Experience w/ Kia or Hyundai?

[gopherit]

DH and I are seeking a replacement for our beloved but well-worn 7 yr old Toyota Sienna. We love the Toyota products, and I would take another Sienna in a New York second.... however.... they don't come cheap. Not only do we think great things about Toyota.... so does Toyota, apparently!

Couldn't help but see the much lower prices (and mega-long warranties) offered on the Kia and Hyundai vehicles. Normally I tend to think - ya get what ya pay for - but many of the reviews I have read are fairly positive of both of these companies. Wondering if anyone has experience with the KIA van, or experience with Hyundai in general? (Hyundai's van is new for 2007, so I'm kinda leery about making the leap on a 1st year of a vehicle with no prior history.... I'm a
gopher, not a guinea pig!!)

Any personal experience input appreciated as I weed through all the tech literature and website reviews! :)

[athenna]

I have a Hyundai Santa Fe and I love it!!!! Then again, I have a very short drive to work, and I don't drive distances, because I'm not actually fond of driving. I didn't even get my license until I was 31!
I have never had 1 problem w/the car at all! And mine is 4 and 1/2 years old now! There are actually 5 or 6 people in my company that have them and they've never had any problems either. My best friend drives a Hyundai Sonata and loves it. And the warranty is excellent.
Now, I don't have 1st hand knowledge about Kia, exactly. I work for an emergency roadside assistance company. Both Hyundai and Kia are 2 of our clients. But the Boston office hasn't handled Hyundai in years so I haven't heard any reports on how often they are breaking down, but it mostly tire changes and people locking themselves out of their cars, etc. But I certainly wouldn't have bought one, especially working where I do if I thought they were cars w/issues.
Kia was handled in the Boston office for years, and they were one of our biggest clients, they were forever breaking down. But that also depends on a lot of factors, how many were sold? What percentage of those cars have had roadside issues? I can't provide the #'s. And I don't know anyone that owns one.
Hope this helped a little!

[carolina_yankee]

Hyundais are supposed to be doing fairly well these days - but I'm with you on Toyota.

We've rented Kias a few times (not by choice, just what we were assigned). They handled well and all, but I just didn't like them. A personal preference thing.

Maybe check out Consumer Reports? Also, AAA's car buying service can save a lot of money - perhaps not enough for what you need but it might be worth looking into. When I bought my corolla thorugh a similar service, I spent $100 over dealer cost. Not bad.

Dirk

[ErinC]

Gopher- We have a few friends that have Kia vans and love them. I think they are one of the only ones with a 5 star safety rating. Since we own 3 body shops, we have about 15 loaner cars. They are almost all Kia Sephia's. DH was a little leary at first about purchasing them, but they have been great cars, and you know how people treat rental cars. We have never had any major mechanical issues with any of them (most are now 3 to 4 years old). We service them regularly, and they have been great loaner cars. I realize your not looking for a compact, but we have been impressed with them.

We just got a Hyundai dealership in town, so we haven't dealt with them too much yet. Their commercials drive me insane with this blonde babe named "Betty Goodeal":crazy:
Good luck car shopping!

[gopherit]

Thanks, folks - every bit of info helps!

INteresting talk with a few guys in my business yesterday - they travel to Korea quite a bit so I asked them what the "word" is on those two vehicles over there. They said that over there, a Kia is like white bread and a Hyundai is like cake (sort of like Ford vs Lincoln Continental?) Just considered to offer a lot more plush, posh, better car. They said there were lots of little tiny Kias over there on the road, though, so Kia saturates the lower-end market more, think about the way the US thought about Yugos and Chevettes and Ford Festivas in the compact market, maybe?!? Both Kia and Hyundai were considered to be decent vehicles, though, especially those versions that are sold into the US market. ANother coworker actually has a Kia and loves his car, too.

