Auto News 5

Since the Kia Rio's current generation debuted for the 2012 model year, it has gone from the butt of automotive jokes to one of the most stylish and feature-laden offerings for under $20,000. A great deal of credit for the subcompact's radical transformation goes to Kia's design chief, Peter Schreyer (previously with Audi), who bestowed the littlest Kia with the clean lines and fetching styling that permeate the brand and help this subcompact differentiate itself from the rest of the segment.

With the cold weather coming, we wanted to get winter tires on the Infiniti. But Tire Rack, official wheel and tire supplier to Automobile Magazine, didn't yet have measurements for the JX, so we took our car down to their headquarters in Indiana so they could get some. The process is actually quite involved: they use a mapping arm to locate the touch points inside the wheel well, which they use to make a CAD model. They measure wheel offset, suspension travel, and brake caliper size, among other things. The brake calipers, for instance, are measured fully such that brake pads with more compound don't interfere with an aftermarket wheel. In the end, after the measuring and calculating were done, they recommended Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V1 tires for our JX, which were mounted on a new set of 18-inch wheels, to the tune of $1599.69. Resetting the tire pressure monitoring system at the dealership added another $62.49.