1994 Kia Sephia LS from North America - Comments

The real question is what HASN'T gone wrong with my car? Nothing.

CV joints were replaced at 48,000 miles.

Brakes were replaced at 50,000 miles.

My dashboard is warped so badly, that I had to order a dash cover (custom of course, since KIA products are so hard to find)

I am having a lot of problems with all of the locks on my car. My trunk will only open when it wants to, which is hardly ever.

The drivers side door lock gets stuck, so I can't lock my car, unless I want to crawl in from the passenger side.

The other two doors have their own set of problems. One door won't open because the lock got jammed, and the other won't because the child-proof lock broke off in the door!

These are just the beginning of the problems I have experienced with my 'car'.

When I purchased this car I was sixteen years old. I thought I was getting such a great deal. I now know better.

It has cost me more to fix this car than what it cost me originally.

Remember: There is a reason why these cars are priced so low. They are basically junk.

If you see a KIA-Run! Run far, far away, and don't look back.

I have 94 kia sephia and it's goin on 164,000 miles...I've had a bad transmission gasket, a bad wheel bearing, and some broken axles (my fault). oh well eh?

Tomorrow I trade in my 1994 KIA that I paid 2,000 for used. Other than the speedometer sensor, which I discovered to be the first KIA Sephia 1994 recall, I haven't had any problems until recently. As a matter of fact, I was getting 50 MPG on the highway. Nobody believed me, but my work was 51 miles away from home and it cost me 2 gallons of gas per day. One going, One coming home. Lately my KIA is having troubles. It floods out for no apparent reason if I drive too far at high speed. Let the car set for 2 or three days and it starts once more. KIA couldn't figure it out, but they still charged me a bunch to scratch their heads. I have enjoyed the last three years in my 94 KIA. The comments I've seen make me think I may have just gotten lucky.

I have just recently purchased a 96 Kia Sephia and it has been a dream!

I don't know what your version of loud and noisy engine noise is on the inside. I can barely hear the engine even when I tack it up.

I've talked to many mechanics and they all say that Kia is one of the safest cars, one of the most reliable and is a cinch to work on. Yeah, the dash sucks, but it's only superficial damage and can be overlooked when you take into consideration that handles very well, performs great and gets great gas mileage.

It's very comfortable to be either the driver or the passenger. So to all of the people whining about how it's uncomfortable and cramped, dude loose some weight!

To all of you talking about how things kept breaking, think of it this way, I bought mine used and have yet to replace anything and most of the parts on mine are stock, so I think it's the driver and not the car. If you drive it hard, it'll break especially if you have no clue on how to drive.

So to all that likes their Kias, Right On!!, and to all of you whiners, go buy a Honda, they make cars that are better suited for wimps.

In 2000 I married a beautiful woman with a 1996 KIA Sephia GS. A few months before that, I had to replace the lower half of the engine in this car (and send the head for re-building), because the water pump impeller had rotted clean off, which caused the poor thing to overheat and seize - breaking all four pistons. Of course, this was only a few months after I had replaced the front rotors and pads because they were making me grind my teeth at every stop. I thought a dash mat would be a nice gift, but soon after the sunburned dash actually curled up to try to kiss the rear-view mirror. I thought it was cute how my fiancee would open the car from the passenger side, because the key wouldn't work in the driver's side lock. But, I hated it when she yelled at me for lowering the driver's side window, just because the window would fall out of the track into the door if lowered more than half-way. Now, I know you might ask why I would bother to fix a car like this, but it wasn't because her brother had bought it for her graduation, and it wasn't because I liked proving my manly auto-repair skills to her family as I work on it in the street in front of her house. It was because she still owed almost $4000 on this junk, and it was just too hard to shoot this lame mule, especially before the wedding.

It has been over two years now since we were married, and we've been keeping that poor thing out in the driveway. Recently it blew a white trail of smoke all the way home from work. When I opened the engine this time, I couldn't help, but ask myself why I hadn't accepted the $1000 trade-in value the Chevy dealer would have given me. I'm just going to replace the piston that has split in half and see if I can unload this Korean Bomb on some dealership that is doing well. Maybe David Letterman will let me throw it off of his building, yeah and see if it floats.