Kia Problems

I think that a Kia Rio would be an excellent choice as a first car. Especially since a Rio built in the time frame you’re looking at will still have a big chunk of its factory warranty left to run. The Kia seven-year/unlimited kilometre warranty is the best around, really, and provided the car you buy has a complete service record, that warranty will be real peace of mind.

Also, the Rio is known to be a good, solid car that has a good reputation for reliability and durability. The Skoda Fabia, meantime, suffers from the poor reputation of is dual-clutch transmission. The Fabia is also a bit of an orphan in Australia, meaning that it’s largely overlooked by buyers. That means it will potentially be more difficult to unload when you daughter looks to upgrade her car in a few years.

There are two main reasons to service a car. The first is to keep the vehicle running in an efficient, clean, safe and comfortable way. The second is so that you maintain your factory warranty. A car-maker is not obliged to honour some aspects of a new-car warranty if the vehicle hasn’t been serviced correctly, so it’s important, especially since the Kia warranty is such a good one at seven-years/unlimited kilometres. In fact, the Kia warranty is the best in the business in Australia.

With that in mind, provided you use a properly accredited workshop that is authorised to stamp your service book, yes you can use a non-Kia workshop or dealership to have your car serviced and retain your factory warranty. That said, the Kia isn’t an especially expensive vehicle to have serviced with 12 month or 15,000km service intervals.

Have you investigated Kia’s seven-year capped price servicing deal? It stacks up very well over the full seven years and, in fact, a Seltos is really no more expensive to service than the little Kia Picanto under the capped-price schedule. Definitely talk to the dealer about capped price servicing if you go ahead and buy a Kia, you might be surprised how cost-effective it is.

If you’re happy with the Kia, Marissa, then I’d say you might be wise to stick with the brand you know. As you would know, your 2017 model Cerato still has at least three or maybe even four years of factory warranty to run. That’s great peace of mind and one of the reasons people keep buying Kias. You’re also a chance to do a better deal as a repeat buyer at your local dealership.

While not wishing to suggest that being 60 years of age makes somebody an `older person’ these days, the one design feature you might want to consider going forward is the option of a vehicle with a slightly higher ride height. That makes getting in and out of the car easier and the whole day-to-day experience just that little bit nicer. With that in mind, take a look at the

. It’s not the newest of designs, but it does represent a solid, reliable platform. On the bass that your mother does mainly suburban driving, the pick would be the Si front-wheel-drive version with the petrol engine and six-speed automatic transmission.

The Sorento seems like a pretty good choice. But don’t forget its cousin, the Hyundai Santa Fe which is also a great vehicle. On balance, though, the Kia seems a little better value and has a superior warranty. In fact, the Kia factory warranty of seven years/unlimited kilometres is an industry leader and makes for great long-term peace of mind.

If you’re happy with the way the Kia drives and works for your family, then there’s no reason not to make that your first choice.

My Kia insiders tell me that Kia is likely to retain its current mix of two and four-wheel-drive options for the Seltos into the future. It may well be true that only the base-model will get two-wheel-drive in some markets, but here, I am told, a greater mix of price points is the aim, meaning that you’ll still have plenty of choice.

As for an LX-badged model, that’s a real left-field one. Kia’s badging structure in Australia generally follows the S, Sport, Sport Plus and GT (for turbocharged models) so even if there was a new LX badge to emerge, I have no idea where that would fit into the range. Neither does Kia Australia (because I checked with head office). Even then, it would be likely that a new badge or naming policy would be introduced for a new model or at least a facelift of the current car, but since the Seltos is only about 12 months old here, that isn’t due to happen for some time. Perhaps the LX is a model in, say, the US market. Always check the country of origin when using websites to research.

The RAV4 in its current guise is the best the model has ever been. Of course, that’s exactly how it should be, but some car-makers don’t always crack the newer-is-better code. You’re right about the new RAV4 Hybrid being the headline grabber, but that’s because it’s the big change in the RAV4 formula and the one that is likely to attract the most new customers to the franchise. There’s nothing wrong with the two-litre CVT RAV4 per se, but you might find the performance of the smaller petrol engine a bit on the weedy side, especially with a full load of bodies and luggage on board. And, as with any CVT car, the advice is to drive it before you decide, and make sure you don’t find the CVT’s behaviour too foreign. Some people do, others never notice it.

The Kia Sportage Sport is another good package but suffers the same lacklustre engine performance issue in two-litre petrol form. It does, though, have a conventional six-speed automatic transmission rather than a CVT. And while the Sportage was facelifted in 2018, its basic design goes back to 2015. Which, in fact, makes it an older design than the Mazda CX-5 which was first launched here in 2017. Any of the three vehicles you’ve nominated will do the job but history suggests the Toyota will hold more resale value when trade-in time rolls around. And congratulations on the new addition to the family.

For a start, some owners are not mad about the Subaru’s CVT transmission. It’s not that it’s necessarily unreliable, they just don’t like the way it works with an occasional hesitation and a slight jerkiness at light throttle applications. Some people never notice it, but others find it a real distraction. The Kia meanwhile, has been getting good reviews across the trade, largely thanks to the Australian-input into the model’s suspension settings.

Of course, you need to personally drive all three cars on your short-list as there will be things you like and dislike about each one, some of which will be deal-breakers.

The SsangYong is certainly the unknown quantity, but mainly because of the brand’s on-again-off-again relationship with the Australian market. But now, with head-office support (the Australian operation is the only factory-owned distributorship outside the brand’s native South Korea) things are looking a bit brighter for buyers and that’s backed up by the factory seven-year/unlimited kilometre warranty that also includes fixed price servicing and roadside-assistance for seven years. That’s got to represent peace of mind.

The Kia’s seven-year factory warranty is – and should be – a big selling point. But that’s countered by much more expensive servicing over the Hyundai. Keen driveaway pricing also works in the Kia’s favour, however. Frankly, both are great cars with lots of useable performance (they share the same engine, actually) and practical layouts.

So, it could come down to a philosophical debate: The i30 N Line sits one rung below the hero i30 version, the N. The GT, meanwhile, is the flagship Cerato, so you don’t need to explain to the neighbours why you didn’t buy the flashest one. But for a lot of buyers, a manual transmission is the gearbox of choice in quick little hatches like these, and only the Hyundai offers a six-speed manual or a seven-speed DCT. In the Kia, it’s the DCT or nothing.

The Kia Rio only requires 91RON unleaded. The engine is tuned for that octane rating, so you won’t gain anything, apart from more space in your wallet, by switching to 95 or 98RON fuel. Despite every premium petrol marketing campaign suggesting otherwise, running on more expensive fuel won’t gain you any performance or greater fuel economy, so stick with 91.