Edmunds dealer partner, Bayway Leasing, is now offering transparent lease deals via these forums. Click here to see May lease deals!
Options
Popular New Cars
Popular Used Sedans
Popular Used SUVs
Popular Used Pickup Trucks
Popular Used Hatchbacks
Popular Used Minivans
Popular Used Coupes
Popular Used Wagons
Comments
At least one thing I am glad about. She bought the Rio at a dealer other than the one that plasters there name over half the trunk lid. Personally, I never did like dealer badging.
If anything goes wrong, she is prepared if anything needs to be done to get it back to the dealer for warranty work. Her husband is employed as a mechanic at a car dealership.
After the 1,000 mile break in period is over, I am going to see if I can take the car for a test drive.
The Nubria could be the next Nova (except in Spanish-speaking countries?), and the Leganza could be the reincarnation of the Cadillac Cimarron--i.e., an economy car being passed off as a luxury car.
Also look at the source of the "report"--a law firm that specializes in class-action suits against automakers.
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
I will report what my roommate's sister thinks about her Rio.
In terms of customer service, things are not starting off on the right foot. The sister got a ride to work because the car dealership was going to bring the car to her. They did not do that.
Since they did not do what they promised and since she could not get there before the dealership closed, they wanted to leave the car on the lot with the keys in it and the doors unlocked.
My roommate and I ended up going to pick her up from work.
As far as you trading your car in, it is a good thing you want another Kia. You will probably get more out of it that way.
Want to do us a favor? Post a message over in Smart Shopper under the real world trade in values thread and ask the dealers in there what the trade in value of your Sephia is. Be sure to tell them the color, mileage, and where you live in addition to model year and condition. Thanks.
Regarding warranties. If you have a warranty, I think you should be able to use it without hassle. But, I am also money oriented and value my time. I do not like having to take off (even if I still get paid) to get things done on a car. I would rather have a car with a short warranty that I am likely not to make much use of the warranty than a car with a longer warranty that I am going to use more.
She had not checked with Hyundai yet which leads me to reason number two. The Kia dealership she went with put out an ad that she noticed.
She put down $500 and the car came with a $950 cash rebate which she also applied to the price of the car.
Does anyone know how to take off dealer badging? The dealership puts on a sticker that is actually larger than the area covered by the Rio name.
I never liked dealer badging, but that is overkill to the extreme.
Re how to remove them, it depends on how they are applied. If they are self-stick appliques or other glue-on badges, one method is to take a hair dryer on low and soften the adhesive until you can carefully peel the badge off. The sooner you do this, the better. I've been able to pull off plastic badges from a newly-delivered car even without the hair dryer.
As much as I dislike badging, I left the badging of my dealer on. It was unobtrusive.
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
The next generation Tiburon is not a 2002 model. The 2002 model still looks like the 2001 model. The 2003 model is the one that looks like a Supra or Celica of the past.
There is a guy named Brannon over on AOL. You two should meet. He might be an even bigger Kia and Hyundai booster than you are. He also shares another trait with you. You both seem to be critical of other car companies doing something, but if Kia and Hyundai do the same thing (or something similar), it becomes all right. And you gloss over the fact that you objected or accused the other car company of doing what you are now saying is all right for Hyundai and Kia to do.
But that is all right, I expect no less from you two.
In closing, I will have to say one thing about you as opposed to Brannon. At least you own the car you are touting. Brannon does not.
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
How can you possibly calculate how much time an average Kia owner will spend in the shop over 8 years vs. an average Toyota owner? The J.D. Power's index is of no help here, because it does not extend out 8 years. Consumer Reports' surveys might be of help here, but they don't cover Kias--not a big enough sample size. Also not every problem is equal in terms of shop time, so even counting up the number of problems per vehicle doesn't provide the answer. And I don't think you'll find any corrolation between owner's ages and shop time.
If Chevrolet can foist the embarrasingly awful Cavalier on the American public for so long, there's no reason to believe that Hyundai can't continue to sell the capable but under-appreciated Elantra.
An interesting thing happened to me a few days ago. I put a small US flag in the rear window of my Hyundai and someone made a comment about the impropriety of placing an American flag on a foreign car. I informed the gentleman that the DRIVER was indeed an American and the fact that I was free to drive whatever I chose is what helps make this country great.
I would love to conduct a study, but it would take a lot of research... I am willing to bet that American manufacturers have built more vehicles outside of American soil than the foreign manufacturers have built on their own soil!
People like that, especially in light of the recent events, just tick me off! I am still waiting for someone to make a comment about the American Flag on my Protege. They'll be sorry they even got out of bed that morning!!!!
I saw two valid complaints. I say valid because these two posters seem to be staying with the board. The rest seemed like fly by night posters. Post once and never be heard from again.
There was another poster who started posting during those last two hundred posts I read and seemed to stick with it for a while, but I don't think he had a legitimate complaint against Lexus. He did not follow their recommendations and changed his oil based on the recommendations of the maker of the oil and filter. He changed the oil once every 25k miles and the filter at 12k intervals. And I believe he had it done somewhere other than the Lexus dealership.
That sure voided his warranty and even if the problem is a Lexus one, he has no reasonable legal recourse against Lexus.
Again, how many of those complaints did you think were valid?
What bothers me is laying ten miles from my house: the smoking pile of rubble that used to be my office building.
Anyway, the flag is staying put. Our individual cars may help define our image but they don't define what we stand for, right?
I may not agree with you, but I am very glad that we did not lose you in the attack.
Two weeks tomorrow and the wound is still there. : (
Although his posts make him seem quite a bit younger sometimes.
