2002 Kia Rio from North America - Comments

In 2002 I bought a Kia Rio from the dealer with approximately 18,000 miles on it. Its history was explained as a repossession for non-payment, and I thought I was obtaining a good deal---a reliable car---for $8000. My need was merely to cover the 20-mile round trip between my home and where I work.

The car is a disaster. Among the recurrent problems is stalling and reluctance to start. This is experienced almost weekly. At about 25,000 miles, while traveling down a busy multi-lane highway, the car stalled abruptly, and would not re-start. I had to have it towed to a dealership. (Kia did cover that cost, but just to get home, and to return to the dealership after the repair I had to walk with my highly distressed wife to a car rental agency from the dealership, and rent a car for about $200.

Despite being "fully covered" by the warranty, I wound up paying about $200 for parts (electrical components) that turned out not to be covered. The problem was explained as a damaged timing belt, which was a little surprising at low mileage, and left me a little unfortable with a significant out-of-pocket cost for non-covered electrical components. Thus, the fiasco wound up costing $400 plus two return trips to the dealer.

The repair took a few days, and as I drove out of the dealership, the "check engine" light came on 100 yards from the dealership. That led to another multi-day "repair" where no clear explanation for the problem ever emerged. (The mechanic, who seemed genuinely embarrassed, personally arranged a loaner this time.) Since that time, the "check engine" light has come on repeatedly, and is on right now. There seems to be no obvious fix. The overdrive light comes on inexplicably too. The car continues to stall and is frequently reluctant to start, often conking out shortly after starting.

An additional "minor" irritation is that it whistles loudly at freeway speeds, and the front end seems prone to go out of alignment too readily.

The folks at the dealership are pleasant enough, but they are clearly in over their heads. they seem to have a prescribed protocol, and simply are unable to solve what are deep-seated fundamental problems with the car.

This is the worst car I've ever owned. (And I Pinto in the 70s)

I do not make much money, and have a job where I need reliable transportation that would not present me with surprise costs. To match those circumstances I was attracted to what seemed like a simple no-frills car with a strong warranty.

The warranty is "leaky." The lost work time, aggravation, dangers, risk of being stranded, mysterious warning lights with no clear outcomes, whistling, and constant problems make the attractive-sounding warranty misleading. This car has 38,000 miles on it and is already falling apart, and has been more trouble than you might expect from a car with four times as many miles.

I'd sell the car immediately, but it has no re-sale, and I owe a good bit on it still.

Man, I feel so sorry for people who have bought these cars, it is especially sad for people who aren't overly well off and probably don't know a lot about cars. A friend of mine recently told me he and his girlfriend were buying a Rio-I warned him not to and referred him to this website. Despite my warning (I know a thing or two about cars) and having looked at this website, they went ahead and bought it. Last week I banged into him and he said "you told me so",the car has been one big ball of problems, BOTH headlights have blown (together) at least 5 times, which is fine during the day-but not so terrific when you are on the highway at night! Anyway, my advice to anyone buying these is: if you want a cheap, reliable vehicle, for a few extra bucks you can get a Toyota Echo. These cars are Korean made -by Hyundai-who after 20 years of making cars still can't make a good one!

I bought my car 2 years ago. And I never had any problems with it till last week. The car kept stalling during idling and when I went to stop. I had received a recall notice on the car and I took it into the shop and when I got it out for the first day and a half the car ran great. And now it is stalling on me again.

Hi, I live in North Carolina, and I own a 2001 Kia Rio... ready to give it back to dealership... have lots of problems with it, and warranty has expired... North Carolina has a DOT site that I can find complaints about my car as well as recall information... I am not sure what state you live in, but I think it would be worth checking it out... I went online and found that NC has its own DOT website where I was able to check out complaints about my car, as well as recall information... if you have a computer, or know someone who has one, go online and type in the search bar: DOT Dept and type in your state, and see what you can find... or type in "vehicle recalls" on your search bar and it will direct you to websites that can help you out... good luck in your dealings with Kia...

I lease a 2004 Kia Rio RXV. I love it. Its so cheap. When you are buying a car like this you have to remember that you get what you pay for. Cars are not an investment, especially when they are cheap in the first place. I think of my car as disposable. I leased it for $0 down, 5yrs, my monthly payment is less than $300. In 36 months when my lease is up, I'll just give the car back and get another one. My Kia has 53,000 km's on it already and I have never had any issues with it, except a small rust bubble on the hood. When I go shopping at Ikea I don't think twice about buying large items, just fold down the seats and you'd be surprised what you can fit in the back. (1 large dresser already assembled from AS IS and 1 packaged.) Haven't had to leave anything by the curb yet. My Kia has been driven from Canada to Florida twice already. The Kia can comfortably fit three girls and all of our snowboarding gear to go up to the ski hill every weekend in the winter. The thing is if you are buying a Kia and expecting it to perform like a Mercedes, forget it, its not for you. It small, its cheap, its disposable.

Look, frankly a car IS an investment. Unfortunately, Kia is an exceptionally poor investment.