Kia Reviews

Plenty of makes and models have glitches with their touch-screens and other on-board functions. And it would seem Kias of this vintage are no different. Problems include the touch function becoming unresponsive and the entertainment unit even deciding for itself when to turn on the music or make a phone call!

Ultimately, you may need to replace the entire head unit, but at that point, you could go with something aftermarket that offers more features and better sound.

But before you do that, try this: Next to the volume or tuning knob on the central display unit, there should be a small, round indentation. By pressing this with something small but pointy (like a ball-point pen tip or small knitting needle) you’re effectively resetting or rebooting the unit. The screen will momentarily go blank, but when it returns, you might find everything working again. But while this may restore things back to normal, the symptoms may pop up again over time as this is known as a soft reset, not a hard reset.

It would also be worth checking with your Kia dealer to see if the factory has issued any software upgrades for your car that might make things work more reliably.

In the good old days, cars had a wire (cable) linking the accelerator to the engine. When you stood on the throttle pedal, the cable tightened and pulled open the engine’s throttle. It was too simple to last, of course.

Now, in the interests of emissions and fuel economy, most cars use what’s called throttle-by-wire technology. In this case, the throttle pedal sends an electronic signal to the car’s computer, and the computer then sends a message to the throttle to physically open. If any tiny thing goes wrong with the sensors, wiring or computers that operate this system, you wind up with the very problem you’re seeing.

The good news is that this should be covered by your new car warranty and, therefore, is Kia’s problem to fix.

It all depends on how you define long and bulky. But no seven-seater is going to be exactly small, is it? That’s because, to accommodate the third row of seats necessary to seat seven a vehicle physically has to be a certain length and there’s just no getting around that.

But I take your point; a lot of the seven-seat SUVs out there do seem pretty big. Again, however, that’s not a bad thing if you plan to fill all three rows of seats and still have some room left for luggage. The smaller seven-seaters aren’t all that good at this as the third row gobbles up the luggage space, making these cars best for those who only need seven seats on an occasional basis. If that’s your situation there are lots of mid-sized seven seaters around, but they’re pretty much all SUVs.

And while it goes against your preference for a smaller vehicle, the very best seven-seaters aren’t SUVs. They’re usually people-mover vans such as the Ford Tourneo, Kia Carnival and VW ID. Buzz. In fact, some of these even seat eight. They’re also a lot better for accessing the rearmost row of seats and they’ll still have lots of luggage space even with all seats occupied. And, yes, they look big, but that’s physics for you.

In the meantime, you could look at slightly less bulky options including the Hyundai Santa Fe, Kia Sorento, Mazda CX-80 and Toyota Kluger. There’s also been speculation recently that Subaru’s seven-seat Tribeca might make a return to the Australian market.