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


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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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
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Very frequently, it happens that tire makers want to phase out some of their most outdated models, but the OEMs want them to keep making them because they froze the spec.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.
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.
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.
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.