Kia Problems

A recall on Hyundai vehicles earlier in January has now roped in models from stablemate Kia, with a notice being issued for the Sportage and Soul SUVs. The safety recall is for a defect that means the tensioning cable in the seatbelt assembly has not been properly crimped, raising a risk the cable could break and not allow the seatbelts to pretension and fully restrain the wearers in an accident.  A total of 2941 vehicles are affected -- 2704 Sportage and 237 Soul -- with build dates between August 23, 2011 and March 31, 2012, and on-sale dates between September 10, 2011 and December 31, 2012. The list of VIN numbers for the Soul can be found here and the VIN numbers for the Sportage can be found here. The VIN number for your vehicle is located on the build plate in the engine bay. The Hyundai recall affected 6552 of their popular ix35 SUV, and a spokesman at the time said the seatbelts would still protect wearers in an accident, but would simply not be able to deploy the pretensioning function that automatically tightens them. "It is only on the driver's seatbelt. We've had one incident in Australia and it was an non-injury incident," Kia Australia general manager of public relations, Kevin Hepworth says. Owners can contact their closest Kia dealer for an inspection and rectification if needed, with the fix estimated to take up to an hour of the customer's time. however Kevin says   

Ewan Kennedy road tests and reviews the used 2000-2013 Kia Rio.

Once a thriving segment, the budget sports car market had shrunk almost to the point of extinction when Kia launched its budget-priced Kia Cerato Koup in 2009.

Ewan Kennedy reviews the 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 as a used buy.

NEW The Rio was the car that kicked Kia's Australian sales into gear in 2000. Before that the cars from the Korean carmaker were best known for their for the cheap-and-cheerful pricing and not much more. Beyond the pricing the build quality was average at best, and the reliability wasn't that great either. But like

Kia Cerato Koup, usually known simply as the Kia Koup comes from the lets-have-fun-with-names department of the ambitious South Korean car maker.