakers have tried to take odd to market before, with mixed results. Think of the Fiat Multipla, or the Pontiac Aztec. For a new model in a niche segment, it can be worth taking a risk. For a key volume seller? Well, then you’re putting a lot at stake.

Bold styling has to be a difficult target. If Clarkson can land a pithy one-liner about your car’s looks in ten seconds, you’re in trouble. The Renault Megane with that weird butt is a prime example. Nobody wants to bring their brand new car to work only to have their coworkers taking the mickey all day. That can quickly turn new car joy into sadness.

The K4 probably treads the right line. It’s future-forward, and it’s one strange feature is too difficult to describe for water-cooler jokers to poke fun. Plus it’ll look newer than the the vast majority of your office’s parking lot.

I think I’d be bold enough to try a K4, myself. I’ve got a feeling those broad haunches and sleek modern lines would look great in the flesh. Even more so with a slight suspension drop and a nice set of wheels. Perhaps I could even learn to love the kinky rear pillar.

I just hope for Kia’s sake that hundreds of thousands out there agree with me. This is a very cool car. It’s also a brave one. Let’s see what happens.

Image credits: Kia