Kia Reviews

It’s true that the Nissan Qashqai has had a couple of safety recalls, but they didn’t affect 2025 models, so you should be okay there. But it’s worth mentioning that the Kia Seltos from the same era has also had its share of recalls and problems, including an engine glitch that saw a lot of examples needing new engines (which Kia did its best to put right). Again, though, by the time 2025 had rolled around, the problems were largely a thing of the past. Or should be.

Some Nissan owners have complained about failures of the brand’s CVT transmissions. But the reality is that these are both very new vehicles and, provided they’ve been serviced properly to this point, will also have a lot of factory warranty remaining.

Which means it really comes down to which of the two offers the space and features you need and which one you prefer to drive (which means checking things like the rear vision and anything else that is likely to annoy you). Take both for a decent test run, check the service record and go from there.

It sounds like there’s either a problem with the throttle pedal, the throttle mechanism itself or, most likely, a glitch in the communication between the two. Instead of a throttle cable directly linking the pedal to the throttle, modern cars use what’s called fly-by-wire. In this case, that means a throttle pedal where input is converted to an electrical signal, which is then transferred by the computer to the throttle telling it to open. If there’s any wiring or software problem within this system, you could easily experience this sort of problem.

You’re quite right, too, that this represents a very dangerous situation. Many crashes have been caused by a following driver assuming the car in front was about to take off. And when, for whatever reason, it doesn’t…

If the computer won’t tell you what’s happening, an auto electrician should be able to take readings from the throttle pedal and the motor that actuates the throttle itself. From there, they should be able to discern which component is not playing the game properly.

Both the Toyota and Kia have good reputations for quality and durability, while the Chery is more of an unknown quantity in Australia. The important thing to remember is that the cars you’ve short-listed are all near-new vehicles, so they’ll have plenty of factory warranty left to run.

The best way to avoid clear coat peeling is to buy a car in a solid, rather than metallic, colour, which doesn’t generally have the same peeling problems. That said, modern paint technology is much better than ever before, so this is less of a problem than it once was. Protecting a car’s interior means parking it out of the sun in the hotter months. Although, again, the durability of interior plastics has come a long, long way in recent years.

If you’re going to keep the car for a few years and then trade it in on a new car, retained value is more important than any of your other concerns. And in that sense, the Toyota traditionally moves to the front of the pack.