We are excited to present you another great looking customized Kia car. This time, you can look into all details of the beautiful Kia Spectra, which hosts a plethora of unique styling mods and paint art.
I live in SouthCentral Pennsylvania not far from Harrisburg. I work as a cook at a local hospital. My 3 kids are all grown and out of the house. 🙂 I like to Autocross (AutoX), I play a pretty good game of chess.
As you can tell from the car I’m a Lord of the Rings fan and I love my Spectra5! Please feel free to post your comments about the car at my Cardomain site. Vote for it in the Custom paint section. Check out the HAFC info here.
1.How long have you owned your Kia Spectra?
I bought the car with 8 miles on it September 28, 2006 and it now has 23,000 miles.
2. What cars did you own before?
I owned a 2003 Olds Alero.
3. Honestly, what was your intention when you bought your Spectra?
Saving money on gas and I was looking for the hatchback design. I like the look. 🙂
4. In a few words, describe the style of your Spectra?
Sporty and uniquely mine. It’s a one of a kind.
5. What do you like the most about Spectra?
It small enough to get good gas mileage, but big enough that I’m not cramped into a toaster.
6. Is there anything you don’t like about it?
KIA needs to offer more aftermarket parts for it. They teased us last year that we would be able to get Cold Air Intakes (CAI), Short shifters, Kicker stereo boxes, and a few otehrs things. Now they have taken away other things they used to offer like “Cat”back exhaust, Hypergrounds, colored face plates for the instrument panel. I feel they dropped a big ball on that.
7. What is it that makes your Spectra look unique?
The Custom Lord of the Rings themed paint and the all blue LED interior lighting.
8. What accessories have you installed so far?
KIA’s own “Cat”back exhaust, KIA’s Blue Hyperground, KIA’s blue face guage, KIA’s strut bar (this is actually from the ’08 model, but works on the ’06), KFX Performance Road Runs grill, SeoulFulRacing.com’s Blue Aluminum Oil Cap.
9. What’s next?
I’m installing a fuel saving device called the Hydro Assist Fuel Cell kit. (HAFC) Which should just about double my gas mileage.
10. Who helped modify your Kia?
I did most of the changes myself. But only after I got many ideas from the fine folks at StreetKiaZ.com. StreetKiaZ.com is a friendly place to go to find out pretty much anything you want to know about your KIA. A wealth of knowledge can be found there.
11. Products of which tuning company did you use?
As stated in the above answer mostly KIA brands. I do plan on getting a KFX Performance rear swaybar at some point.
12. How would you rate your car; on a scale from 1 to 10?
Definately a 10!!!!
13. How would you pimp your Spectra5 if you had no limits?
I would get 17″ custom rims made to fit the theme of my car. They would be designed after Aragorn’s sword, Anduril. Are you offering to cover the expense?? “Please pimp my ride KIA World.NET” 🙂
14. What do people say about your ride?
Lord of the Rings fans give me the most props and drool over it. Most people like it and think its unique.
15. What would you advise to Kia Spectra owners who might be looking to customize their cars in future?
Get your ideas together and take them to the folks at StreetKiaZ.com. You’ll end up with more ideas and will have the expertise of those already modding their KIAs. There are some great “How To” sections people have done complete with a photographic journey thru a given project.
16. Do you see yourself as a Kia owner in the future?
Yes! I really like the looks of the new coup. I still have a while in this car though.
Thank you for sharing the pics of your great-looking Kia Spectra5 & have fun driving it!
hehe voted for showoff of the week and rated ur car to the max on cardomain! 😀 that paintjob must have cost a fortune!!! my favourite part of dis car is the exhaust at the centre. that looks sweet.
hey just finished goin thru ur cardomain site! u must be the biggest LOTR fan! luv da pic with ur beard and long hair.
wooo! that looks wicked. great job! I love the paint job. blue and silver look great. I want to see those blue LEDs. 😀
Nice car! That paint job is awesome! I have been to Harrisburg, Jonestown to be exact. My dad drove a truck for Swift transportation, and they have a terminal on State Route 72.
Hi and thanks for the comments. I’ll try ad get you some pics of the Blue LEDs Boris. LOL Patrick, there are bigger fans out there than me. One of them paid me $2600 for a collection of Foil cards from the LOTR trading card game! The picture of me dressed as Aragorn was one of the last with me with my long hair and beard. I had grown my hair for almost two years in that photo. I grew it for just that look as I was going to Toronto for the largest gathering of fans in this hemisphere. There were 15,000 fans that decended on Toronto for the Gathering of the Fellowship during the opening week of Return of the King. One of the funniest costumes I saw was a guy dressed as the “one finger”, you know when Gollum bites off Frodo’s finger to get the ring. He was the finger with the ring on.
Hi there Rich, welcome to KIA-WORLD!
Your car certanly draws lots of attention with Lord of the rings theme! I absolutely love the image of golden ring on your front bumper!
Definitely keep us up to date with the Hydro Assist Fuel Cell! I think we’d all love a 50% increase in fuel economy, as well as better performance and more horsepower! What kind of mpg are you getting before the HAFC?
Interesting enough, you can still get a Catback exhaust on the Rio, but no longer for the new Spectra and Spectra5 as Rich points out. The hypergrounds are still available for the 2008 models though, and the Iridium spark plugs. Has anyone used those? How do they affect the performance and fuel economy of the vehicle?
Great line: …but big enough that I’m not cramped into a toaster. 🙂
Jason- A week ago I did a test on a pretty flat (for central PA) stretch of road. I filled the tank all the way to the top of the spout. Then drove down Intersatate 81 to Carlisle exit then drove back to where I filled it. I set the cruise for 60 MPH I had the air turned off. I drove 42.5 miles round trip and used .932 gallons. Which if you do the math works out to 45.6 MPG!!! I can’t wait to get the HAFC installed and tuned. Here gas just hit $3.50 per gallon and if I could get 90 – 100 MPG I’d be in ecstatic.
Just hit 3.75 here. How did you get so lucky??
My husband got this car and I like it but there are a few flaws
1) it sucks for power lol oh well that is ok especially when going up hill lol
2) the horn sucks lol people laugh when I use it
3) the dam think goes through tooo much oil ………….what can we do with this before the warnty is done
😀 Help lol other then that I like the car