Car Gazing
Another pleasant surprise from Kia
Sedona minivan an example of improving quality from Korean brands
By Derek Price
I sometimes wish I could conduct a blind taste test with cars.
You know, like in the cola commercials.
I'd line people up, blindfold them, then challenge them to see if they could tell which car was best simply by feel. I'd drive them around town and on the highway, then let them feel the dash and the seats to see what they really thought about a car without knowing its brand or seeing all the marketing hype surrounding it.
And if I put them in this minivan – the Sedona – I bet they'd think it's a Toyota or Honda. There's no way they'd think it's a Kia.
It has way too much power and refinement for that badge, or so you'd think. It makes 250 horsepower from a slick V6 engine and glides down the road with nearly all the poise and grace of a luxury car.
If you run your hand along the dash, all the panels line up perfectly and feel far more solid than you'd expect in a minivan. In fact, the whole experience is like sitting in a very nice Japanese full-size car, right down to the smell.
Trouble is, it's not a Japanese car. It's Korean, which means you're probably suspicious.
And for a good reason.
For a long time, Korean cars had a reputation for being garbage. They were known for their terrible reliability, perhaps placing them one step – an itty-bitty step – above the disposable Yugo.
Today, though, the Korean brands are on the attack and beginning to raise their standards to match their Japanese and American counterparts. J.D. Power and Associates, which ranks the quality of new cars and trucks, placed the overall quality of Hyundai and Kia higher than many well-known makes like Chrysler, Dodge, Hummer, Jeep, Land Rover, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Suzuki and Volkswagen. That's quite an accomplishment.
As if that's not enough, the Sedona earned a prestigious five-star crash safety rating from the U.S. government for both front and side impact. And when you're selling a family-friendly minivan, that top rating is more valuable than gold.
Add it all up, and you're looking at the best bang-for-the-buck minivan out there. It starts at $20,695, which is about $3,500 less than the Toyota Sienna and $5,000 less than the Honda Odyssey.
Still, the questions about Kia's quality linger.
Honda and Toyota have spent decades building a reputation for reliability. Kia hasn't. Its rise in quality is a much more recent phenomenon, so not only are you taking a bit of a gamble in buying a Sedona, but you'll also be saddled with lower resale values becuase of the inherent liability in that Kia badge.
Based on the vehicle alone, though, the Sedona is a real winner.
For people who are only considering an Odyssey or Sienna, a trip to the Kia dealer might be enough to change your mind.
(Derek Price is a newspaper editor and freelance writer living in Texas.)
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