Kia Quality

[steppinthrax]

I'm just curious any of you guys experience with Kias. I see they are very cheap. But how is the quality. Is it compariable to ford....

 

[mwmorph]

http://www.jdpower.com/corpora...elease.aspx?ID=2006133

Ford isn't that bad. Kia is much below average(Only less reliable are Land Rover[shudder], Saab and Suzuki), Modern ford is very close to average.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Kia is owned by Hyundai and many (most? all?) Kia vehicles sold in the US share a platform and/or engine with the same class of Hyundai. Reliability should be similar to Hyundai.

ZV

 

[wyvrn]

I have a Kia Spectra, and after 2 years it is still in great condition. The fit and finish has held up, and I have had no problems other than a bad tire. I highly recommend them. Normally I buy Honda and Toyota, so I have high expectations on cars.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: wyvrn
I have a Kia Spectra, and after 2 years it is still in great condition. The fit and finish has held up, and I have had no problems other than a bad tire. I highly recommend them. Normally I buy Honda and Toyota, so I have high expectations on cars.</end quote></div>

any car 'fit and finish' should be able to last 2 years...

just one observation of a hyundai i've seen is a 2003 hyundai sonata with the silver/chrome door handles. the paint peeled a little on 3 of the 4 door handles and created a very sharp point from the paint. sharp and hard enough to cut skin. unsuspecting riders in your hyundai can get permanent and deep scars from opening the door without looking at the door ahndles

 

[Blain]

Owners that I've talked to about their Kia's really like them.

 

[Jahee]

Originally posted by: mwmorph
http://www.jdpower.com/corpora...elease.aspx?ID=2006133

Ford isn't that bad. Kia is much below average(Only less reliable are Land Rover[shudder], Saab and Suzuki), Modern ford is very close to average.

Where did you get that information from? Kias over here are very reliable, so much so that Kia are confident enough to offer a 7 year / 100,000 mile warranty on all their new cars.

Edit: Even from your link.. I quote

Kia has improved twice as much as any other brand in the past three years, improving 87 PP100 (22 percent) from 2005.

 

[steppinthrax]

Originally posted by: Jahee
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote> Originally posted by: mwmorph
http://www.jdpower.com/corpora...elease.aspx?ID=2006133

Ford isn't that bad. Kia is much below average(Only less reliable are Land Rover[shudder], Saab and Suzuki), Modern ford is very close to average. </end quote></div>

Where did you get that information from? Kias over here are very reliable, so much so that Kia are confident enough to offer a 7 year / 100,000 mile warranty on all their new cars.

Edit: Even from your link.. I quote
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote> Kia has improved twice as much as any other brand in the past three years, improving 87 PP100 (22 percent) from 2005. </end quote></div>

Almost any car you can put 100K on it. It's just that American Cars turn immediately to shit once you do this. Japanese cars on the other hand go at least 100K more if well maintained.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: steppinthrax
Almost any car you can put 100K on it. It's just that American Cars turn immediately to shit once you do this. Japanese cars on the other hand go at least 100K more if well maintained.

Can we have at least one thread where you don't start with this crap again?

ZV

 

[RiverDog]

Originally posted by: steppinthrax
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: Jahee
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote> Originally posted by: mwmorph
http://www.jdpower.com/corpora...elease.aspx?ID=2006133

Ford isn't that bad. Kia is much below average(Only less reliable are Land Rover[shudder], Saab and Suzuki), Modern ford is very close to average. </end quote></div>

Where did you get that information from? Kias over here are very reliable, so much so that Kia are confident enough to offer a 7 year / 100,000 mile warranty on all their new cars.

Edit: Even from your link.. I quote
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote> Kia has improved twice as much as any other brand in the past three years, improving 87 PP100 (22 percent) from 2005. </end quote></div></end quote></div>

Almost any car you can put 100K on it. It's just that American Cars turn immediately to shit once you do this. Japanese cars on the other hand go at least 100K more if well maintained.

Where do you get this from???

 

[LOUISSSSS]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: steppinthrax
Almost any car you can put 100K on it. It's just that American Cars turn immediately to shit once you do this. Japanese cars on the other hand go at least 100K more if well maintained.</end quote></div>

Can we have at least one thread where you don't start with this crap again?

ZV

its true tho... how often do u see a 150k old ford taurus on the road? ok mb a few here and there. i see 150k (pre 1988) honda accords, and civics all the time

 

[foghorn67]

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: steppinthrax
Almost any car you can put 100K on it. It's just that American Cars turn immediately to shit once you do this. Japanese cars on the other hand go at least 100K more if well maintained.</end quote></div>

Can we have at least one thread where you don't start with this crap again?

