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Car Trouble

April 25, 2008 14:21 by ckincincy

So a little over a year ago I got a Kia Optima. It had around 20,000 miles on it and had been driven by a pretty old guy. Good shape.

Now it has 45,000 miles and I'll say the 250000 miles have been a lot of trouble. Air bag light on several times, remote entry not working several times, cigarette lighter (used to charge my phone) going out several times, breaks stink, and now... a coil going out on it.

I'll never buy a Kia. The 60,000 mile warranty is nice and has made most of this painless, but I'm tired of having to go to the dealer.

I really think my next car will be a Chevrolet. About the only car I've had that has treated me well over the long haul. Though the Mazda we have now has been fairly good to us (was worried considering the Ford motor in it).

Enough rambling, back to work.

Comments

April 26. 2008 12:16

Yah, that sounds about right. My cousin, an auto-guy, who works in the car part industry couldn't agree more. My cousin recently did some work on a KIA for his brother-in-law to replace the master cylinder. Apparently you can only find parts from the KIA dealer. The worst part of that is the car part places can get in the parts, but they're just ordering from the KIA dealer too. So when you're done the car part places have to mark up the cost over the overpriced KIA prices in the first place. A master cylinder for a KIA at cost was $250. We're talking about a part that is $60-$100 for every other car manufac. My cousin ended up doing a deal with his company to bring in one off a salvage car for $80. So what you save from buying a KIA you get to make up for with extremely rare and overpriced parts to fix them.

April 26. 2008 15:18

Interesting post! My wife and I just recently bought a car and seriously considered a Kia because brand new, they were cheap. In the end, we went for a 70,000 mile Toyota Rav4 that cost MORE than a new Kia (at our local discount Kia place) but your post suggests we made the right decision!

Quite a few new Chevys (like the Avereo or whatever it's called) are actually made in Korea, but the American-built ones are probably good. I've owned three American cars (two Pontiacs and a Lincoln) and they were high mileage workhorses, but always reliable, lovely to drive, easy to maintain and I figured even if it was only spare parts I was buying, I was helping to support the US car industry.

Sure, the gas milage wasn't good - but I think the US car industry gets a lot of flak it sometimes doesn't deserve. You want four wheels and a trunk, right? Can't get four bigger wheels or a bigger trunk anywhere other than the USA.

Being flippant for a second, I saw a lame documentary in thr UK called 'What would Jesus drive?' about how evangelicals are apparently irresponsible towards the environment and should drive gas-friendly cars... But the last word was had by a pastor who told the interviewer: 'Jesus was a carpenter who went around with Luke, Matthew, John and all his buddies everywhere he went. If Jesus was going to drive anything, it'd be a big, huge SUV!'

Roland Hulme