Good Quality and value

Note:Review Covers Kia Magentis, same car rebadged for Canadian consumption.

Background

After making my rounds to different manufacturers for their various models and the like, I have opted to lean away from American manufacturers for different reasons:

Past experience shows US cars tend to squeak and rattle
Poor fuel consumption
Poor handling
Shoddy quality control (poor joint fitting and things breaking)

Once again, the far East has shown their prowess. Be it as a result of low quality wages which may allow for them to spend triple the man hours building MY CAR, thats ok, it boils down to better value for me.

After owning a VW Passat 2000, I have been forced to downgrade. The allure of saving 200.00 a month plus added 100 month insurance costs = approx 225.00 USD had placed me smack in the middle of the middle of the road. Of course, regulated by costs, this allowed me to trim my selection.

My first choice was the Honda Accord. This car, in basic configuration (power group, auto trans) ran at 480.00, a mere 50$ less than the Passat. I then priced the Camry, and it is the same price as the Accord. The Corolla was a bit less, but I chose against it, as it is too small a car. I am aware, however it is the biggest worldwide car sold year over year, and it drives beautifully, etc. Maybe next time.

Next came the newcomers, the Sonata and the Optima/Magentis. After looking into these cars (note: Hyundai got JD POWERS best initial quality over ALL Manufacturers this past segment), and Kia = Hyundai as Hyundai owns KIA and they are built together, I went to look at the Kia. Nor bad. Roomy, all the features come equipped LX Model, less ABS, remote entry, V6, Leather, mags, sunroof, and wood interior. The next model up had cloth with sunroof (A nice offering, as I do not prefer Hot summer and cold winter leather, but it came with V6, which I did not want).

TEST DRIVE

The car drove smoothly, having a very smooth ride, and quiet interior. The chairs are pretty comfortable, although the Passat is renowned for having exemplary seats, these are pretty good. It offers lumbar support with three settings, as well as advanced manual drivers seat setting, including seat back recline, and seat bottom tilting. I give the seats a 8.5/10. Horizontal support is average, but the cloth definately adds some friction to prevent lateral movement.

The rear seats as well are pretty comfortable, offering good legroom. the rear seat like most cars in this segment is great for 2 passengers. The third passenger sits in the middle area, a little raised where the depressions for the two outer seats come together. I am 5'11 and do not touch the ceiling, which attests to the cars roomy appeal to me.

Once the engine was started, the car made little slightly discerneable noise. After motor has been warmed for 5-10 minutes, there is no noise at all, and you should look at tachometer to verify motor is running. The motor is strong enough, a 2.4 L I-4 configuration, Fuel injection, etc. The motor pulls well after 1500 RPM, a common trait for larger displacement 4 cylinders. Perhaps my feelings for not exemplary consumption are based on my 90% city driving. As I had just completed a road trip of 1200 KM (360 miles each way), I noticed the fuel mileage was not as bad I had though. Cursory math would tell me I was getting better than 30 MPG driving at 68 MPH (120 km/h)

The transmission was a bittersweet offering for me as well. The tiptronic style transmission, offered in bot this model and the Sonata offered me flexibility and sportiness all in one neat package. Simply slide the shifter right from the Drive mode and you can manually shift the transmission. There is an illuminated gear indicator in the dashboard mesage area that tells you which gear you are in. This is not a sports car, but it allows for some sporty driving. The only reservation is that this is a 4 speed auto, not a 5 or even 6 speed auto.

CONTROL PANEL

The dashboard is nicely laid out for easy reading, day or night. Sun washout is not a factor here, as the speed and RPM gauges are white arms on black background. At night, the console lights up in a familiar soft green, and is soothing to the eyes. The radio buttons are ok, and the radio performs well. After 6 hours driving, the buttons get warm, but stereo still sounds crisp and clear, and loud if desired. There are 6 speakers in the car, as well as in dash cd player.

This model, unlike the high line has manual climate control. This console is of high quality, and should be used as a benchmark for future changes if any are made. The buttons are electronic to choose vent openings, recirc and so forth. There are 2 knobs as well, one for fan speed and one for temperature.

The Air conditioner and rear defroster work quite well, as the past few weeks have had humid conditions that have needed air and defroster to make windows usable. The air conditioner for cooling passengers works well, and even in the hottest days will cool the car nicely. Be sure, as in any car to spray LYSOL / Disenfectant into the air intake located fore of the wipers on hood if a musty/other smell comes from the Air conditoner.


In the end, I decided to go with the 4 year lease. The sales manager was not pleased. He 'offered' me at least 4 times to extend my lease to 5 years, or to get me financing rather than leasing. I kept reminding him that although he is offering me 0% financing, my lease interest rate is 0.3%, so my savings would total maybe 50$ over the duration. I asked if he would guarantee my cars value at the end and he seemed willing, but I was not sure what water it would hold. I leased the car. As well, at the time, my auto came with 3 free oil changes, and 5 years 100,000 km warranty bumper to bumper, something not offered by ANYONE except Hyundai, and only recently. Now I understand oil changes are free for the life of the car, in certain regoins I guess.


Note: I have now had the car over a years time now. I can visit auto auctions in Quebec websites, and have noticed that my same car is now selling for 1/2 price 1 year in. Same mileage, options, etc. Hopefully this will change over the next 2 years, but you never know.

SMALL PROBLEMS
There was a recall on the high beams. That is all in 2 years time.

In Quebec we have potholes, caused by shoddy and erratic road work. We probably have the worst roads outside of third world countries and war zones. When I went to change my winter tires for summer tires, the mechanic at WalMart looked at the inside of my rims and showed them to me. 3 of the 4 rims were pretty bent from hitting potholes. Thankfully he sledge hammered them back round, so that was ok. I am not sure, but several people have told me rims are stronger than potholes. Knowing where I live and drive, I would rather need $30.00 rims then 250.00 mags. This also led me to the low package LX. However, it is hard to say whether the rim damage was due to this year being harsher for potholes than past years, me driving differently, or the metal in the rims being weak. I would say the metal is a bit weak, but I am again coming from Passat, and GMC Jimmy where I did not see these issues...