Thanks.
Pat
Host
Sedans Message Board
I am glad for things like Town Hall, baseball and the NFL for helping to occupy my mind during the last two weeks. It's been very rough here in the tri-state area.
Well, back to cars...I just saw a picture of the 2002 Kia Spectra sedan in Auto World Magazine (formerly Auto World Weekly). It looks more mature than the current Sephia. I like it. Reminds me of the Mitsubishi Lancer.
But back to cars. What's so bad about Kia's ads? I always thought the Optima ads (some at least) are pretty clever, and the Sportage ads in the parking lot are kind of cute (although they glorify anti-social parking lot driving behavior). The Sephia ads tout the long-term reliability of the car--certainly something they need to stress given the reputation of Korean cars. If Toyota's Camry ads seem more mature than Kia's, it may be because Toyota is going after an older market with the Camry than is Kia with most of its vehicles. Since Kia's sales are way up this year, maybe the ads are having their intended effect.
Re the 2002 Spectra sedan, all I can say is the car looks even better up close than in the photos. The rear end is particularly classy, part Jag, part Taurus, and the front has a sharp, modern appearance. More interesting styling, more curves, than the Lancer IMO. Haven't seen the interior yet--no units yet at my local dealer. Now if the car drives anywhere near as well as it looks and the price stays down, Kia could have a real winner there.
They chose twenty-nine finalists. There were ten categories with most categories being defined by price.
The categories were Under $18,000; $18,000 - $25,000; and so on. There were also categories for station wagons and minivans. The SUV categories were broken down by price and they had one final category for Sporty Cars under $35,000. Most categories had three finalists, but some had two finalists while a few had four finalists.
Value was made up of two parts. Quality as measured by the Total Quality Index. This is something Strategic Vision came up with. The other half of value was cost over five years and they used the services of IntelliChoice for that.
The twenty-nine finalists were selected on the best combination of these two factors.
To get to the winners, they dug deeper.
Number one in the under $18,000 category was a Honda Civic LX which they said would cost $15,450. The thing that kept the other car in this category, that would fit our definition of low end cars, out of first was the lack of options compared to the Honda Civic.
This car cost $10,980 and no it was not the Kia Rio, no it was not the Hyundai Accent, and no it was not the Kia Sephia.
The car meeting our definition of low end car and determined to be a good deal was the Toyota Echo.
The Echo, on the other hand, is a bona-fide entry level car. I'm not surprised it would rank high in a study like Smart Money's, in which the cars were ranked by the "Total Quality Index" and cost over 5 years. When you start out at one of the lowest prices of any of the cars tested, e.g. some $2000 below the Elantra GLS, and have the resale value of a Toyota you should come out well. And if you like driving a bare-bones car like the base model Echo, then you can't do better.
Realize that the Total Quality Index actually says more about how well a car meets the owner's expectations than quality or performance on an absolute scale. And of course that is important, because if you meet or exceed a customer's expectations you will have a happy customer. But it also means that if a car owner has modest expectations, and the car meets those expectations, the car can have a high TQI. That would explain why a car like the Echo, listing under $11k, could have the third-best TQI after the more expensive Golf and Prius, and why cars that are as wretched to drive as the Sunbird and Saturn SL have high scores. I have to question any "quality index" that ranks the Hyundai XG300 far ahead of the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry (with the Camry not even scoring above average), does not even consider the Mazda Protege in its rankings of small cars (it should be near the top), and ranks twins like the Dodge/Chrysler Neon far apart.
However, while the Honda and the Toyota are listed in the body of the article, the VW which is shown in the box as a finalist is not mentioned. This makes me think that the Echo did come in second.
Does anyone have a link showing the TQI survey results? I used to have it, I thought, but I cannot find it anymore.
Someone posted a message to Backy just under it and made the title, "Backy." Somehow my brain transferred that to Backy being the writer of your posts.
It has been some time since I read the Kia Sephia brake posts so I don't remember if they fell into this category of posts too.
http://www.vision-inc.com/tqa.html
All right, now, I've heard of cases where a company took offense about someone complaining about their products, but THIS is a little ridiculous! 8)
I have a question for Echo owners. How do the interior plastics hold up to scratches and scuffs? When I tested the car I thought some of the plastic bits seemed lower-grade (not unexpected at that price) and I was wondering what they might look like after a year's use.
Also, if any Echo owners have the plastic body and fender cladding, let me know how that's doing, too. Lately I seem to see fewer Echoes with this option.
Happy Motoring!
I have only had my car for nine months. It will be nine months to the day on Saturday, actually.
Anyway, my interior plastic and the body moulding are holding up really, really well. Still very, very close to what they looked like the day I bought the car.
I have done nothing special to the body moulding, but I make sure that I do not get wax on it. I have seen some cars with a milky build up. I understand it to be from when wax gets on the moulding. There is a product to use when this happens, but the name escapes me. It has been posted about a couple of times on the Echo board.
As far as the interior plastics go, I take Armor All Cleaning wipes and wipe down the interior. I let it dry and then I take Armor All Protectant. Wipes (the ones that give a gloss) and rub the plastic again. I do this when the temperature is cool and the car is in the shade.
I must admit that the wipes leave some lint so when it is dry after the protectant. treatment, I take a clean cloth and rub the lint off.
CJ--You sent shivers down my spine with your WTC story. Glad you made the switch....condolences on the losses.
Glad to hear your GT is running fine. I keep my eyes open for you when I'm on the NJ Turnpike and the GSP, but no sightings so far. I still haven't seen another GT yet. BTW, how did you fix your fuel gauge?