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Road Trip Composure, or Lack Thereof - 2015 Kia K900 Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.comEdmunds.com Member, Administrator, Moderator Posts: 10,315
edited March 2015 in Kia
imageRoad Trip Composure, or Lack Thereof - 2015 Kia K900 Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.com conducts a long-term test of the 2015 Kia K900 and comments on its behavior on a road trip from Los Angeles to Phoenix

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Comments

  • subytrojansubytrojan Member Posts: 120
    Great analysis of the ride, suspension and steering, Jay!
  • kirkhilles1kirkhilles1 Member Posts: 863
    Agreed, thanks. These comments are very valuable to potential buyers. Its a lot more useful than the endless posts about the stupid seat, steering wheel or glove compartment heaters. I mean, spend 5 minutes in the car and you can figure out if the heaters are good or not. Suspension and ride quality is more difficult to tell from a quick test drive.
  • fordson1fordson1 Unconfirmed Posts: 1,512
    I don't think there is one Hyundai or Kia vehicle in the Edmunds LT fleet that has not had this exact criticism. That's something of a record, and not a good one.

    Yes, they offer a lot of features for the buck, and seem fairly reliable...but the number one priority of a modern private passenger vehicle is to drive and ride in a pleasant, competent fashion appropriate to its mission in life, whether an economy hatchback, a luxury sedan, a performance car or CUV...and these cars don't do that.

    Kia hired Peter Schreyer from VW/Audi Group to design and style its cars, and now he is head of Kia and Hyundai both. My advice for Hyundai/Kia...go BACK to VW/Audi and hire away a couple of their suspension and ride/drive engineers.
  • misterfusionmisterfusion Member Posts: 471
    Hyundai/Kia are nothing if not consistent in their bad suspensions. But this leaves me wondering about the new Sonata: It seems to be universally liked by the staff, but would a trip like this reveal the usual shortcomings?
  • s197gts197gt Member Posts: 486
    edited March 2015
    i wonder if this is something that could be fixed in the aftermarket; say, Bilstein or Koni dampers? Say you get one of these for a song in the used market... would a set of Bilstein HD shocks cure what ails it?

    (the answer is no. just checked and neither have products for the k900.)
  • ebeaudoinebeaudoin Member Posts: 509
    Makes me wonder why someone would purchase this vehicle instead of a low-mileage late-model Benz/BMW/Audi. For example- a 2015 K900 wLuxury with the VIP Package can be had for $57,535 according to TrueCar ($9,266 off MSRP). For that money, I could have a Certified 2013 MB S550 4Matic with 23,000 miles.

    Which would you buy?
  • barich1barich1 Member Posts: 143
    This has a longer warranty and is likely to be more reliable with lower maintenance and repair costs.

    I wouldn't buy it, but neither would I consider buying a used German car, certified or no.
  • vvkvvk Member Posts: 196
    Of course Kia is not ready to compete at this level. Just because they hired an Audi guy to put a pretty face on a pig (and made it super popular among a certain demographic) does not mean that the pig has turned into a thoroughbred.
  • mercedesfanmercedesfan Member Posts: 365
    @ebeaudoin,

    Exactly. That has always been my issue with the Equus/K900. Why settle for a value proposition when you can get a lightly used version of the real thing? Now, obviously maintenance costs of the Germans are going to be much higher, but I doubt there will be much reliability difference. I drove an early-model S550 to 130,000 miles without a single major repair. More importantly, that isn't rare. The W221's have very strong reliability reputations. In that light you would have to be crazy to buy a K900.
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