So, are the likes of Kia and Hyundai any good these days?

I’m pondering through a replacement for our 2008 Kuga.   There is no rush but we’d like a similar SUV and because I think Mrs K deserves it, I’d like the interior to be a nice environment – e.g. a few toys, leather etc.   She’s not a brand snob yet won’t have a Skoda 😀

We’ll be getting a petrol hybrid for school runs and 50mi weekend journeys and the Kia’s of this world seem to have more “options” that the “upper class” motors e.g. BMW X1’s, Merc GLA for the money.

So something nice inside but hybrid and not expensive, I’m not asking much – is it a top of the range Kia Sportage, mid range Peugeot 3008 or are we looking at German vehicles?  All will be nearly new / ex demo.

She a brand snob then. Buy her a bus pass in a leather wallet.

Ex-demo is the way to go and I’m sure dealers lend cars to staff to be able to call them “demo” and sell them to canny buyers. Mrs Gti bought a Volvo with 10,000 miles on it at close to half price after getting the local dealer to search his network for exactly the spec she wanted.

Exactly how I bought my car globalti.   I’ll be doing the same, just not sure which vehicle currently.

I think go and have a look, and a drive, and see what you think.

They aren’t as horrendous to look at as they were 20 years ago, and if “nice inside” is what you’re after, that’s quite subjective (and probably if you slapped a Mercedes or BMW badge on the worst of interiors some people would rate it as excellent).

Mrs Gti bought a Volvo with 10,000 miles on it at close to half price after getting the local dealer to search his network for exactly the spec she wanted.

That’s ex-demo? My last car was ex-demo with 500 miles on it

Buying a Mercedes is no guarantee – we’ve recently hired an A class and a C class and both were horrible; blingy, vulgar, lots of black plastic, terrible paintwork, impossible to adjust through the distracting screen and alarming lane assist. Hateful cars.

The hire co offered me a BMW for an extra £25 but I told them I would expect THEM to pay me £25 as compensation for the damge to my reputation at being seen driving a BMW.

Weird that she’ll drive a Ford, but not consider a Skoda.

Depending on her reasoning for the statement that she won’t have a Skoda, it potentially contradicts the statement that she’s not a brand snob. Does she have some reasoning for not having a Skoda, aside from ‘It’s a Skoda’?

My brother has a Sportage, as do my in-laws. Neither have had any issues.
My brother’s previous car list (company cars) is: V70, Golf, Saab 9-3, Golf…..that’s as far back as I can remember. He reckons the Kia is his favourite out of the lot.

About 5 months ago, I was on a business trip to our HQ in Germany. The taxi from the airport was a Hyundai Tuscon. I was very impressed with it. It was <2 years old with almost 300k km on it! It was like new inside. It wasn’t as flash as an Audi, BMW, Merc but then it’s nowhere near as expensive.

Ford are bringing out a new Kuga Hybrid if you want to stick with what you’ve got…

Picked up a Kia hire car this morning – some sort of small SUV but couldn’t tell you what it’s called. If you covered the badge, I couldn’t tell you what it was from the inside – could be one of many manufacturers out there (including some of perceived “top end” ones). It seems fine inside but absolutely dire (petrol) engine. Has no power whatsoever and probably the worst hire car I’ve ever had (from a selection of many). Probably just the basic spec, small engine this one has rather than the brand as a whole though.

Weird that she’ll drive a Ford, but not consider a Skoda.

It was a different SUV picture in 2008

Ford are bringing out a new Kuga Hybrid if you want to stick with what you’ve got…

Well, our experience with Ford is about on par with Halfords, notwithstanding my experience with BMW yesterday wasn’t that far off either…

The nicest drive we’ve had in about 25 hires was the Vauxhall Astra. Great little car.

Kia’s aren’t cheap anymore.

Do, as a poster said above, check the engine suits your driving. As for Skoda, they have some cracking petrol’s now (VAG engines) that are both frugal and have diesel like grunt from low revs – my son has a 1.2 TFSI 109 bhp, and it pulls well without changing gear.

Sod the SUV, get a Hyundai i30N

I’ve been impressed with my Hyundai i40 (other than the rubbish headlights) over the last 4 years.
Comfortable and doesn’t feel ‘budget’ inside.
Looked at a Kia Sportage and was quite impressed with that too.
But as mentioned above Kia and Hyundai aren’t exactly ‘bargain basement budget’ brands anymore.

The Korean option will be better specced for much less money than anything German.
As a bonus, everything will keep on working for far longer.
Badge snobbery is so daft.
Think about the grooviest dude or dudette you know, do they drive a German saloon?
If not, would they be even more funktastic if they did?

