I wasn’t certain Kia would take the risk. I was going to drive 400+ miles home to North Carolina in a Sorento SX Limited that had just been pulled off the assembly line, visit the factory in West Point, Georgia, an hour southwest of Atlanta. Giving a newly constructed car to a magazine writer calls for faith in your productno break-in miles, no making sure I get a flawless vehicle. Yet Kia concurred. It’s a brave play that makes it clear it has a message to make.
I questioned whether there was a tipping point when a businessman in Korea banged his fist on a desk.
During its formative years in the early 2000s, Kia was the brunt of jokes. The J.D. Power Initial Quality Study (IQS), which tracks owners’ grievances after three months of driving, consistently placed its vehicles in the bottom. Kia was ranked 30th as recently as in 2005. It occupied 37th place at the bottom a few years prior. Its cars, like those made by fellow Koreans Hyundai and Daewoo, were renowned for having low MSRPs and not much else. Early in the new millennium, the mechanic who serviced my 1991 Saab, a model of dependability, also had a successful side business keeping Kias on the road. “He informed me, “I have a stack of Sportage engines out back.” “They frequently detonate.
But for the previous two years, Kia has topped the IQS survey, closely followed by Hyundai and Genesis, Kia’s corporate brothers. However, reputations have momentum. I just heard Paul Varghese, a comedian, make a ton of jokes about Kia. Setup: “Sir, we upgraded you to a Kia,” the rental desk employee remarked. (The crowd laughs.) The joke: “What was I upgraded from, shoes?
Everyone at Kia is aware of this and is actively attempting to change these attitudes, both in Seoul and in the Georgia facility.
I was a driver of the Kias that defined that era. The Amanti from the middle of the 2000s had the air of a Mercedes E-Class copycat. The Sedona was constructed with as much cast iron as a Tahoe, making it weigh that much. But in 2006, change began. Designer Peter Schreyer was hired by Kia from Audi. It was a significant poach, and when he arrived, the cars began to appear better because his resume included the renowned Audi TT. Sales and IQS numbers increased throughout the entire company in 2009 as a result of the Soul’s unexpected success. Kia’s market share increased from 1.62 percent in 2005 to 3.53 percent in 2018. This kind of expansion is unheard of in the market, and Schreyer’s goal of improving Kias’ appearance contributed to it. primarily to distinguish them from Hyundai vehicles in terms of appearance.
Hyundai, sure. Hyundai acquired a bankrupt Kia back in 1998, and it now owns around one-third of the business. Consider the vehicles with any name as siblings rather than twins. In terms of shared engineering, Hyundai and Kia enjoy a good deal of freedom to market and design their vehicles differently. Not every Hyundai has a Kia equal, and the opposite is true. The Veloster and Soul are not available in Kia or Hyundai versions. In general, I’d say Kia’s designs lean younger and sportier, but perhaps I’m just falling for the hip-hamster-based advertising. Along with the introduction of anthropomorphic hamsters, Kia has also progressively become more upscale. According to Kia spokesperson Neil Dunlop, charging more for its vehicles demonstrates a purposeful separation between cost and value. “According to him, it’s not about being at the low end of the price range. This implies that, although not always, current Kias are still somewhat more affordable than their rivals. About $45,000 buys the Cadenza Limited. A fully equipped Lexus ES 350 costs only roughly $3,000 more than a less expensive ES. Kia uses pricing to communicate that, you know, we’re not all that different from Lexus.
This price strategy is a reflection of changes that go beyond quality. On the production floor, I questioned whether there was a specific time, a pivotal event, when a Korean executive thumped his fist on a conference table and declared a mandate to defeat Lexus in the IQS. It took a few weeks for Kia, who was writing from Korea, to respond and confirm that such a choice had been made: “Yes, the Hyundai Motor Group, which also includes Kia, decided to prioritize quality over quantity more than ten years ago. It appears that nobody wants to claim the glory. However, when I got back to Georgia, Kia was more than happy to demonstrate how it actually achieved that improbable aim of going from worst to first.
The brutal reality of industrial manufacture collides with theories and ambitions at West Point, just like it does at any auto factory. Numerous things can go wrong at this point. Kia’s plan is to ambush them quickly. Just to identify paint flaws, this plant has 39 codes (No. 14: “thin coat; No. 39: “mottle). Additionally, a panel only receives paint if it passes a series of previous quality checks.” According to Ted Arnold, senior manager of quality assurance, if even one hair enters a die, “it might manifest in metal. Even with thousands of tons of force, one hair can completely wreck an operation.
