The Kia Forte has received high praise as a reliable well made sedan. A lot of people are buying a Kia Forte. Time for an article on phone, GPS and tablet mounts for a Kia Forte.
The Kia Forte isn’t the roomiest vehicle in the world, but fear not, there are plenty of good places for mounts. The usual photo of the interior of the subject vehicle accompanies this article. There are nice wide horizontal vents, a dash that has a small offset display, a CD player slot and the usual sloped windshield. There are two cup holders somewhat offset towards the back seat. What you can’t see in the photo are normal exposed seat bolt slots.
We’ve reviewed several Kia models in the past and they range from easy to mount devices to very challenging.
Mount Analysis
So the good news is that a windshield, vent and CD player slot will work. A seat bolt mount is going to fit. The bad news is that a dash mount is a poor choice because of the offset dash display. A cup holder mount is another poor choice due to the size of the vehicle and the fact these are offset too far back to be of any practical mounting use.
Mount Recommendations for the Kia Forte
So let’s look at a few recommendations.
Let’s start with the windshield. Consider the Arkon MegaGrip Suction Cup Windshield and Dash Mount. The suction mount features a vacuum locked suction assembly attached to a pivoting arm. The phone can swivel into any orientation. The expandable smartphone cradle expands to 3.4 inches so practically any phone will fit fine in this mount.
The mount also comes with an adhesive disk that you can stick to the dash to turn the mount into a console mount. As previously stated, the Kia Forte has the offset display in the middle of the dash. It has a somewhat concave shape and this means the dash disk will not work properly as the disk sits on a flat surface. This mount will work fine on the windshield so avoid the dash.
Remove the cradle from this mount to expose a Garmin compatible 17mm ball. Attach a Garmin GPS cradle’s socket to the ball and this becomes a very effective GPS mount.
The middle vents are another good place for a smartphone or GPS. It’s easy to mount devices on these large horizontal vents.
The Kia Forte vents are fairly standard and have horizontal slats which makes mounting a phone or GPS very easy. One of our favorites is the Andobil Air Vent Mount. This mount can be used to hold most phone models with or without a case. The ball and socket design facilitates a 360 degree rotation. The included cradle opens to accommodate phones from four to seven inches. The mount uses a unique locking clip to securely attach to horizontal and vertical vents.
We did a review of the Andobil car air vent mount which is worth a read if you need more info.
Vehicles with accessible seat bolts have become difficult to find of late. The Kia Forte has seat bolts that can be loosened to accommodate a seat bolt mount. This is probably the only mounting location suitable for a small to midsize tablet in a Kia Forte. This location is good for apps that can be setup prior to the drive and not need to be accessed while driving. So it’s good for music apps, not recommended for a GPS app.
Use a seat bolt mount on the passenger side when there isn’t anyone sitting there. Bend it out of the way or remove the cradle from the mount when there’s a passenger in the seat.
Tablets are always difficult to fit into a smaller vehicle. The seat bolt location is the only place that can accommodate a small to midsize tablet (full size tablets are too large). Consider the Arkon Ultra Slim Grip Seat Rail Mount. This is an 18 inch high mount with an expandable cradle that opens to about 7 inches. That’s large enough for tablets up to the size of an iPad Mini. Bend it out of the way when not in use if a passenger is expected. The seat bolt is not a good location for apps that require you to look at the display while driving but a decent selection for apps that don’t need to be accessed while in motion.
Summary
So here’s where we stand on the Kia Forte. The CD player, windshield and vent are good choices for a smartphone or GPS. The seat bolt gets our approval for a tablet. The dash cup holder are poor choices for mounting any device.