Kia Problems

You don't have to look any further than the Sorento's stablemate at Kia, the Carnival. It's a great family machine and even shares much of its basic engineering with the Sorento.

The only reason to go European with that budget is to buy a badge, as the Asian cars do the job and are surprisingly classy with great warranty. Once again, I'd send you first to Kia to check out the Sportage.

We contacted Kia and it seems there are a couple of possible things you could do, but they need more information to identify the type of key your car uses. They recommended that you contact their customer assistance service on 131 542 and they will be happy to assist you.

The Tucson gets The Tick from me and rates above the X-Trail, but my first choice is the all-new Kia Sportage.

The big thing with capped price servicing is not to authorise any work at all beyond the factory schedule. The capped-price programs — which are not called “fixed price” because it's illegal for car makers to fix a price, although they can set an upper limit — were created so people could plan their whole-of-life costs when buying a car. It's to create certainty on the future scheduled work on any vehicle, although wear-and-tear items such as brakes, tyres and clutch are still not covered.

The Mazda is an excellent choice but also test drive the Sportage. Buy a fully loaded car for the safety gear but sunroofs and big alloys aren’t worthwhile. A pre-registered 2015 car with low kilometres is a smart way to buy.

Both get The Tick from me but I rate the Sportage as best in the compact SUV class today and that means it would be my pick. As for the ride, you are being misled — I find it's a great drive in all conditions thanks to local tuning by suspension guru Graeme Gambold.

The run-out Cerato is a terrific deal and definitely the value pick. The 2.0-litre update is good but probably not a big deal for a budget buyer, although I give The Tick to both the Kia and the Hyundai.

Suzuki is a classy brand and the Grand Vitara gets The Tick, even if I'm not a fan of the constantly variable transmission.