Kia Problems

Kia originally introduced its long warranty to overcome the belief held by some people that it was a cheap-and cheerful brand selling cars of dubious quality. The company was so confident in the quality of its products that it was prepared to back them for seven years. It’s been a successful move, but only because the cars are indeed of a good quality. The long warranty does give Kia a huge advantage over others with a shorter warranty.

As we haven’t experienced the problem ourselves it’s hard to comment on your concerns, but it does sound like a design problem that should have been identified and fixed before the car went into production. Now being in production it’s very difficult to fix, but we will contact Kia and see if they can suggest something that might help you. To fix it you could look at ways of shielding the dash when the light is coming from the direction that cause the problem. One thing you could look at is window tinting.

All of them would be good choices, but I would prefer the Mazda CX-5 or the Kia Sportage. Either would be fine.

The used Captiva does appear to be great value, but their shaky reputation for reliability would lead me to consider other options. The Territory would be a better bet, but they are known to have electrical and front suspension issues in the long-term.  If you're after an SUV, a seven-seat 2006-12 Mitsubishi Outlander is smart buying at the moment, but if you're just after the seven seats, I highly recommend taking a look at a 2008-13 Kia Rondo. These represent excellent value at the moment. Hope that helps, and keep us posted with your progress.

That’s the problem with VWs, you can get six good ones in a row, but the next one could be a lemon. Rather than a wagon you’re probably looking at an SUV. I would suggest a Kia Sorento, Subaru Outback, or Toyota RAV4.

It could be something as simple as a stone caught in a caliper. If you can't get any satisfaction from your dealer report the problem to Kia's customer assistance service (131542) and request their help. Hopefully you can back up your claims that it was there from day one with some form of documentation.

If you bought it from a dealer and it's still within the time limit of the statutory warranty then take it back to the dealer and request that it be fixed. If you didn't buy it from a dealer, or the warranty has expired take it to an auto electrician and have it repaired.

That sounds like a system that’s well out of date, one that should be updated by Kia. You might have an argument that it’s not fit for purpose under our consumer laws, so if you want to take it further you could contact the Queensland state consumer affairs people and seek their advice.

If it were my daughter I would be looking for safety and reliability as top priorities in a first car. With your budget I would be looking at a 2013/14 Mazda2, a 2014/15 Kia Rio, and a 2014 Toyota Yaris.