2001 Kia Rio LX from North America - Comments

I bought the Kia Rio new and had nothing but problems with it. The car shimmied at 55 to 65 miles per hour. After 6 times of balancing and changing to new wheels the factory rep. changed the wheels to mag. and the problem continued, and then finally sold it. The Kia factory rep. drove 5 new cars at the dealer. All of them had a shimmy at 55 to 65. p.s. I was getting 26 miles to the gallon, which is sad for a small 4 cylinder car.

Before you buy a new car take it out on the highway and do 70 with it to see if it has a shimmy. I will never buy an other Kia product. Kia should test their products before they sell them.

I own a 2002 Rio. Now I know I'm not alone. My car also vibrates at highway speeds. The dealer re-balanced the tires and it still does it. What I don't understand is how come this problem isn't noticed in any of the professional reviews. The average owner doesn't notice it because it's not that severe. I beleive Kia is very aware of this design fault because I read on their website that the 2003 Rio is being improved for vibration control. They are improving steering wheel and column supports, redesigned engine mounts, exhaust, and other things I can't recall. I wish I had been aware of this problem before I bought it.

I bought a 2002 Kia Rio automatic in July. In general - for the price - it's acceptable. At least it's relatively comfortable with a decent air conditioner, power steering and a nice Radio/CD. But I'm another with a shimmy/vibration problem between 55 and 70 mph. It's most severe around 60 - 65. I had the tires rotated at it's first service (6000 miles) which did nothing. I took it back today (a month after it's first service) to the dealer to have them correct this problem and they rotated the tires again! and this time balanced them as well. This has had no effect on the problem at all. In addition the transmission shifts very roughly, but I was told by the dealer at it's first service that in effect, that's just the way they are, you have to live with it. If it were not for the vibration I'd probably be happy to keep it for five years or so. But if theres no chance to fix it I think I'll be getting rid of it at the first opportunity.

I own a Kia Rio and it has no shimmy in it even at 90mph. But I have another problem and my car is currently at the dealership. I have owned this car 7 days and three times in early mornings the car would not start. It would begin to start sputter and mis and then die again. When it gets warmer out around 9am the car starts and runs fine. I hope the dealer finds the problem I really like this car 31.8mpg highway & have not done city check yet.