2001 Kia Rio RS from North America - Comments

The windshield was cracked when I picked it up from the dealership. A new windshiel took four weeks to arrive and also was cracked.

The exterior was damaged with scratches from being parked under snow and ice at the dealership and the external mirrors were peeling.

The transmission fully died within less than a week. After six months it needed a new speed sensor and linkage adjustment. After a year the transmission computer was replaced and

the car still jolted between gears.

The electrical clock component was replaced.

The car's engine emitted the smell of sulphur and gagged me.

The overdrive on/off light flashes occasionally and randomly.

The check engine light appears all too often.

The dealership claims the manufacturer is responsible. The manufacturer claims the dealership is responsible.

I have dealt with a total of nine people between the dealership and manufacturer.

It is not Kia's policy to provide alternate transportation while my car waits weeks for repairs.

No follow up is given from the manufacturer, their promises are lies.

The transmission is safe enough to drive although it jolts my two year old in between gears. No further repairs will be provided at this time.

The car was a bad buy. The lack of appropriate customer service just ices the cake.

Kia's may be cheap to lease or buy, but cost a small fortune to keep going.

I have learned a valuable lesson. Any dealership can pass off a lemon, a classy company would be courteous and reasonable while making repairs and honouring the warranty.

I am currently starting the paperwork for arbitration. If it's such a great car, the dealership or manufacturer can have it!

If you did not drive your car so hard, you would love your KIA Rio. They are actually VERY Reliable. I think you need to realize you get what you pay for. Sure, a few things may go here or there, but at this price, you can't expect to get a rolls royce. It's simple, economical transportation, and its goal is to get you from Point A. to Point B.

If I had known of this site before I had bought my Rio, Then perhaps I would not have all these headaches.

I bought my Rio in March, in four months it has been in the shop 4 times, Is it hard driving, well let me see. No headlights, failed, turn signal fuse has been replaced twice, rear windshield motor burnt out once, Rear drivers side lights do not work, front signal presence light not working. Power windows for driver side and front passenger does not work. Transmission lags in first gear and that's in four months.

I bought my Rio 4 Months ago. The most annoying thing for me is the engine noise. It sucks big time. In this day and age you think the Korean manufacturer would have at least got something as basic as SOUNDPROOFING sussed out!

When I told my dealer I was unhappy about the noisy engine he agreed and said "Well that's why they give you such a good stereo with the car.

In here there are all sorts of reviews some good... some bad and it seems to me it is just luck as to whether or not you get a good one from the dealer. But nowadays Quality Control is something you take for granted and they ALL should be good and by and large most cars are.

We shoudnt have to read all these horror stories nowadays about what some of these poor fellows have had to put up with. Those who argue and say "Well you get what you pay for" is not really fair either because we have all paid for a new car because we all owned used vehicles before which were a headache so we went out to buy the new affordable Kia because it is NEW and trouble free- right??

Mines has been in for very minor things like air-con lights etc. I love the look of this car and all the extras which came with it made it a very attractive deal indeed.

All things considered it is a good cheap car, but somehow next time once my warranty is up, I will go for a Nissan Sunny/Pulsar as I feel the Japanese cars are the way to go in this price bracket. The Japanese are still the worlds #1 when it comes to Quality Control which appears to me to be the weakness of Kia.

The inside of the car is OK, but the car vibrates a lot,more when the a/c is on, the check engine light comes on for any given reason and finally if I had seen all the comments here before,I probably would not be writing this.

I have a 2002 Spectra and for the most part it has done OK. One minor problem is the severe power loss when the a/c is on. Recently, one headlight burned out after only having the car a year, and this was quickly followed by the other headlight burning out within two months. Also, the check engine light has come on and the dealer told me it was the gas cap (same as all the other folks have said here). They reset it it and it was fine until my fuel went below half a tank, now it is back again... guess I'll look into a new fuel cap.

Oh my god!! I keep reading over and over the exact description of what I am experiencing after only 7 short months! I am going to the dealer armed with all of these reviews and DEMAND something be done or I shall make all of this much more publicly accessible then it already is!!! They really should be the target of a class-action suit. This is unacceptable by any standards to discover such a wide-spread deluge of similar problems with the same model of car. Even at the low price it's robbery! 3 grand more would have had me in a Mazda instead!!Companies have been sued for less than this. There is enough evidence on this site to warranty such a move.

I just checked out this Kia Rio page, just to compare the number of happy/sad faces, compared to Hondas or Toyotas. Boy, there's a WHOLE buncha :( I see here.

I feel bad for you all. Sell your cars and get a used Japanese make.

My 2001 Kia Rio has many of the same problems--check engine light, funny smell, and same "solutions" tighten your gas cap. Nonsense. It has been in and out of the shop, has stopped at high speed on the highway, more than once, is on it's fourth compressor in less than four years of ownership (bought new) and now the engine is shot and guess what--they won't honor the warranty. I have been without a car for over a month. I agree with all who have mentioned the words class action suit. It is time. If interested you may email me at admin@wrmea.com.

Thanks.

Well let us start at the beginning. When I first purchased the piece of crap I drove it off the parking lot with only 20 miles on it, I thought WOW what a great deal. I was very excited because it was the first new car I had purchased since 1989. I had recently became widow and unfortunately I was not aware of what I was getting myself into. By the time I reached my home which was 50 miles away I was making a left turn and it shut off, and it would not start, finally after a few tries it started. Almost everywhere I went the car would stop while I was driving. The overdrive and check engine light would come on, as well. I took it back to the dealership, they in formed me that they knew that after the car reached 80 miles on the odometer the sensor was going to give out, only they forgot to mention that to me (nice, already to a good start!) so they replaced the sensor and that was that. About 10 months later the transmission was replaced, 2 months after that the fuel pump was replaced, along with a fuel injector. I contacted the Better Business Bureau with the hope that they would guide me in the right direction they led me to the “Lemon” law, but that just turned into a long drawn out ordeal that was never resolved. Meanwhile back at the ranch … the front passenger door would not open, I had to wait a week until they could get the part for that. About a month later I heard a noise while I was making a right turn, I took it back to the dealership and they could never determine what that noise was. So needless to say I kept driving around with the noise. To make a long story shot I have needed a lot more work done on it and take a wild guess where it is, part of my landscape. Thanks KIA.

I've had my Kia Rio for more than 4 months and its working just fine. I've had no problems with it at all. Sounds like you just bought one that wasn't in good condition.

It's been very informative reading everyone's comments. I got a new 2003 Kia Rio and I never once had a problem with it until I moved about 300 miles away from all of my family and friends. This was about 3 1/2 years after I had bought it. What started everything was when I had the car at a dealership and they replaced the fuel distributor, which was a recall item. There was a serious lack of respect when the guys were handling my car, because the mechanic didn't even put everything back together right, which caused me to miss 3 days of work at my new job in portland! I took the car to another dealership, where they were able to fix the problem, but two months later it started acting up again, with the same problem. Now I don't know what to do because I'm afraid to take it on road trips now by myself! So now I feel stuck, and even worse, no one can seem to figure out what is wrong with my car. I've even done research on the internet, but I feel no one is taking me serious enough. Any comments or suggestions, please e-mail me @ mzsweet_thang@hotmail.com thanks!