The Kia Rio is one of the cheapest cars available at a starting MSRP of $10,195. Add to that the 10 year / 100,000 mile warranty, and you’ve got what could possibly be a great deal. But as we all know, you get what you pay for.
I took my 2004 Mazda3 in to the shop a couple of weeks ago to get some parts serviced to help with the poor air conditioning. Not that it doesn’t work, it just isn’t as cool as one would expect air conditioning to be.
In the meantime, I became the lucky driver of a Kia Rio to hold me over while the service was being done. Mind you, I love my little cars because they tend to be very agile, and with the small engines you can floor it all the time and just toss the car around. It’s another matter when the car feels as though it’s going to come apart at any time. The accelerator vibrated under my foot as I drove, the steering was really loose and everything just felt so cheap.
Then there’s the issue of the doors. This is perhaps some tiny detail that nobody but me would pay attention to, but usually when a car door is closed shut, you get a nice “thump” going and there’s a satisfying feeling as you think to yourself, “Yeah, I shut that door good. Nothing’s getting in there.” When closing the door of the Rio, instead it’s a little “click” sound and a feeling like the car is made of plastic. I had to open it again and slam it shut just to make sure, and yep, that’s how it sounds when it’s closed.
I always said to myself that maybe paying any more than $15,000 for a car is going for luxury other necessity, but now I know. After specing out the Rio on Kia’s website, I found out the model I drove sold for around $13,000. $13,000! That car is not worth anywhere near that. I appreciate my Mazda3 so much more now, and who cares if it gobbled up a good chunk of my money.
I got my Mazda3 back the next day with the work done on the air conditioning, which actually didn’t work as well as I had hoped. Ah well. At least I’m happy when I close the doors shut.
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Now we know why we get the Kia Rio free when we buy the Kia Sedona:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=40&threadid=1590206&enterthread=y
man we drove the kia RIO for 10+ hours on the 5 to and back from San Mateo/San JOSE!!!!!… u think ur drive wasn’t secure, think about hearing a scratching noise from the tire… and not feeling the bumps cuz no suspension and fearing ur life……. hahahaaaaa
when i was given my kia rental, i decided to treat myself to the optima. it truely was luxury, as only a high end kia can provide.
Since the dealership was covering my car rental, I had the option of upgrading and just paying the difference, but I opted not to. When would I ever get the chance to drive a Rio again?
On another note, I am curious to check out the quality of other Kia models. I had a Hyundai Sonata as a rental before and it was actually half-decent. Hand brake and power-sliding worked perfectly, and no problems at all with J-turns =)
The original poster has nicely demonstated his lack of technical knowledge of cars. Most grease monkeys would realize that loaner vehicles are not pretty, that the vehicle you describe has been in an accident, that the doors and front end are messed up as a result. I think you better stay where you are–a new car is too much to think about.