Unfortunately, I know very little about car brands and models (to me a car is really about getting from point a to point b) so it took some investigation to even find out what the type of car I wanted was called. I now know I want a compact SUV. My girlfriend was looking around the web and told me she liked the Kia Sportage. First thing I noticed is the price, which is considerably lower than other compact SUV’s.
Cut to today at work, I’m coming back from lunch with some cow-workers and I mention that I’m thinking about getting the Kia sportage and then all hell brakes loose. You’d think I’d just proclaim that I like killing babies in my spare time for the reaction I received!
So what’s the skinny? Do Kia cars suck? How’s the sportage in safety? Any other good compact SUV recommendations? (I like the RAV but I don’t like the rear gate opening to the side. I need it to open UP).
Your co-workers are full of shit. I drive a Kia Rio, which is the smallest of the Kias. You’d never know it from the roominess of it and it drives great.
I was at the nail salon recently and I was talking to another customer about cars and she’s got the larger Kia SUV and she loves it. We both sat there raving about our Kias. I’ve had this one for 3 years, it has 48K miles and I’ve never had anything done other than new tires, oil changes. They brakes are still the original ones, too.
I’ve already decided that my next car is the Sportage. The MPG and the price, plus my positive experience with the Rio sealed the deal for me.
I don’t have any experience with Kias (my dad’s a Ford retiree) but I have a cousin who’s been a mechanic for 10 years now, and he did a stint at a Kia dealership.
He says they’re perfectly good cars and would recommend them to anyone looking to go with that price range. Can’t say anything for safety, but I would assume he’s cool with the quality.
Kia is a subsidiary of Hyundai and my understanding is that a lot of the models of both companies are now the same. I drive a 2006 Elantra and have absolutely no problems with them, personally. It’s a great car and has plenty of room and power even though it’s a compact.
I have a Kia Sportage, vintage 2001. I love it. It has the shortest turning radius of any car I’ve ever owned. It’s very easy to handle. The only downside is that when there are drinks in the drink holder you can’t see the clock, or the controls to the air conditioning/heater. It’s quite possible they’ve solved that problem since 2001.
I am really not an SUV person at all and was opposed to getting it, but now I figure, if you have to drive an SUV, might as well drive one that handles well, can park anywhere a sedan could park, and still has 4WD when you need it. (Which, being in Denver, I need it right now!)
ETA: Mine has the spare on the back gate, which is kind of a pain. I think they’ve changed that, too–although originally, that was one of the things I loved. I always wanted a tire on the back of my car. I’m over that, now. (I always wanted it to snow, too, when I was a kid…in southern California. I think I’m over that, too.)
Complaints/common stereotypes about Kia and other Korean brands has nothing to do with safety or features, but with reliability. They had serious problems soon after purchase, and that has created a lot of negative stigma. Nowadays, they are supposedly better made, and Consumer Reports generally rates them highly, although SUVs usually have lower reviews from them. Do your research, but you coworkers might be operating under false assumptions.
That was my understanding of Kia as well. They usedta suck - not so much anymore. But, if you put out a bad product, even if you fix the problems, it takes a long time to get your reputation out of the gutter.
Lately, I’ve heard nothing but good things from Kia owners. But, they still do carry that stigma.
A funny side note along the same lines. There’s a local Milwaukee brewed beer called Schlitz. I grew up ‘knowing’ that Schlitz was crappy beer. Everyone I talked to said that Schlitz was crappy beer. I finally tried one and found that it was pretty alright. Not great beer, but not horrible. It was certainly not the crap that I was told it was.
Then I learned the real story. Somthing happened to several batches of Schlitz beer that caused sediment to settle out of the beer after it had been canned and shipped to the stores. It didn’t hurt the beer at all, but It caused a ‘sludge’ to accumulate at the bottom of the beer can. The beer has been labeled crap ever since - despite the problem being solved more than 20 years ago. You can make a good product all your life, but ya screw one goat…
I have a 2000 Kia Sephia, which I bought 3 days before Christmas last year. So far I’ve replaced the battery and the muffler. The latter was twice as expensive as my last car (do other people who live in snowy areas find themselves replacing their mufflers every other year? I have on all three cars I’ve owned. I blame road salt) but that was the only major expense for a seven-year-old car, so I think it’s holding up well so far.
As for driving, well, it’s a car. It handles fine. I can’t be more enthusastic than that because I don’t enjoy driving in general, but it isn’t any worse to drive than anything else I’ve owned.
I don’t like that the back seat doesn’t fold down, but I guess you wouldn’t have that problem in an SUV.
I bought a Kia Rondo in October. I love it (so far.) It’s an odd looking vehicle, kind of a small minivan with regular-opening doors. It’s incredibly roomy inside and you get a LOT more standard features with Kias than other comparable vehicles. They are trying hard to build market share so the consumer gets the benefits. Not to mention a great warranty.
Now, Hyundai is under-rated. It has an excellent warrenty, JD Powers ranks it in the middle and CR gives it varied rankings, from average to their very highest. The Tuscon is very very similar to the Sportage, except far more reliable.
I think about any car you buy these days is good. Of course there are lemons, but that can be any type of car. I wouldn’t expect a Kia to go 200,000 trouble-free miles, but I think you’d get 5 or 6 good years out of it at least.
I got a KIA minivan as an out-of-town rental once. It had a nice interior and had lots of room. If I were in the market to replace my own Dodge Caravan with another minivan, I would consider the KIA as much as any other vehicle.
I bought a 2005 Kia Sorento this last summer and I love it. The Kia’s have the same 100,000 mile waranty as the Hyundai. My Sister and Bro-in-law have had a Sante Fe for about 6 years and they love theirs. I first started looking at Sportages and am happy about my selection of the Sorento, it is a little bigger and the back seat leg room is unmatched in my opion of Suv’s of similar size.
My Dad has a Jeep Grand Cherokee and has put more into it than My Sister has put in to her Hyundai, My Sorento shares the same engine that the new Sante Fe’s have in them as well.
Kia’s have not been out as their own brand in the us market for very long but their cars have been on the road in the us for a lot longer as rebadge inports for Ford, and for a time Ford had an intrest in the Company.
I have cow-orker that has a sportage and one that has a I think a Rio just for a commuter car and both have not had much in the way of problems.
I bought a 2005 Kia Sportage brand new and I LOVE it. It’s very roomy, it handles great and drives like a dream. I did have some minor problem with it when I first got it and it took a few times to fix (no charge), but that was more of a problem with the idiots at the particular dealership I was dealing with. I personally find mine to be a good value, a good looking SUV and very reliable. What more can you ask?
Ugg say “Kia OK”. But for that much money, shouldn’t you be getting more than just ‘OK’? Especially for those potholes along Rt 440, Kennedy Blvd, and Montgomery Street. They only pave those roads before election years you know.
Oh, I know its easy to be swayed by the intellectual arguments posed by the ‘DUH!’ TV commercial, but try harder. No, really.