One problem for me w/ the Kia is that I don't know much about the one dealer in town or his service dept. I LOVE my Toyota service place. They are super super super guys - always on time, and they are very good about giving you all the details, suggesting alternatives, actually saving you a buck / time if ya can believe it. ANd it just so happens that their dealership sells and services Toyota and Hyundai. HOWEVER... like I said before, I am a bit leery of jumping in to a brand spankin' new vehicle, first year on the market. THis is the first year for the Entourage. THe reviews look good, but there's just no indication of how it will hold up down the road, so to speak. Even if it does have a 5 yr warranty.... I don't want to spend that warranty driving a loaner car instead, LOL, while they try to fix what's wron.g Maybe I'm being pessimistic, LOL. I looked at the Hyundai vans they had on the lot, but it wasn't a fair comparison... I have a Toyota XLE, and the only Hyundais they had thus far were the GLS base model. I need to see their "upper end" versions to properly compare. And it will really boil down to the drive test - I do a heap o' driving, and if I don't think it handles well, deal off!! It also needs to sound "solid" to me. We test-drove a Honda (before we bought our Toyota) and that was the deal-breaker there - the doors all sounded hollow, and road noice was really bad in comparison to the Toyota. Plus, they had a lot of "cheapy creature features" (you know, cup holders, cargo nets, and little fold-out trays and such that, in a car with 3 kids, will invaribly meet their match and lose. Yes, 17 cup holders in one van we drove - it could only hold 7 people, what's the deal? :idontgeti Just one more cubby I get stuck cleaning at the end of a trip. I hardly like my kids to have ONE drink in the car, much less 17, LOL! COuldn't stand that lazy susan thing in the Odyssey either - looked like a prime place for lost cheerios to reside. Ewww. Plus, it cut van bottom clearance down greatly. And for what? One more thing to keep clean. No thanks.)

I love my Sienna... but man I hate to think what it will cost to get what I have now in a new van. I have a moon roof and leather seats... to get that in a new Toyota will run me around 36K. Of course, I don't think the Hyundais even have moonroofs. In a practical sense, it IS a dumb idea. THey make those from tempered glass, so if anything hits the top or you should roll over, it will totally shatter and then you're exposed. But that thing is a Godsend in the winter months - I am SO solar-powered, and feeling that sun and sky on a 15 degree short winter day is just heaven. I could live without the leather, I guess. Save a cow and go cloth, right? But I will need to either get some sort of seat covers or ban my kids from bringing food onboard, LOL. That leather is such a joy to clean. Muddy rear of a soccer kid? No problem, just wipe down the seat.

Of course, I feel like a heel for whining this way. My mother had an old Dodge station wagon for the entirety of her parenting years - it was 20 yrs old when she finally sold it. Vinyl seats, and the back row faced backwards. Paint was yellow, but it was so faded, it looked almost white. The parking brake failed twice, allowing the wagon to roll down our driveway and strike the pine trees, so it bore all the marks of those battles too. And if you left the windows donw inthe summer and the air got chilly, when you got in the next day, there would be frozen flies on the ceiling. I still remember that ceiling, too - like cardboard with lille holes all punched in it (kinda like pegboard on a tiny scale?)

And here I sit, fussing over this 7 yr "old" XLE. I am one bad, spoiled, rotten pampered gopher. :sosad:


Carolina Yankee, what's the deal through AAA? I am a member but woefully under-educated on any of its benefits. We bought out Sienna through a deal with Sam's Club - I think we got it for 3% over invoice? One of those no-haggle things. We had to drive 45 minutes to a dealer that would work with us on that plan - but we were glad we did. I HATE haggling over price!

[carolina_yankee]

AAA has an auto buying program. They negotiate the price. I've never used it, but I've heard good things. Here's a link for more info: http://www.aaamidatlantic.com/automotive/auto_buying.asp. You can go through the settings and follow the menu links on the left to see about prices and options. It might be worth it - at least it gives you the dealer price so you're better armed if you go in on your own.

