Kia Problems

The Kia Sportage SX starts at $35,000 in manual form and $37,000 for the automatic variant. The better equipped, more powerful GT-Line petrol version is available only as an automatic and costs $49,370. Those prices do not include on-road costs which will vary from state to state and even region to region.

The current Sportage was launched in 2021, so we can possibly expect a mild facelift sometime in the 2023 calendar year. But being such a new design, the upgrades are not likely to be major ones, so there’s no reason to hold off buying now or when supply allows.

The allowable maximum tow-ball weight for the Sportage will have been calculated by Kia using all the available information from the car's weight distribution to the spring rates, the ride height and wheelbase measurements and even the way the rear structure of the car is physically constructed. So that's what you should stick to and, yes, 100kg is the official tow-ball weight for this vehicle.

The theory that holds that tow-ball weight should be 10 per cent of the towed weight (while the reality for a lot of makes and models) is really just that; a theory, a rule of thumb, and definitely not a hard and fast rule. As such, there's nothing to force car-makers to stick to it. Which is why Kia hasn't for the Sportage.

There's another school of thought in other countries that the tow-ball weight should actually be closer to five per cent of the towed mass, at which point the Kia's limit starts to make more sense.

This situation will turn out very differently depending on whether the car is still under Kia's factory warranty, or an aftermarket warranty sold by the dealership when the car was bought by your daughter. It will also depend on whether the cracked transmission case was due to a flaw or something thrown up off the road (which would count as accidental, not warranty, damage).

Kia extended its factory warranty to new, privately-owned cars on October 1, 2014. Which means the car in question was covered to that extent. With that in mind, the car should, indeed, be covered by Kia's factory warranty (until next year) so there should be no quibbling about a failure like this one that has had nothing to do with the way the car has been used or serviced. My experience is that Kia is pretty good at this stuff, figuring that its long-term reputation is more valuable than fixing an – often – rare fault. And even though your daughter was not the first owner of the car, the factory warranty is transferable to subsequent owners. Provided, that is, that the car has been serviced and maintained correctly.

If, however, the car is covered only by the aftermarket warranty, then you'll be in for a huge fight as these aftermarket warranties are rarely worth the paper they're printed on. The fine-print is full of clauses and conditions that allows the car dealer to wriggle out of their responsibility, and we simply don't recommend these warranties under any circumstances.

As for the fault itself, it's pretty rare to hear about something like a transmission case fracturing. Perhaps there was a manufacturing or casting flaw in that particular unit that has taken its time to surface and cause the failure. As for what you should do, the answer is simple: Take it back to the dealership you bought it from and make sure it's fixed properly according to the terms of Kia's own warranty. Don't be afraid to be a bit patient, and always give the dealership (or Kia) every chance to put things right before you instigating legal action or contacting the ACCC.

If Kia expresses any doubt over what caused the failure, an independent inspection (perhaps by the NRMA) will be able to determine what caused the casing to fracture and, therefore, whether it's a warranty or insurance job.

The smart money says go with a Toyota. The RAV4 is popular but within your budget, you'll be buying a 12- or 14-year-old car with at least 200,000km on its odometer. Which still means it's probably a pretty good thing in terms of reliability, provided it's been serviced correctly up to now, but you'd have to buy carefully. A second-hand Kluger can also be a good deal if you can afford the fuel, but comes with the same caveats.

A Honda CR-V won't be much different to the RAV4 in terms of its price versus model year, but you stand a slightly better chance of finding a CR-V with relatively low kilometres. Don't be afraid to get a bit alternative and look at things like the Kia Sportage. Your ten-grand gets you into a Sportage of around the same vintage as the RAV4, but is likely to have as many as 100,000 fewer kilometres on board. Again, check for a full service history.

And given your usage pattern, don't be temped to stump up more for a hybrid SUV; there's just not the pay-off at the pump for a car that does mainly highway and open-road work.

Yes, there are plenty of companies selling replacement keys for this car. The cost will depend on whether it’s a conventional key or an electronically coded key with a remote locking function built in to it. Just be careful if ordering online, though, as some replacement keys include only the hardware and not the internal electronics.

In many cases, you need to source the replacement key and then have a locksmith physically cut the key so that it works in your car. In some cases, you may have to prove ownership of the car before the locksmith will do this. Some keys then need to be electronically coded to `talk’ to the vehicle.

If you want a no hassle experience, there are even locksmiths who will come to you and cut the key on site, but you’ll pay a call-out fee as well as the cost of the key itself.

