i'm not going to judge Kia'* by what they look like. (i had the opportuinity to drive a 2001 Kia Rio) and i'm going to judge them by how they drive, and such. let'* start where most car reviews start: initial impressions. ok, the AC was cold, and there was enough room for me to fit in the car with relative comfort (actually more room than i expected) and i'm 6'3" tall. and i do not remember any wind noise. now, on to the drive train. this car'* acceleration, or rather lack thereof, was mind boggling. you could give it 5% throttle or you could go WOT from a stop, it didn't matter untill you got to 2nd gear, it accelerated at the same rate. the only advantage of going WOT is it delayed the shift to 2nd gear. and i must say, it took a long time to get there. in fact, the rate of acceleration was so slow that i was able to watch the tach wind all the way through 5800 RPM at which point it shifted to second (this might be a good time to point out the engine'* power peak is 6000 RPM and the redline on the tach showed up somewhere around 6300 RPM). considering the blazing preformance of this car i could have easily looked to my side at this time to notice a honda civic effortlessly out accelerating me as we leave the light. all in all i must say, i am wholly unimpressed with this car. and i can assure you that i am not judging a book (car) by it'* cover (exterior) but by it'* merits. this car is good for those who do not care about power, don't mind taking 23 seconds to achieve the speed of 60 MPH.