{"id":36635,"date":"2026-08-27T09:57:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T13:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=36635"},"modified":"2026-09-06T09:58:32","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T13:58:32","slug":"kia-k4-hatchback-punches-way-above-its-price-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/kia-k4-hatchback-punches-way-above-its-price-class","title":{"rendered":"Kia K4 Hatchback punches way above its price class"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.detroitnews.com\/gcdn\/authoring\/authoring-images\/2026\/08\/24\/PDTN\/91449424007-kia-k-4-hatchback-fr-34-low.jpg?width=660&amp;height=372&amp;fit=crop&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"The 2026 Kia K4 Hatchback brings luxury value to the compact car segment with Cadillac-like styling, standard wireless charging, and nearly 30 inches of screens.\" width=\"543\" height=\"306\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"gnt_pg_img_cap\"><em>The 2026 Kia K4 Hatchback brings luxury value to the compact car segment with Cadillac-like styling, standard wireless charging, and nearly 30 inches of screens.<\/em><\/div>\n<p><em>Henry Payne, The Detroit News<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">While the Elantra N takes inspiration from its IMSA Michelin Pilot-class, championship-winning Elantra with a scowling fascia covered in more black greasepaint than Baltimore Ravens Hall-of-Famer Ray Lewis, my Kia tester is dressed for a night on the town.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The elegant front end is framed by Cadillac-like vertical DRLs (Daytime Runing Lights) that glow orange. Look at them head-on and they remind of a Fu Manchu mustache at the corners of Kia\u2019s signature tiger grille. The distinctive styling continues in the rear with a red horizontal taillight that turns down at the ends like, well, a handlebar mustache. It\u2019s cool.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">\u201cWow, very dramatic,\u201d said friend Lisa as Mrs. Payne and I picked her up for a night out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">It&#8217;s reminiscent of the Stinger GT that turned heads in the market from 2018-24. It changed consumers\u2019 perception of Kia. Like K4, it was a hatchback with can\u2019t-turn-my-eyes-away styling. And man was it affordable, offering Audi A7-like performance for two-thirds the price.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.detroitnews.com\/story\/business\/autos\/foreign\/2026\/08\/29\/kia-k4-hatchback-affordable-stylish-roomy-payne\/91447418007\/\">Read full article here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 2026 Kia K4 Hatchback brings luxury value to the compact car segment with Cadillac-like styling, standard wireless charging, and nearly 30 inches of screens. Henry Payne, The Detroit News While the Elantra N takes inspiration from its IMSA Michelin Pilot-class, championship-winning Elantra with a scowling fascia covered in more black greasepaint than Baltimore Ravens [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,87],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36635"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36635"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36645,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36635\/revisions\/36645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}