Over the years I have been fortunate to drive loads of cars, some great, some bad, all different even if only slightly. My sons have been a part of that process for many moons and the one thing that always used to confuse them when when we had a car they figured I’d pan, I actually kind of liked it. It took them a long time to understand that things have to be viewed in their own context, not on the same set of parameters as everything else. You cannot place the 2025 Kia K4 GT-Line Turbo in the same line of thought as a McLaren, it’s not fair. This is a good car. It’s a brand new car with a load of options with a sticker price below $32,000. That’s not inexpensive but for what this car delivers and how it delivers it, the price is verging on the astonishing.
That being said, unless you are ONLY shopping price (never a good idea), the price tag may not overcome your other needs and wants in a sports themed sedan, albeit a smaller one.
The most controversial part of the 2025 Kia K4 GT-Line Turbo is the styling of the rear end of the car. As you saw in the lead image, this thing is pretty good looking from the front. It has the angles, the laid back windshield, even the width of the front fenders to make a person kind of lean in on the performance angle. But boy howdy, the rear end styling of this car is next level odd. Note the taillights and how they kind of melt down the fenders, the trunk lid jutting out, the weird split lower portion of the lights/reflectors, etc. Was it the same person that designed the front and rear? We can’t be totally sure but we can be totally sure that we like the front a whole lot better than the back.
This little engine is a worker. 1.6L and 190hp at peak, there is an interesting story here. The first part of the story is the rev happy engine that would be exceptionally fun with a stick shift behind it. The second part of the story is that happy little engine being bolted to an eight speed automatic transmission that just isn’t great. You want snappy shifts, you want it to respond to the paddles, you want it to be something other than what it is. The transmission does not ruin this car, it doesn’t. It just seems to keep the thing locked ins a zone below where it could and should be.
With a stick and the GT-Line multi-link rear suspension, the car would actually be kind of fun to toss around. As it stands, the thing is never really in the right gear when you want it to be to do anything fun.
The interior of the K4 is kind of like the transmission’s relationship with the engine. The design is solid, the room is copious, the layout is functional, and the technology is definitely equivalent to cars way out of this thing’s price bracket but then there are the front seats. The seat bottoms are super flat and have little bolstering to offer whatsoever. They do not present as being overly comfortable for a long drive or frankly to live in on a daily basis. It’s just one of those things were the rest of the inside is THAT good, it comes off as an “if only” style complaint and perhaps we’re being too harsh, but that was the ONLY think that detracted anything from the inside of the 2025 Kia K4 GT-Line Turbo.
So here’s the bottom line. This is a pretty amazing car for $32,000. Is it exactly what Kia wants the buying public to buy into it being? Ahhh, not quite but is is a car that will absolutely make you feel as though your money was well spent in contrast to some other machines in this category? 100%.
If you were to shop the 2025 Kia K4 GT-Line Turbo against any equivalent small SUV it’s a no-contest slam dunk win here. If you were to shop it against a Honda Civic or other equivalent competition your opinion may be different.
If we were in the market for a small sport-adjacent sedan that could haul people comfortably, cost barely $30,000 and had more standard features and technology than other cars $10,000 more, this is the first one we’d drive. If you are shopping, give it a look.
