Ride Quality - 2015 Kia Sedona SX-L Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.comEdmunds.com Member, Administrator, Moderator Posts: 10,316
edited February 2016 in Kia
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Ride Quality - 2015 Kia Sedona SX-L Long-Term Road Test

Would our 2015 Kia Sedona ride better with a more accommodating set of tires? Maybe, but the original equipment rubber rides just fine in most situations.

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  • kirkhilles1kirkhilles1 Member Posts: 863
    My guess is that the tires chosen by the factory aren't really designed for your best interests, but instead designed to sell the vehicles. If they can get just 1 MPG higher, then that's a HUGE financial benefit for them. They certainly could care less about how long they last and as such offer no tire warranties from the factory.
  • daryleasondaryleason Member Posts: 501
    I'll admit, I've very rarely noticed a difference in tire quality among the brands, except for road noise, tire durability, and how long the tread lasts over a certain number of miles. But as far as going down the road and saying "Wow, these tires ride smooth?", nope, never happens. Anyone else like me?
  • nate001nate001 Member Posts: 102
    How does it ride with passengers and luggage, does it have the same issue with it hitting the bump stops like the Hyundai Santa Fe that you tested a few years ago, also how is the Optima in this respect.
    It seems like suspension tuning has been an ongoing issue with Hyundai/Kia for a few years.

    http://www.edmunds.com/hyundai/santa-fe/2013/long-term-road-test/2013-hyundai-santa-fe-uncomfortable-ride-with-passengers.html
  • longtimelurkerlongtimelurker Member Posts: 455
    If you actually go and look at tire ratings, you will soon see that except for the ones on high-performance vehicles, OEM tires are usually lousy tires.

    They got a really good price on them, but they have to buy them in large quantities to get that great price, so they have to work on a wide variety of models, which means they don't work great on any particular model, and they usually were spec-ed in a long, long time ago and better tires have come along in the meantime.

    Very frequently, it happens that tire makers want to phase out some of their most outdated models, but the OEMs want them to keep making them because they froze the spec. That's not a great testimonial.
  • misterfusionmisterfusion Member Posts: 471
    What @nate001 said! Every Hyundai/Kia product should be tested specifically for suspension performance -- I am really curious to see if they have made any improvement at all.
  • s197gts197gt Member Posts: 486
    i feel the hate expressed on sites like tirerack.com for OE tires needs some perspective.

    people are not sliding off roads and their cars exploding because of OEM's tire choices. for example, the goodyear sr-a is a common OE tire and largely panned on tirerack.com. in fact i believe it was the tire on edmund's dearly departed ram that they put 50k miles on. i don't recall one complaint about the tires on the blog.

    yet if you read one of the most recent (and typical) reviews on tirerack:

    "These came on my new Ram from the factory and are easily the worst tires I've ever experienced. Generally to me, a tire is a tire, but these are just garbage. Awful traction in the snow and they wore bald 12,000 miles before the warranty was up, and I drive like a grandma."

    again, edmunds put 50k miles on their tires and i don't recall them replacing them before selling it to carmax.

    people are always going to prefer the choice that they made vs the choice that was made for them.
  • gslippygslippy Member Posts: 514
    "they also need to last a long time,...,work well in all kinds of weather"

    Not true. They are there to help sell the car - that's it. My experience with OEM tires is they don't last, and they can be awful for winter.

    OEM tires serve the interests of the manufacturer, not the consumer. They might get OK mpg for the EPA, and they might ride quietly for the consumer, but long-term performance is not the mfr's problem.
  • easleseasles Member Posts: 13
    This is the owner mentioned in the original post. We have the 2016 SX version with the Technology Package, not the SX-L which has similar levels of luxury but different priorities (seats that fold, no sunroofs which saves weight and about 2 inches of headroom) not to mention better fuel economy. Anyway, I do notice a very clompy impact harshness in the back of the car over concrete edges and the like on Seattle's terrible surface streets.

    Our tires are Hankook Dynapro HP2 vs. the Kumho Crugen tires that evidently come on the SX-L (above pictorial evidence bears this out).

    Otherwise, the ride is well damped and body motions are very refined. The impact harshness gets to me though...can't have it all I guess.
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