1997 Kia Sephia RS review from North America

Brake rotors warped early, but were replaced with a newer design which fixed the problem.

Check engine light went on one night and a few seconds later the car started accelerating very slowly and was a little jerky. Turns out I was dragging a cylinder (therefore using 3 out of 4) due to a spark plug failure. This however was at 36,000 miles or so with the original spark plugs when they were meant to be changed at 30,000.

Something wrong with the car cutting off gas randomly even with the gas pedal pushed down and then randomly feeding it back in. It cuts out and comes back only once in a while and when it starts I have to stop the car and shut it off, wait a minute, then restart it and the problem is gone. Has only happened to me 5-6 times though throughout the entire time I have had the car.

Car takes off with a little revving off the line and accelerates very quickly given the engine size. I have drag raced my friend with a 2.0 liter Mitsubishi eclipse and won.

Besides the little problem with the car, it is a very fun car to drive and just rev up through every gear.

Handles pretty well. I definitely put the car to the test too.

The relatively big alternator (70amp) provides enough power to power my system of two 10 inch sub-woofers with a 1000 watt amplifier and a 200 watt head unit with still enough extra power to not have the headlights dim even when running at idle engine speed (around 800 rpm). (with no capacitor on the system)

An all around fun car which I have had only minor problems with.