I'm sure Kia/Hyundai didn't have to go too far into making this new car better than the outgoing Spectra (i.e. Sephia).

It looks hohum, but the Hyundai 2.0 liter is actually a pretty good motor (wee bit racuous here and there, but not bad).

The thing is the Sephia actually used to be quasi fun to drive in the mid 1990's when it had the high revving Mazda sourced motor. The rest of the car was just a piece of shit.

In 1998 the Sephia got revised styling and a new motor. The new motor was Kia's own effort and was not exactly, um...ground breaking. And oh, the car was still shit.

So maybe, just maybe, we have both a decent car and a decent engine this time.