ZV</end quote></div>

its true tho... how often do u see a 150k old ford taurus on the road? ok mb a few here and there. i see 150k (pre 1988) honda accords, and civics all the time

Domestic cars are driven into the ground regardless of mileage at the end. It's the silly high resale of the Honda's that make them worth selling.
My parents Sable is going strong at 140k miles, yet the resale is poo. They decided to drive it some more.

 

[SVT Cobra]

I recently owned a Kia before it got totaled. never had a problem in the year and a half I owned it brand new. Still said hyundai on the engine lol.

 

[illusion88]

There is one thing you have to know about KIA

KIA = Killed In Accident

 

[SVT Cobra]

Originally posted by: illusion88
There is one thing you have to know about KIA

KIA = Killed In Accident

BS, I got hit from the back right side by a guy flying through a parking lot, while I was stopped at a red light. He was going about 60 and I spun around a few times but walked out fine because of the side airbags. I never even realized they deployed until I realized my head must have hit something and it did not hurt. I go and look and sure enough there they are.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

Domestic cars are driven into the ground regardless of mileage at the end. It's the silly high resale of the Honda's that make them worth selling.
My parents Sable is going strong at 140k miles, yet the resale is poo. They decided to drive it some more.

yea, like i said, its not THAT rare to see an american car @ 150k, but like you said, the resale value is probably $75. thats probably because nobody wants it and knows it wont last them very long.

honda resale value is way high because @ 150k its still very drivable.

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: Jahee
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote> Originally posted by: mwmorph
http://www.jdpower.com/corpora...elease.aspx?ID=2006133

Ford isn't that bad. Kia is much below average(Only less reliable are Land Rover[shudder], Saab and Suzuki), Modern ford is very close to average. </end quote></div>

Where did you get that information from? Kias over here are very reliable, so much so that Kia are confident enough to offer a 7 year / 100,000 mile warranty on all their new cars.

Edit: Even from your link.. I quote
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote> Kia has improved twice as much as any other brand in the past three years, improving 87 PP100 (22 percent) from 2005.

I'm not sure if you did look at the link at all.

If anyone takes the time to look at the graph that JD-Power provided... Ford is exactly above average at 224problems per 100 vehicels while Kia is #4 from the bottom at 310 problems per 100 vehicles...

It's not hard to improve when you have a poor quality product. 5% improvement of 500 problems will always seem like a bigger step than a 5% improvement on 200 problems even though the 5% on 200 problems is probably harder to achieve.

Oh and warranty has nothing to do with anything. Suizuki(#2 from the bottom) has a 7year/100K mile powertrain warranty also. It's the brands with quality problems that are always advertising their warranties because of a perception of low quality standards and consumers realizing that they will probably need them.

 

[steppinthrax]

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Domestic cars are driven into the ground regardless of mileage at the end. It's the silly high resale of the Honda's that make them worth selling.
My parents Sable is going strong at 140k miles, yet the resale is poo. They decided to drive it some more.</end quote></div>

yea, like i said, its not THAT rare to see an american car @ 150k, but like you said, the resale value is probably $75. thats probably because nobody wants it and knows it wont last them very long.

honda resale value is way high because @ 150k its still very drivable.

The Re-sale value is highly reflected in this. However inflated it may seem people are willing to spend more money on a japanese car just because they know it will last longer.

 

[sindows]

It depends on what you mean by quality. I feel that the quality of the materials are top notch, matching the Japanese brands and definitely above American brands. However in terms of mechanical quality, I cannot say as I've never owned a Korean car before but it shouldn't be too bad. I mean look at Samsung, they make great TVs, lcds, phones, etc and they're Korean...

The reason you don't see too many american cars with high mileage is because of the resale value. Say you have an American car with 100000 miles and its worth maybe $2k. The a/c breaks and it'll cost $500 to fix it, why not just get rid of the car? If the same car was Japanese, it would be worth $4K so spending $500 to fix the a/c won't seem as bad of an investment.

If you're just going by engineering and how a car feels, I would say that Kia has done a greater job of engineering their cars than Ford. They ride and drive much better than their american counterparts.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: steppinthrax
However inflated it may seem people are willing to spend more money on a japanese car just because they know it will last longer.

No, they THINK it will last longer. Price represents perception, not actuality. Additionally, since the high-volume domestics are sold to fleet purchasers, there are many more late-model domestics on the market due to corporate fleets and rental car companies turning over their stock every few years. This also drives the prices down for domestics.

