Considering a Kia, but a little leery!

[GrantC]

Considering a Kia Sportage (first gen) for a second vehicle, one that will also be used for logging/mining road exploration. I've had Suzuki Sidekicks previously and have been quite happy with them in that role, but am thinking about going to Kia due to the decreasing presence of Suzuki in the U.S. market. (Worried about parts since they look like they're about to give up on this country.)

I like the Sportage for its size, fuel economy, and ladder-frame construction. However, the reviews of the Sportage on the various auto review sites are nearly universally bad. In contrast, the reviews for my Sidekicks are generally pretty good.

Kia owners - are the vehicles really as unreliable as the reviews indicate?

 

[WagoneerSX4]

They're early Kia's, that should be self-explanatory. People bought them because they were cheap, not because they were good cars. Up here in
Canada there are very few first-gen sportages that aren't piles of rust.

 

[ChadHahn]

We have the new Optima and although we've only had it a year we've been very happy with it. Before we bought the Optima I was thinking of their Sedona minivan and everyone I talked too was very happy with theirs.

If you buy new, their warranty can't be beat.

Chad

 

[GrantC]

Wagoneer: the same low-cost argument could be made for the Suzukis, which were originally the most affordable 4x4s on the market - yet have proven to be quite reliable. In fact, the entire Japanese automobile industry got their toehold in the U.S. because they were "cheap", but obviously that didn't affect the fact that they were incredibly reliable else they wouldn't have succeeded as wildly as they have.

Where I live, rust isn't a problem; we don't use salt on our roads. There are lots of rust-free examples of first-gen Sportages around here, so my concern is more about their repair record than their salt resistance. (In fact, wasn't it the Honda Passport that had a recall because the rear suspension members rusted away, making the car unsafe? That wasn't exactly a vehicle from a cheap manufacturer...another hole in the theory of price being a guarantee of serviceability!)

Do you have any ownership experience with a Kia Sportage that you can share?

 

[WagoneerSX4]

Very good point about the SX4, but it's not exactly the cheapest hatchback out there, it just happens to be the cheapest 4x4 right now. Depends how you look at it.

Best buddy in high school inherited a sportage from his mother. He drove the crap out of it until it failed a safety due to the floors rusting out. He even drove it on 3cyl for a while due to one cylinder having no compression. He never fixed it but going by the horrible tapping I assumed it was a dropped valve or something along those lines. Mechanically I guess it took a beating, but everything electrical didn't work and every light on the dash was lit up by the time he scrapped it (under 200,000km on the odo). I just remember it being uncomfortable, super high revving on the highway.

That might be suitable in some people's eyes, but coming from a Volvo and Suzuki background it's not great.

 

[ExpoMike]

My wife had a 1st gen Sportage and said it was reliable and she was very happy with it. She then bought a 1st gen Sorrento that was an epic pile of junk. The Sorrento had tons of electrical problems, warpped rotors that could only be bought at the dealer and failing paint. She was very sorry to have traded in her Sportage for the Sorrento. Not sure if that helps or not.

 

[BigSwede]

If you buy a new Kia you get a good warranty, if you buy used, not so much.

 

[bob91yj]

^^^^second owner gets 5yr/60,000 mile bumper to bumper, still better than most new car warranties.

Having said that I'd stay away from the 1st generation Sportage if you live in an area that requires smog inspections. They can have emissions related issues that can be difficult to diagnose/resolve. Parts are also getting harder to find for the first generation as well.

(I worked at a KIA dealership, saw a bunch of them)

 

[Warn Industries]

The reason I didn't get a 1st gen Sportage vs. my Sidekick was the lack of aftermarket. There isn't much out there.

With the Sidekicks, there were so many of them from '89-'98 that parts are still abundant both new and used. Yes, there are some parts that are harder to find cheap, such as the soft top hardware, but most everything is pretty easy and cheap.

By the way, the engines in the Sportages were actually Mazda based, I do believe.

- Andy

 

[ihatemybike]

A friend of mine had a first gen Sportage, it was a pile and a pain to do scheduled maintenance on. Unless it's a gem, I'd stay away.

 

[GrantC]

Update: we decided that we just couldn't meet all our criteria in an easily available vehicle that had decent quality. We decided to ratchet down our fuel economy standards, and picked up a very nice 97 Montero Sport with 101,000 miles on the clock. We'll see how it does!