2001 Kia Rio review from North America

Turn signal failed at 3,000 miles and needed replaced. This required some of the interior to be pulled out and it never really fit together correctly afterward.

A recall for stalling occurred around 10,000 miles. The repair helped the problem, but afterward I felt the car lost a little engine power. As well, the car would still stall periodically at startup.

Around 15,000 miles the head gasket/ head cylinder blew. The head gasket/head cylinder failed a second time approximately 6 months later then approximately 6 months following the second head gasket/head cylinder failure it happened again! This third time was pretty bad as it failed quickly without warning. I noticed that the engine smoking on my way to work and had to have it towed to the dealership because "it could catch on fire".

I knew the car was one of the cheapest alternatives available, but I decided to give it a chance. My experience with this car made me a true believer of "you get what you pay for".

The dealership seemed to think it was not a big deal to ask me to continually give up my car for weeks at a time in order to have major repairs done. I got the impression they were used to having to replace parts on these cars! The car was only 3 years old with less than 30,000 miles when I got rid of it and it had already gone into the shop at least 5 times for major problems.

I went ahead and paid off the gap amount owed on that car by adding it to my current vehicle because the trade-in value was pitiful and falling rapidly plus, I really wanted to get rid of the thing before it caught on fire and injured someone!