Kia buyers have heeded the call to reject modernity and embrace tradition. That’s why the Korean automaker’s little K4 sedan (and the Forte it replaced) just beat every other vehicle the company makes in January sales. Who said the sedan was dead? Not Kia, baby.
Kia’s month-end sales report shows that it moved 11,616 K4s and Fortes in January. That number accounted for about 20 percent of the automaker’s total sales, and it just narrowly beat out the Sportage crossover (11,357 sales) for the sales crown. People really just dig this little thing. I mean, it beat out other Kia mainstays like the EV6 and EV9, Telluride and Niro for top honors.
Kia says the K4 a Forte saw a 29 percent year-over-year increase in sales. Back in 2024, Kia sold 8,977 Fortes (the K4 wasn’t on sale yet). I suppose this does make some sense. The K4 is one of the cheapest vehicles Kia currently sells, and as we’ve covered extensively, cars are getting too expensive for normal folks to afford. It would only be logical that they’d be attracted to cars with lower starting prices that still pack a ton of value and funky looks.
Hell, it’s still more than just price though. Even the slightly larger K5 sedan had a solid month. It sold 4,357 units in January. That’s a 1,069 vehicle improvement over January of 2024 (which works out to an over 32 percent increase), and it’s good enough for fifth place out of 11 on Kia’s sales leaderboard. Not too shabby. Overall, Kia saw an 11.5 percent boost in sales year over year, so the automaker is certainly doing something right.
I’m just happy we’re starting to see sedans creep into the top of sales leaderboards once again – not because I particularly like sedans – but because it should be enough to satiate the CARS ARE TOO BIG BLAH BLAH BLAH circlejerkers that haunt online car discussions. Enjoy this win, guys. You’ve earned it.
h/t: Motor1