2000 Kia Sephia Base review from North America

Gear Shifter - Transmission. Not once, but three times in the past year. Last service 22000 miles.

At 22000 miles told the car needs complete brake job.

At 22000 miles told the car needs new tires.

I have not even owned this for for 3 full years at this time. Since when do you need to replace brakes and tires at 22000 miles. My past experience is that I am not hard on tires or breaks. My 1996 Toyota, Corolla (purchased in '96) needed new tires at 60000 miles and a break job is coming up at 86000 miles. Maybe KIA could learn something dependability from Toyota.

My last experience with a KIA dealer Service Department was awful.

The last repair was done Aug, 2003. The car was at one dealership for 6 days and they never looked at my car.

I had to have it towed to another dealership and it took another 6 days before the car was ready.

So it was two weeks without a car that would not start when it was in "park". When I went to pick the car up after the repair, the car would not start in "park".

I was told that I need to make sure that the gear shift is "in the right position" to get the car to start. Oh, I did not mention that I must ram the gear-shift to the dash to make sure it is "in the right place". Some times I must ram the gear-shift 3 or 4 times before it is "in the right place".

At this point I am getting the "Customer No Service" assistance from KIA Customer Relations. I am being told that I need to wait until there is a decision made that the above situation does not fit the "functioning as designed".

This is a quote from the KIA web-site. Now if only Kia could live up to ALL of the KIA guiding principles: "provide high-quality, high-value vehicles at prices well below the competition and back them up with a 10 Year / 100,000 Mile Warranty Program and a customer-first policy."