Dirk

[ErinC]

Gopher- leather seats will not ever be optional until the kids are grown at our house! No way would I have cloth with 3 kids. Melted M & M's do not come out of cloth seats very well. Are you sure you want to give up that luxury?? Oh and doesn't somebody in your family have issues with car sickness? Stick to the leather seats. A moon roof is the only option I don't have on my Yukon. DH didn't want one. With the heat down here, I can pretty much understand why.

[ErinC]

Curiosity got the best of me. I went to look at Hyundai's website. It looks like they offer sunroofs for an extra $900. I just remembered that we have a fairly new large Hyundai plant in Montgomery, AL. I wonder where the vans are being made?

[DSNY FN]

Some people I work with just bought the new Hyundai van and absolutley love it. it gets great gas mileage and has lots of power on tap the KIA although inexpensive tends to not be so great in the fuel mileage department. So I would reccomend the Hyundai over the KIA. I would takw the Montana or Uplander over the Hyundai IMHO you will be further ahead the GM vehicles atleast up here are cheaper and now all come with a 10 year 160K warranty. The Honda and Toyota vans are way over priced I am talking 60K plus for a loaded Odyssey or Sienna.

[johnb]

Thanks, folks - every bit of info helps!




I love my Sienna... but man I hate to think what it will cost to get what I have now in a new van. I have a moon roof and leather seats... to get that in a new Toyota will run me around 36K. Of course, I don't think the Hyundais even have moonroofs. In a practical sense, it IS a dumb idea. THey make those from tempered glass, so if anything hits the top or you should roll over, it will totally shatter and then you're exposed. But that thing is a Godsend in the winter months - I am SO solar-powered, and feeling that sun and sky on a 15 degree short winter day is just heaven. I could live without the leather, I guess. Save a cow and go cloth, right? But I will need to either get some sort of seat covers or ban my kids from bringing food onboard, LOL. That leather is such a joy to clean. Muddy rear of a soccer kid? No problem, just wipe down the seat.



Would you consider dropping down to the LE and foregoing some of the bells and whistles you get with the XLE? We have an '04 LE and love it.

[gopherit]

Curiosity got the best of me. I went to look at Hyundai's website. It looks like they offer sunroofs for an extra $900. I just remembered that we have a fairly new large Hyundai plant in Montgomery, AL. I wonder where the vans are being made?


Sho nuf, you're right, went on their website and "built" a van... sunroof available in the highest model (ltd). So basically, I can pay about 36K for a Toyota with leather and a moon roof, or pay around 28K for leather and a moonroof on a Hyundai.... food for thought. :scratchchi

Wouldn't be surprised at all to hear they are being made in AL.

[gopherit]

Some people I work with just bought the new Hyundai van and absolutley love it. it gets great gas mileage and has lots of power on tap the KIA although inexpensive tends to not be so great in the fuel mileage department. So I would reccomend the Hyundai over the KIA. I would takw the Montana or Uplander over the Hyundai IMHO you will be further ahead the GM vehicles atleast up here are cheaper and now all come with a 10 year 160K warranty. The Honda and Toyota vans are way over priced I am talking 60K plus for a loaded Odyssey or Sienna.

Intersting, isn't it, what sells for what price, depending where you are! A Toyota with what I would want would run about 36K here. But I feel fairly certain you couldn't get my DH (or me either, at this point) to buy a GM car.... or a Chrysler... or probably a Ford either at this point. We have been burned in the past, and the only 2 cars that were "true" to us were (a) a Honda Civic that my DH wept over when it "died" at 15 yrs of age and he donated it to our school custodian who amazingly got it working again and it's a-ok and doing fine, we're told... and (b) our Toyota van! Frankly, I've not been impressed with Honda's record since they became more of a US entity. They seem to have adopted a bit TOO much of the US automotive "let's just put a lot of crapola in there and they won't notice that it doesn't run so well" features. And maybe too my issue with Honda has something to do with the shifty sales group locally. We bought a Ford Escape for DH and thought we had a sweet deal (employee no-haggle pricing, good warranty, etc.) Darn thing crapped out on us about 45 minutes from home within a few weeks of owning it - they said it was the thermostat, a fluke of a thing, shouldn't EVER happen again. But it did... at 10:30 at night on a very deserted road with just me in the car, all of 1 month later. Needless to say, I was ticked. :burningma Don't even get me started about the van or our old Chevy, LOL. Adter the whole van mess, while DH was pricing its resale value to get rid of the dang thing, he realized resale on those vehicles is poop, whereas resale on our old beatup Honda was actually still decent... same for our Toyota. Of course, we tend to keep our vehicles for at least 6 yrs (and if they are good ones, even longer), so the resale thing is not a big factor for us.

