 I leased this car after my 2002 Ford Taurus was finally put to rest.  I grew up riding in that car as a kid, it was my first car, and I broke 200k miles in it; bear that in mind as you read this review.  When I test drove this car, my first impressions were that the steering was loose, the interior was excellent, and it was far and away the best looking midsize sedan in its class alongside the Ford Fusion.  I liked it, and it was the cheapest lease deal I found, believe it or not.  With taxes/fees etc. I paid $1000 down and $177 a month for a two year lease.Performance-wise, this car met my expectations.  The 2.4L puts down 192 HP and 181 ft-lbs of torque.  It accelerates as hard as I'd ever want or need it to, and I never have problems passing people.  The brakes, as in any proper new car, are fantastic.  Thankfully this car has a true automatic transmission instead of a CVT (which I can't stand) and it even has the option to go into a pseudo-manual mode.  The tranny searches for gears very rarely.  The steering, like I said before, is really loose.  I got used to it, it really isn't that big of a deal.  Test drive one and you'll see what I mean.  The steering is probably the biggest point about this car to be debated.The seats are excellent.  They hold you in when you throw the car through a corner and they keep you comfortable on long road trips.  The rear seats are good too.  There is a good amount of leg room for its class.  It rides as smooth as you'd expect it to for a mid-sized sedan.  The headlights are FANTASTIC.  It has HIDs for the standard lights, and halogens for the high beams.  What's nice about this car is it has fog lights as a standard feature.  Unfortunately, they really don't do a whole lot.  I can barely notice the difference with them on, even in fog/rain/darkness, but it doesn't matter anyway because the normal lights work so well by themselves.  I think Kia just put them there as a way to "one-up" other car companies. They make it look better.The rear visibility is not that good, for some reason.  Blind spots and forward visibility is great, but rear visibility seems limited.  You can still see fine, but the field of view is smaller than what I'm used to.  There is no standard rear view camera.  A lot of other new cars have this as a standard feature, which is something to keep in mind.  The bluetooth feature is nice because I've never used it before on my phone.  It is all very intuitive once you set it up at the dealership.  The stereo is...not that good.  It works fine and enjoy listening to it, but it definitely isn't the best.  Changing the bass/treble/middle etc. doesn't help much.  This is probably the worst feature of the car, and thankfully that isn't saying a whole lot.  It came with 3 months of free satellite radio, which I didn't really care about.  I listen to my radio stations, iPod, and CDs.  All are very easy to use in this car.The climate controls are great.  Everything is set up intuitively and it warms up/cools down the cabin quickly when I want it to.  The interior materials themselves actually surprised me.  There is quite a bit of soft and hard touch materials in this interior, and it was designed really well.  It is a really pleasing place to be.  My grandpa wouldn't shut up about it when I took him for a ride, he thought he was riding in a Cadillac.  It's designed really well but at the same time you know you aren't in a high end luxury vehicle either.  To be fair, there isn't a whole lot of cheap plastic - they instead opted for a lot of leathery-like materials and it really looks good.The tires are just a standard all-season, Nexen (Korean tire).  Nothing to write home about, but it isn't anything less than I'd expect.  This car does as well as I'd expect it would in the dirty, snowy, icy winters Buffalo is famous for.  I don't underestimate the importance of the quality of tire you put on your vehicle, and I have to say I'm pleased with how these tires (and the car in general) have gotten me through the winter.  They aren't outstanding, but they get the job done.I get 29 mpg in this car and I drive it pretty hard.  I'd say I have a 70% highway 30% city mix, and I drive fast on the highway (65-75 mph).  When I actually do the speed limit, I get 33 mpg in this car with 87 octane.  I'm pleased with that, considering how spirited of a driver I am.To sum up, I'd say the strengths of this car are how incredibly good looking it is, and how attractive and intuitive the interior is compared to the other cars in its class.  Its weakness is its sound system.  I'm an enthusiast and would rather be driving a Subaru WRX or Focus RS, but for now this is what I can afford that is new.  This car was everything I expected/wanted out of it.  I got this car because I needed something that wouldn't break down, (a new car) something that isn't terrible in the snow, (Front Wheel Drive) and was the cheapest lease deal I could find.