Faults:

So far, nothing has gone wrong with it. It starts to shake slightly around 70 mph, but it gets up to 80 and 85 mph without shaking even more. It's 98 horsepower, so that's understandable.

General Comments:

Basically, the Kia dealer didn't know much about the car. The salesman claimed it was under original factory warranty, but the lady who explained the contract said it wasn't. She didn't explain the contract very well. Also, the salesman lied to us saying he reduced the price of the car, but all he did was take off some "life insurance" that was thrown in the price of the car. If/when this car breaks down and there's no warranty as promised, there's going to be heck to pay. It has nice headroom, and is a nice little family car for my wife, but overall, the service of the dealership was unacceptable.

Faults:

The only Problem that I have had with this automobile is a rock hit the window and chipped it. Other than that it is a very reliable and cheap automobile. Two Thumbs up to those people at KIA!

General Comments:

This car is a little sluggish, but it will keep up with all of the automobiles in it's class.

Faults:

Transmission replaced

Clutch replaced

Timing belt replaced

CV joint replaced

Motor mounts replaced

Rubber gutter on roof replaced 3 times

Rides extremely shakey and Kia doesn't know why.

General Comments:

Whatever you do, don't buy a KIA Rio.

My check engine light came on a month after I bought it. They said it was because of something with my gas cap.

Then a couple months later, my car started shifting bad, and I'd heard a grinding sound. The transmission and clutch had to be replaced.

A while later, my engine started sounding like a fan was loose or something. It wound up being the timing belt, and I was hearing a popping, so they also had to replace a CV joint.

Recently I just had to get all three of my motor mounts changed. The car still shakes though. It shakes pretty bad from 55-65 mph, and they say there's nothing wrong.

My brakes suck too. They always did feel soft, and now are really shaky too.

I'm trying to get KIA to buy back the car, but New Mexico's lemon law is not tough enough.

Can anyone help me? I think it's time for a class action suit against Kia for making garbage.

Faults:

Cd player sometimes cuts out for a few seconds.

Gets stuck in second gear.

Fuel tank spits at you when it is full.

General Comments:

I purchased my Rio in May 2002, It has been a good little car and it was purchased due to the cheap price and features, the car has been good though if you leave the car on ACC then start it it will become stuck in second gear and I needed to pull over, tough once the engine is turned off and put back on it is fine, another problem I had was once I filled up the tank it would spit out petrol, I'm not sure whether this is all of the Rio's. I wrote to Kia expressing my concern about the car getting stuck in gear and spitting out petrol, they were great about it and told me to bring it in. Overall this car is very good, the engine isn't very big, but it gives a good roar!