The default purchase for somebody looking for a mid-sized hybrid SUV is the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid. But if that’s too big, there’s the Toyota Yaris Cross Hybrid, C-HR Hybrid and even the Corolla Cross Hybrid which sounds like the marketplace is getting crowded but is really just a reflection of the appetite right now for cars like these. And that’s the catch; the waiting times for a brand-new example of some of these cars is out to many months and even years. So your plan to shop second-hand makes plenty of sense, but don’t expect any bargains in a market currently being dominated by lots of demand and less supply.

Beyond the Toyota brand (which has been doing hybrids longer than just about anybody else) there’s also the Mazda CX-30, Subaru XV Hybrid, Haval Jolion Hybrid, Kia Niro, Subaru Forester Hybrid, Nissan Qashqai e-Power, MG HS, Honda HR-V e and more. For something a bit bigger, try the Kia Sorento or Hyundai Santa Fe hybrids. There are others out there, too, that are probably bigger or more expensive than you need, but it's very much a growing scene in the Australian marketplace.

It sounds like a pretty nitty-gritty tech question, but is the camshaft in the engine of the Kia Rio timing belt or chain driven? There’s a good reason for knowing the answer, though, as it determines whether you need to add a crucial routine maintenance step to your ownership.

In cars with a toothed rubber timing belt, the belt and its tensioners need to be changed at an interval recommended by the car’s manufacturer to avoid expensive belt failures which can ruin the whole engine. Ignore this maintenance at your peril.

The good news is the GL4C engine as used in the Kia Rio since 2016 uses a timing chain which should be good for the life of the engine and not need any extra maintenance.

Sadly, Aussie cars like the Ford Fairmont just aren't being made any longer. As you've correctly identified over many years and almost 300,000km, this big, rugged, relaxed type of vehicle was perfect for travelling in Australia, but the onslaught of SUVs and the death of the local car-making industry put an end to these big sedans.

There's nothing wrong with a Kia Sportage (in fact, it's a good choice) and you might find the effortless turbo-diesel version suits your needs and preferences quite well. You may also appreciate the higher ride height and easier entry and egress. But what you won't find in any mid-sized SUV is the same dynamic feel of a conventional sedan like your current Ford. This is not to say modern SUVs don't drive well; they do, and improved fuel efficiency and different packaging is all part of where the Australia car-park is going.

If you're not venturing off the bitumen, however, there are a few alternatives to an SUV in the form of some very accomplished medium-sized sedans. The Hyundai i30 Sedan would be one and, if you want to retain the rear-wheel-drive feel and big performance, then the Kia Stinger is another alternative to an SUV.

The other alternative would be to take the time and effort to seek out a later-model Ford Fairmont with fewer kilometres on its odometer and start over again with the packaging you clearly already enjoy.

Kia introduced the fifth-generation Sportage in 2021, so there won't be any wholesale changes to the car for a while yet. Kia – like most car-makers – is constantly fine-tuning specifications of its vehicles, so there may be a mild facelift of the car due in 2023 or soon thereafter, but it's unlikely to involve much in the way of engineering.

The biggest news for the Sportage range in 2023 is likely to be the introduction of a hybrid model. Kia isn't saying when that will be, however, and it could even be 2024 before we see it. The other new Sportage variant is likely to be a plug-in hybrid version which has been slated for the North American market, but not confirmed for Australia. Yet.

I'll assume you mean the forthcoming Kia EV9 electric SUV. In which case, yes, you will struggle to fit it into a garage that only just contains a 200-Series LandCruiser, as the EV9 is, indeed, 75mm wider. Perhaps. See, at this stage, the images and specifications we've been dished up have involved the vehicle in its concept stage, and as car companies know only too well, not every aspect of a concept makes it to production (which would be sometime next year in the EV9's case).

Whether or not the electric off-roader from Kia will have a mirror-retractor function is anybody's guess right now, but the images we've seen of the concept suggest that instead of conventional mirrors, the EV9 would use small cameras mounted in the mirrors' place, transferring the image to the info-screen inside the car. If that's the case, these tiny cameras would not need to be retractable, suggesting that the width of 2055mm quoted for the Kia is possibly a concept-only dimension.

If the vehicle really reaches production as wide as that, it would have difficulty fitting down some Australian bush tracks; tracks that have been cut by generations of LandCruisers and Nissan Patrols. Then again, the EV9 has been designed for a global market, not just us. And let's not forget the width of a Hummer...

The bottom line is you'll have to wait and see precisely how wide the Kia is when it finally goes on sale. but if your current LandCruiser is a tight fit, don't expect the Kia to be any easier to fit in your garage.