Faults:

Rattle in rear.

Radio in op.

General Comments:

As for the radio, it was dealt with under warranty, no problem.

As for the rattle in the back, the dealer could not find the problem. My room mate found that the right rear shock dust cover had broken loose where it was attached at the piston rod. Well, I had my father order 2 rear shocks and when he went to change them, found that the right rear shock upper mounting had one of the bolts threaded insrt in the body broken out. I'm taking it to the dealer next week to see if they honor this under warranty. I'll comment to let you know.

Faults:

I bought this car new and have had to replace the tires 3 times in 80,000 miles.

The bearings went out.

Then, at 80,000 miles, the timing belt went out and destroyed the engine.

KIA would not honor their 10yr/100K warranty because they said that I did not replace the timing belt at 60,000 miles. There are no other cars that I know of that say you must do so at anything under 100,000 miles. The car is a total piece of junk.

It has stalled on me in the middle of a wet area of the road several times and KIA could find nothing wrong with it.

When the engine burst at a mere 80,000 miles, KIA wanted 3,000 dollars to replace it. I will never ever touch a car made by anyone, but Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Mercedes again.

General Comments:

This car is a total rip off and is very unsafe to drive. When the timing belt went out at 80,000 miles (most cars--you don't even need to think about getting a timing belt replaced until 100,000-150,000 miles) I was almost killed by an 18 wheeler.

Faults:

A couple minor recalls- dealer easily fixed.

General Comments:

I have heard a lot of bad things about Kias, especially the Rio. But our car was 100% reliable and never let us down.

We drove this car everywhere and it performed admirably. The a/c was great, the stereo was even pretty good. The wagon even had a pretty good amount of storage space and we were able to haul everything we needed to.

The car didn't really have a lot of power, but that's to be expected. Still, it would do 115 if you gave it time to get there.

Also, the little touches were nice, like the rear wiper AND rear defroster, the driver's armrest, cupholders and the cargo net.

The only reason we don't have it any more is because it was totaled by hail damage. We had damage on every body panel and that was enough to cause it to be totalled. Obviously, resale value on these cars is pretty poor, but don't let that stop you from enjoying an inexpensive and fun car.

Faults:

No guts to this car at all. It shakes in the wind and seats are like rocks.

General Comments:

This car may be OK if you plan to travel no faster than 40 kilometres an hour. After that you put your safety at risk. On the highway there is no acceleration power at all. When pulling out onto the highway from a coffee stop make sure there are NO cars visibly coming. If there are you will never get enough speed to stay ahead. More than an hour in this car and your legs start to go numb and there is no comfortable position to keep driving. And wind? Watch out, transports will suck you in and high winds make the car shake.