Faults:

2nd engine blew up after 56000 ks.

Coolant problems causing car to overheat.

No power up hill.

Cost of repairs to rebuild 3rd engine, upto now $10,100.

General Comments:

After owning this car for three weeks and running costs of repairs at 10,000 dollars, I think it is safe to say the vehicle is indeed a lemon.

No help whatsoever from dealer.

Do I want the car back from repair? NO.

Faults:

My head gasket blew after three weeks of ownership.

Time belt chewed off.

Cyclinder heads broken.

Coolant system internal leakage.

Sliding door jams.

Loses power on steep hills.

General Comments:

I loved the car when we first got it. But after three weeks it completely broke down. The car is comfortable and spacey.

Faults:

Engine racing early, about 30,000 km, never found out what was wrong.

A short motor replacement was needed at 50,000 km. Because ours was one the first ones to mix the oil and water we had little waiting time for replacement. It took a week and I had a replacement car for this time.

The door rollers on the sliding doors have been replaced under warranty, unfortunately the service providers stuffed our central locking so it doesn't work on the passenger sliding door any more.

Our exterior handles on the sliding doors have been snapping, the handle on the passenger door has been off for about a month. At least I don't have to worry about the locking not working because you can't open it from the outside anymore.

A pulley on the idle rotor needed replacing over Christmas, I have found out this is a common problem on many cars when they get to about 120,000 km so I can't really blame the Kia for this.

General Comments:

Generally while this appears to be a long list of problems, the car has been reliable for us and with 5 children, 3 of them teenage boys, we have made it work hard, running up 120,000km in 6 years.

Faults:

The engine has blown at 58,000km

The sliding doors handles break

Very high petrol costs

The fittings in the car break very easily.

General Comments:

Never ever buy a KIA.

Very disappointed in KIA.

The car is a money pit that we had to pay thousands to fix when it is a known fault in the car.

Faults:

Front disk brakes replaced under warranty at only 18,000km.

Handbrake has long travel, but hold poorly.

Door seals on sliding doors come loose.

Outside door handle of sliding door snapped (plastic) and cost A$350 to fix.

Tailgate is very "tinny"

Problem with CD player volume, radio is fine.

At 59,500km, the engine failed. Oil and coolant mixed and the block had to be replaced. This is a known, common fault.

General Comments:

I bought the car new and was impressed initially by the cheap price in comparison to other cars in its class.

Power is nothing to write home about.

Driving it is more of a chore than a pleasure.

Seating is comfortable.

The air conditioning is probably the cars best feature overall.

Without warning, at just over 4 years of age and with less than 60,000km on the dial, the engine died. It had always been serviced by the Kia dealer. When this happened, the dealer knew of the problem as soon as we drove up. He could not take the car then as he had 12 other cars with the exact same problem. He said the cost to fix would be around $6,000.

After searching the internet (including this site), we found this was a common problem due to a known Kia fault. We contacted Kia and demanded the repair be done under warranty as we were nowhere near the 100,000km that Kia warrants the car for, although we were beyond the 3 years. I believe it was because we had prior knowledge and a Kia service history that they agreed to repair the car free of charge to us. The problem was it would take 3 months.

After gaining approval for the repair, we went to the Kia dealer and suggested we would like to trade the car in, on the understanding that the car would have a new engine in three months time. We managed to secure a A$15,000 trade price on a new Honda Jazz VTi-S (same dealership).

We had paid $32,000 in 2000 for the Kia. Today the 2004 model Carnival is available for $28,000 drive away.

They say Kia Carnival is "the best value for money people mover on the market". What good is a cheap car that dies after only 60,000km??