Japanese cars are living off the reputation they built in the 1980's and early 1990's. The current crop of Japanese cars have cheap, low-grade interiors and fact that they've long since begun cutting corners is obvious. The '88 Accord I used to have was vastly higher quality than any of the modern Japanese vehicles that I've driven. They just aren't that great anymore. They're not bad by any stretch, but they aren't the paragons of reliability that they were in the late 1980's and early 1990's.

ZV

 

[Riverhound777]

I had a Kia Spectra once for a rental car. It wasnt bad. Much better than the Pontiac sunfire I had the next time I rented.

 

[steppinthrax]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: steppinthrax
However inflated it may seem people are willing to spend more money on a japanese car just because they know it will last longer.</end quote></div>

No, they THINK it will last longer. Price represents perception, not actuality. Additionally, since the high-volume domestics are sold to fleet purchasers, there are many more late-model domestics on the market due to corporate fleets and rental car companies turning over their stock every few years. This also drives the prices down for domestics.

Japanese cars are living off the reputation they built in the 1980's and early 1990's. The current crop of Japanese cars have cheap, low-grade interiors and fact that they've long since begun cutting corners is obvious. The '88 Accord I used to have was vastly higher quality than any of the modern Japanese vehicles that I've driven. They just aren't that great anymore. They're not bad by any stretch, but they aren't the paragons of reliability that they were in the late 1980's and early 1990's.

ZV

If you look though any car review or reliability report article you will find Toyota, Honda being the top in reliability (hands down). Consumer reports for example reports year after year the same. This is true for JD power and Associates. Yes the quality of the older Japanese cars are SLIGHTLY better then current Japanese models. That is why you see a 91 Toyota Camry (well known for reliability) selling for 3 to 4K while a newer Ford Taurus selling for 1K. Yes, the gap is narrowing considering American Cars are catching up. But it's pretty far from Japanese. So no one THINKS, they in fact know from past experience.

 

[steppinthrax]

Originally posted by: sindows
It depends on what you mean by quality. I feel that the quality of the materials are top notch, matching the Japanese brands and definitely above American brands. However in terms of mechanical quality, I cannot say as I've never owned a Korean car before but it shouldn't be too bad. I mean look at Samsung, they make great TVs, lcds, phones, etc and they're Korean...

The reason you don't see too many american cars with high mileage is because of the resale value. Say you have an American car with 100000 miles and its worth maybe $2k. The a/c breaks and it'll cost $500 to fix it, why not just get rid of the car? If the same car was Japanese, it would be worth $4K so spending $500 to fix the a/c won't seem as bad of an investment.

If you're just going by engineering and how a car feels, I would say that Kia has done a greater job of engineering their cars than Ford. They ride and drive much better than their american counterparts.

I was looking at Kias and noticed their price was pretty low. My neighbor has a Kia sedonia. It has like 100K on it but I notice it makes a lot of metalic noises when he starts it up and drives it. This is just the way the engine sounds. You can also hear it pretty loud though the firewall.

 

[cbrsurfr]

I didn't realize Hyundai owned Kia. A buddy of mine has a 2004 Spectra (I think) and the trans blew at 43K. The warranty was denied and the replacement cost was almost as much as the blue book. I would have junked it at that point but he stuck with it.

 

[SVT Cobra]

Originally posted by: steppinthrax
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: steppinthrax
However inflated it may seem people are willing to spend more money on a japanese car just because they know it will last longer.</end quote></div>

No, they THINK it will last longer. Price represents perception, not actuality. Additionally, since the high-volume domestics are sold to fleet purchasers, there are many more late-model domestics on the market due to corporate fleets and rental car companies turning over their stock every few years. This also drives the prices down for domestics.

Japanese cars are living off the reputation they built in the 1980's and early 1990's. The current crop of Japanese cars have cheap, low-grade interiors and fact that they've long since begun cutting corners is obvious. The '88 Accord I used to have was vastly higher quality than any of the modern Japanese vehicles that I've driven. They just aren't that great anymore. They're not bad by any stretch, but they aren't the paragons of reliability that they were in the late 1980's and early 1990's.

ZV</end quote></div>

If you look though any car review or reliability report article you will find Toyota, Honda being the top in reliability (hands down). Consumer reports for example reports year after year the same. This is true for JD power and Associates. Yes the quality of the older Japanese cars are SLIGHTLY better then current Japanese models. That is why you see a 91 Toyota Camry (well known for reliability) selling for 3 to 4K while a newer Ford Taurus selling for 1K. Yes, the gap is narrowing considering American Cars are catching up. But it's pretty far from Japanese. So no one THINKS, they in fact know from past experience.

ZV's point was proven with this post.