johnb, you mentioned forgoing bells/whistles for an LE. We have in fact looked at that option - I can get the safety features I'm wanting (traction/stability, SCAB, towing pkg) but not the 2 creature features I want (moonroof and leather). Frankly, I wish we could "opt out" of certain other features... like that stinkin' power back gate and second power door. It's great to have ONE power door when you need it, but more than that is a nuisance, to me anyway. There are lots of features they have added that I never had before and am pretty sure I could live without, like a hot rear or more speakers. So in a word, yes, I would gladly take an LE.... I just wish there was someway for me to get those 2 little features put on it. Because when you jump up to the XLE, they add in a lot of stuff I wouldn't necessarily need at all. a lot of the dealers are automatically throwing in the DVD system, and we DON'T want that. We just got a very nice portable 2-screen DVD player, and don't feel a need to have a system in the car 24/7. THe markup on that thing installed is outrageous.

[ErinC]

Gopher- any chance that the Sienna could hold on one more year and then you could get yourself a 2nd year of production Hyundai van? Kinda solve both problems, still get the better cost and not a first round production vehicle. Of course if the sienna is giving you problems it probably wouldn't be cost effective to wait.

[gopherit]

Gopher- any chance that the Sienna could hold on one more year and then you could get yourself a 2nd year of production Hyundai van? Kinda solve both problems, still get the better cost and not a first round production vehicle. Of course if the sienna is giving you problems it probably wouldn't be cost effective to wait.

Not only do I think it CAN hold on another year, I think it MUST, LOL! My DH is verrrrrrry slow to move on these sorts of things. I had only JUST gotten him to admit he needed to be looking at a new car for himself (after 2 years of asking him to do so) when his died. He went carless for about 2-3 mos while tring to figure out what he wanted - irony of it all, he had it narrowed down (at the time) to a Toyota, even the model and features. How HARD could that be? But noooo, he kept going from one Toyota place to the next, trying to find a better price, thinking if he held out a little longer.... He isn't very assertive either, so he never flat-out told these folks what he DID want. I think that would have helped, frankly. I didn't realize til later that he didn't REALLY know what he wanted in a car -- all he knew was that he wanted to walk away feeling like he had gotten a "real deal". I got VERY frustrated with his indecision (plus, I had to drive him around everywhere, since he had no car!) so when Ford announced their "Employee Pricing" and rebates galore plan last year, I figured what the hey and sort of tossed it into his lap. His comment: "Well I WANTED to look at Ford all along!" Grrrrrrr. He bought one THAT NIGHT. Frankly, I thought that it was a bit fast - I mean, he hadn't done ANY research on those, and bam, he buys one after a single test drive. BUt I admit it - I was so relieved he had a car, I kept my mouth shut!

DH seems more and more intrigued by the Hyundai.... I think it's that same ol' "Gotta feel like I'm getting a deal" thing creeping back into him. I told him when he bought the Ford - just be careful... I don't want to be saying 2 yrs from now this "Es-CAH-Pey" is pure "It's-CRAP-eh". SO if he's this intrigued by the Hyundai already, I doubt I can get him to move on these end-of-year Toyota deals, which means he will want to wait until there's some sort of end-of-year incentive deal on the Hyundais, and what THAT means is.... I think I am going to have to wait a while. Possibly a LONNNNG while. :catchingz