Arnold has experience in the field; he was formerly employed at an Alabama Mercedes plant. Although West Point employs 3,000 people, he appears to know everyoneat least, everyone who works this day shift. Every day, from Monday through Friday, the line is open. When a shift changes, the new employees smoothly continue producing automobiles behind those who are about to clock out. “According to Arnold, a number of individuals in this area used to work in the textile sector. “Consequently, we had access to a skilled work force. The $22 million Kia Georgia Training Center, which has welding, robotics, electronics, and quality-control labs, is where every worker at the facility spent at least 40 hours. Additionally, more than two-thirds of those workers have been to Korea for additional training. Like in every modern auto plant, robots stamp and weld panels, but the Sorento, Optima, and Hyundai Santa Fe cars made here exhibit a surprisingly high level of human artistic talent. For instance, take stoning. Every tenth door panel that comes through is manually rubbed with fine stones to check for flaws.” According to Arnold, any high points will appear as brilliant silver and any low points as darker silver. The entire batch is rubbed if anything is off. as well as the previous batch. “He claims that since it’s simpler to correct here, we want to catch anything before it gets to the paint. I assumed that laser-eyed Terminator robots would perform this kind of work on a global scale. However, Honda’s Marysville facility also carries out this activity. Even on the scale of Hondas and Kias, human hands are still used in the process of shaping metal for quality control.
The car receives four gallons of gas, just enough to test it and move it around while traveling to the dealer, once any identified issues are repaired (my loaner Sorento had only one, resolved earlier, noted as some sort of residue on one of the seats). While a technician sits behind the wheel tapping buttons on the dash, validating all the connections, a diagnostic computer fires the car’s electric synapses. Check: front-seat coolers. Driving the vehicle into what seems to be a Hollywood green-screen room allows a Kia employee to calibrate the surround-view cameras by tapping targets on the dashboard touchscreen. After the alignment, the vehicle undergoes a high-speed four-wheel dynamometer test to check the efficiency of the engine and transmission. The driver next makes a circuit of the test track outdoors to inspect the antilock brakes, steering, acceleration, suspension, and even the hill-holder feature of the brakes. Back inside, the Sorento pulls into a leak-testing area that resembles a particularly vicious car wash.
However, the issue remains: Doesn’t everyone do this? No, not all of them. I’ve witnessed McLaren dyno test each supercar costing over $200,000. But in Marysville, Honda only spot checks. With every vehicle, Kia does this. After the tour is over, I get into my 13-mile-old Sorento. I question Arnold about whether I should ease into it by traveling a few hundred miles slowly. He claims that there is no specific break-in period because they started driving it on the dyno test as soon as the oil was warm. So, as I drive onto the highway’s on-ramp, I floor it, releasing the 3.3-liter V-6’s full 290 horses. The Sorento has some vigor. However, this design has been used before. It was released in 2011, therefore it is dated. Instead of eight or nine speeds, the transmission has six. Electronic lane keeping is absent. Additionally, I have to unscrew a plastic cap when I stop for gas. The Sorento is fundamentally a charming companion, but minor features serve as reminders that it needs an overhaul. The cabin is well-designed, with real knobs for the HVAC and music, and it is quiet while driving. The Sorento is a capable and well-built vehicle that aims to calm rather than excite. The latter, which Kia is currently capable of doing (see: Stinger), is not the goal of midsize crossovers.
I would go almost a thousand miles before Kia took back the Sorento. There were countless scenarios that could have gone wrong along the way. But it didn’t.
In This Article...
Why is Kia a great car?
Yes, Kia reliability is above average, to put it succinctly. Even though Kia had a bad reputation when it initially entered the US market about 20 years ago, a lot has changed since then. Currently, the brand is rated 4.0 out of 5.0 on RepairPal, placing third out of 32 brands of automobiles.
RepairPal uses driver-reported information on brand average yearly repair costs, the frequency of unexpected repairs, and the seriousness of needed repairs to calculate dependability scores. Kias and other vehicles with high RepairPal reliability ratings are less likely to experience frequent mechanical problems.
Kia offers one of the greatest new car warranties in the business as a guarantee for the dependability of its vehicles. Kia significantly outperforms the industry standard of three years for bumper-to-bumper coverage and five years for the powertrain. The Kia guarantee comprises a ten-year powertrain warranty as well as a five-year bumper-to-bumper warranty.
Your Kia should last for at least ten years if you follow up with routine maintenance. If not, the majority of significant problems are probably covered by warranty.
Kia Factory Warranty
One of the best manufacturer warranties in the industry is offered by Kia. A new Kia vehicle includes:
- 60,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty for five years.
- Powertrain warranty of 10 years and 100,000 miles
- Warranty against perforation for 5 years and 100,000 miles
- Roadside assistance coverage for 5 years and 60,000 miles
Kia J.D. Power Awards
Kia has received numerous J.D. Power honors for a variety of automobiles. The Kia Soul, Forte, Sorento, and Sedona, for instance, each received the Highest Quality award that year. A J.D. Power Dependability award was additionally given to the 2016 Kia Soul in 2019. This prize takes into account issues with used cars that are three years old.
Are Kia vehicles of high quality?
Significant advancements achieved by Kia in recent years have helped to restore its reputation. Today, a Kia model is recognized as a trustworthy and useful family vehicle.
Despite not being known for luxury, the brand has advanced significantly in terms of dependability. One of a Kia’s strongest qualities is its lengthy warranty time; the majority of Kia models come with a ten-year powertrain warranty and a five-year bumper-to-bumper warranty.
Kia outperforms the industry standard in this area, which is a three-year and five-year warranty. With extremely few mechanical faults reported by owners in the first three years of ownership, Kia gets a RepairPal score of 4.0 out of 5.0.
According to reports, a well-maintained car might last up to ten years with minimal maintenance.