2003 Kia Sedona LX review from North America

In March 2003 we leased our Kia Sedona, our first mistake. Armed with the protection of Bumper to Bumper warranty we headed on down the road, our second mistake. July of the same year as I pulled into our driveway the back drivers’ side tire blew. We put the spare on and took the blown tire into Kia who informed us that the tire didn’t blow, but we had “sliced the tire with a knife”. We live in the country and have a 30K highway drive (one way) each day so being our only mode of transportation to work, well hey it would only make sense that we would jeopardize our bread and butter. In the period since we acquired this vehicle up to today we have changed the headlights four times. This is again our fault as I should be leaving for work when it is light out and be home before the sun goes down. Through this period I am bringing the vehicle in for its check ups and oil changes to the tune of an over exaggerated price compared to even the specialty shop prices and it was at this time I was told that the brakes would need to be replaced. Not that I have a suspicious bone, but I decided to have a second opinion so off to one of those specialty shops where I asked them to check the brakes and install new ones if need be. Amazing thing happened, the worn down brake pads rejuvenated themselves and hardly any wear was visible. What did Kia see that this company didn’t? In this past month a shimmy developed and into Kia we went again. They checked the van from “one end to the other” and the synopsis was that I needed new tires, keeping in mind that they had the van from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. As we had problems with the tires since the first “blow out” we dealt with another company for tires, which I may add has given no problem. So off I went to the other company to have new tires put on and an alignment. This is were I find out that the tires were separating and the right and left tie rods and left rack and pinion need to be replaced. Back to Kia, surely this has to be between the two bumpers for the warranty to kick in. Wrong again. Off to the MTO who suggested we take the van to two different garages and get the mechanics findings on paper and go back to Kia with these. This we did and back to Kia we went. Nope, still not between the bumpers and according to them Nothing is wrong with the van. From the MTO, the two garages that we had check the vehicle, the bottom line is the vehicle is unsafe. We had an independent garage fix the van. There is a saying that there is honour among thieves, well Kia is certainly a contender to have their poster on a post office wall. It seems that they have zero in honour and as for the five star safety rating well we fixed the tie rods before I could test out that line.