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Car Forum / Kia Cars / April 2007Interested in the Sportage
I'm wondering what your experiences with the sportage are. I hear a lot about the Rio and its timing belt, etc. Wondering how this car holds up on someone who can throw 50,000 miles a year on it. Much thanks, Brian On Apr 7, 1:06 pm, "HyperCube33 \(Life2Death\)" <hypercube[11x3]@hotmail.com> wrote: > I'm wondering what your experiences with the sportage are. I hear a lot > about the Rio and its timing belt, etc. Wondering how this car holds up on > someone who can throw 50,000 miles a year on it. > > Much thanks, > Brian I don't know about the newer Kia Sportage, but I have a 2000 Sportage that is running at 182,000 miles. It dropped the timing belt at 160,000 miles idling at a red light with no damage to the engine. It would have been a totally different story if I had been running down the highway. Having the timing belt changed is not cheap at the dealers. In Minnesota, it runs close to $800. I think the manual recommends that it be changed at 60,000 miles for my model. As for the overall performance, I have been really pleased. It has had normal wear-and-tear issues like alternators and brakes, but the drive train has been really dependable. I have run Mobil Synthetic or Amsoil in it since I bought it as a lease return at 35,000. One cylinder was running slightly weak at it's last compression check but all cylinders are still within a healthy range and it doesn't burn oil between changes. The only bad thing I can say about this car is that it is as aerodynamic as a square brick on a windy day on the freeway! > On Apr 7, 1:06 pm, "HyperCube33 \(Life2Death\)" > <hypercube[11x3]@hotmail.com> wrote: > the highway. Having the timing belt changed is not cheap at the > dealers. In Minnesota, it runs close to $800. I think the manual > recommends that it be changed at 60,000 miles for my model. As for Kia Rio belt change is just under $400 here in Florida , drive down and spend the savings on a couple of days in a cheap motel ! > > On Apr 7, 1:06 pm, "HyperCube33 \(Life2Death\)" > > <hypercube[11x3]@hotmail.com> wrote: [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > Kia Rio belt change is just under $400 here in Florida , drive down and > spend the savings on a couple of days in a cheap motel ! I did it cheaper than that. I have a husband who is a great mechanic. He changed out the timing belt, water pump, both coils and serpentine belts for around $200. Believe me, once you're in that far, you want to replace anything that might break. We also by-passed the $195 repair manual jealously guarded by the dealership. We found a very useful CD repair manual on Ebay for around $30. >> "amazonmama" <bsc...@frontiernet.net> wrote in message > I did it cheaper than that. I have a husband who is a great > mechanic. He changed out the timing belt, water pump, both coils and I like the ' I ' did it cheaper , lol . I might have considered it if I had a back up vehicle but it's my only one . I would hate to dismantle everything , find I needed another tool or slice a finger off and having to call around for a ride . > >> "amazonmama" <bsc...@frontiernet.net> wrote in message > [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > everything , find I needed another tool or slice a finger off and having to > call around for a ride . Hey, I didn't say it was easy. My Kia was down for about 3 weeks and I was driving my kid's minivan. You can bet there were repeat trips to the parts store--we discovered that our 2000 Kia has a 1999 engine and the water pump changed from 1999 to 2000. I had to cook a lot of "Favorite Meals" to get out of the dog house on that repair job! >> "amazonmama" <bsc...@frontiernet.net> wrote in message off and having to >> call around for a ride . > [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > I had to cook a lot of "Favorite Meals" to get out of the dog house on > that repair job! Thanks for sharing that , lol . I lived in Minnesota for 19 years and moved just a year ago to wonderful Wisconsin (meh.) So hearing this assures me that it can handle snow and subzero weather. > On Apr 7, 1:06 pm, "HyperCube33 \(Life2Death\)" > <hypercube[11x3]@hotmail.com> wrote: [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] > The only bad thing I can say about this car is that it is as > aerodynamic as a square brick on a windy day on the freeway! On Apr 9, 7:38 am, "HyperCube33 \(Life2Death\)" <hypercube[11x3]@hotmail.com> wrote: > I lived in Minnesota for 19 years and moved just a year ago to wonderful > Wisconsin (meh.) So hearing this assures me that it can handle snow and [quoted text clipped - 29 lines] > > - Show quoted text - Another Minnesota transplant! We just made the same move about 2 years ago. We moved just across the border into Wisconsin since we both still work in Minnesota. My Kia does really well in the winter. It was the only car that started in the motel parking lot one morning after a -37 degree night out in Wilmar. It gets a little goofy when there's 3-4 inches of slushy snow on the road. I'm going to try some sand bags over the wheels next winter. I should also point out that mine has a 5-speed manual transmission. I have heard that the automatics are gutless. |
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