Vehicle
Kia Cerato
The compact sedan under three names — Cerato, Forte, K3 — depending on market. Mechanically an Elantra, cautions included.
Generations
-
LD 2003–2008
The first Cerato, and the car that took the **Spectra** name in North America from 2005 — the badge having moved off the Sephia, which is a different vehicle entirely. The Spectra5 is this generation's hatchback.
- Body styles
- Sedan · Hatchback
- Platform
- Hyundai-Kia LD
- Engines
-
- 1.5 CRDi — D4FA · diesel
- 1.6 Alpha II — G4ED · petrol
- 2.0 Beta II — G4GC · petrol · 103 kW (138 hp) · 185 Nm (136 lb-ft)
- 1.8 — petrol · China
- 1.6 turbo — diesel
- 2.0 turbo — diesel
- Transmissions
- 5-speed manual · 4-speed automatic
- Drivetrain
- Front-wheel drive
-
TD 2008–2013
Sold as Forte and K3 in other markets; mechanically an Elantra.
- Body styles
- Sedan · Hatchback · Coupé
- Platform
- Hyundai TD
- Engines
-
- 1.6 Gamma — petrol
- 2.0 Beta — petrol
- 2.4 Theta — petrol
- 1.6 CRDi — diesel
- Transmissions
- 5-speed manual · 6-speed manual · 4-speed automatic · 6-speed automatic · 5/6-speed manual · 4/5/6-speed automatic
- Drivetrain
- Front-wheel drive
-
YD 2013–2018
Gamma direct injection at volume.
- Body styles
- Sedan · Hatchback · Coupé
- Platform
- Hyundai-Kia J5 platform
- Engines
-
- 1.6 GDI — petrol
- 2.0 MPI — petrol
- 1.6 CRDi — diesel
- 1.8 — petrol · 4-cylinder, US market 2014-2016
- 1.6 turbo — petrol
- Transmissions
- 6-speed manual · 6-speed automatic · 7-speed DCT
- Drivetrain
- Front-wheel drive
-
BD 2018–2024
Smartstream engines with a CVT in several markets.
- Body styles
- Sedan · Hatchback
- Platform
- Hyundai K3
- Engines
-
- 1.6 GDi — GAMMA · petrol
- 2.0 Nu — petrol
- 1.6 turbo GDi — petrol · GT
- 1.6 CRDi — diesel
- Transmissions
- 6-speed manual · 6-speed automatic · 7-speed dual-clutch · CVT
- Drivetrain
- Front-wheel drive
-
CL4 (K4) 2024–present
Sold as **K4**, the name replacing Forte, K3 and Cerato together — the same lineage under a new badge, on the K3 platform and built in Monterrey. Sedan, hatchback and, from 2026, an estate.
- Body styles
- Sedan · Hatchback · Estate
- Platform
- Hyundai-Kia K3
- Engines
-
- 1.0 turbo — SMARTSTREAM · petrol · 84 kW (113 hp)
- 1.6 Smartstream — G4FM · petrol · 90 kW (121 hp)
- 1.6 Smartstream turbo — G4FP · petrol · 142 kW (190 hp)
- 2.0 Smartstream — G4NN · petrol · 112 kW (150 hp)
- Transmissions
- 6-speed manual · 6-speed automatic · 8-speed automatic · 7-speed dual-clutch · CVT
- Drivetrain
- Front-wheel drive
Service information
Information, not instruction
CarGeek is a reference, not a service manual. Its pages are written from public sources and from what other people have found, never from a manufacturer's own service information, so they can be wrong or incomplete for your particular vehicle. Some of what they describe carries real risk: high voltage, fuel under pressure, stored energy, hot and moving parts.
Have anything you intend to act on checked by a trained person against the manufacturer's own procedure for your vehicle. Nothing here replaces that procedure.
Posted about the Kia Cerato
Be the first to write this up
Nothing posted about this yet. Whatever you found is worth writing down — even a dead end saves someone the same afternoon.
What makes one worth reading:
- The car — make, model, year and engine. The same fault behaves differently on each.
- What you measured, not only what you replaced.
- What actually fixed it — or that nothing did, which is worth knowing too.
Sign in or create an account to add what you found about Kia Cerato.