Thought not 😂

Think about the grooviest dude or dudette you know, do they drive a German…

I do, yes 😉 😀

Be careful of ex-demo. Sometimes Ex-Demo cars are a lot more expensive than buying new with a decent discount. People who think they a good deal are actually getting rinsed compared to buying a new car and waiting. Definitely check the brokers / forums to see how much a car can be bought new.

German cars are rapidly loosing ground to the ‘bottom end’ IMHO. BMW’s tech is an absolute shocker compared to some of the more mainstream brands. I regularly hire cars in the US and it’s amazing how many brits are stuffy about US cars and buy German without realizing how much the Germans are falling behind.

I worked in Korea a few years back, there is a lot of premium cars available over there which are not imported to the UK. I guess it’s only a matter of time before they start to bring them here, and when they do, I think the Germans will be in for a shock.

Unless you are after M/AMG/RS which don’t really have equivalents from the mainstream brands, i’d totally recommend checking out the offerings from other manufacturers.

Hyundai own part of Kia – they use the same engines and platforms for some cars , neither are “cheap” these days – but they have long warranties and don`t go wrong as a rule, they are quite good budget 2nd hand cars if you do your research.

Traditionally most cars are either “disposable” or not.
Some manufacturers make both … some only aim at one end or the other.

Overall fleet buyers want different things than individuals

very happy with our sportage. has the crappy 1.6 petrol engine, but for the vast majority of our driving (city commutes) it’s fine

Kia / Hyundai’s stated aim is to become the biggest car manufacturer on the planet.

Phase 1 was make boring and reliable cars.

Phase 2 is to make their stuff more desirable.

Things like the Hyundai i30N and the Kia Stinger are the result.

The aren’t low end brands anymore

Has no power whatsoever and probably the worst hire car I’ve ever had (from a selection of many).

Sir has not had a Vauxhall Nokia.

We’ve just ordered a replacement for our Mazda CX-5 and looked at pretty much every comparable SUV in the last couple of months.

– The new Kuga is very nice, the interior is a big upgrade from the outgoing model. Uncertainty over lead times was a problem though.
– The latest CX-5 is extremely well specced and probably the best of the bunch, but we fancied a change.
– VW Tiguan is ok but the specs are ridiculous. No standard LED lights on lower spec and no manual gearbox on higher spec. Adding options makes the prices silly very quickly.
– Really liked Peugeot 5008 but wasn’t sure about the quality and they were suprisingly expensive.
– SEAT and Skoda are almost impossible to pick apart. There is almost no seperation between them at all. Makes you wonder how long VAG will continue with both brands. In the end Skoda could offer a top spec Kodiaq at a great price with a good lead time. Quality seems equivelant to our outgoing Mazda and no worse than Ford or SEAT.

We looked at both Kia and Hyundai. Although they were slightly cheaper than Ford, Mazda and Skoda, we felt the quality was significantly lower.

Forgot to add Honda. The dealership really tried to sell us a CR-V. The discounts were crazy, would have been down to Kia/Hyundia discounted price but we just couldn’t live with the weird dash/outdated infotainment system.

Why an SUV? SUVs emit aprrox 10% more emissions than an equivalent hatchback (due to weight primarily). I know you said hybrid, but why not consider a hybrid normal car?

If your wife likes the current Kuga ? Pick up same model in Titanium X trim.

Full heated leather
Pano roof
Electric seats
Auto wipers

Full of toys

I use a lot of hire cars through work. recently driven the Kia Sportage and the Hyundai Tucson. They are both similar quality inside, however the Kia was a much better car to drive. less wallowy suspension, just a much nicer car.
My last car was a pre registered Honda Civic (when the last model changed over) Local dealer was selling off a load of brand new cars that had been registered to the dealer. So I bought a new but used car. Same 3 yr warranty etc but saved about 30%

I have no interest in modern cars with an additional dislike for SUV’s… but I had a passenger ride in a Skoda Kodiaq a few weeks ago. It was like being rolled up in a sleeping bag and flown away on a magic carpet. Or maybe I’ve spent too much time in bucket seats with no windscreen.

I wouldn’t buy one but I find it impossible to believe you’d dismiss a Skoda because of the badge given how strong the lineup is.

Having been in numerous taxis, I’ve noticed that after a hard taxi life for a few years the interiors of Kia or other lower end cars are noticeably more rattly and old feeling.

but absolutely dire (petrol) engine. Has no power whatsoever and probably the worst hire car I’ve ever had

I’ve had several hire cars where you’d say there was a serious problem with the engine and it’s doing the manufacturer reputation down (i.e. “I’ll never buy one of these!”). I then wondered if there was some form of restriction on the engine to stop it being ragged during its hire life?

We’ve hired about 25 different cars from Enterprise in the last year and none has had that problem. Are you sure you’re not just overdoing the Italian tuneup and hitting the rev limiter?

The only bad ones were the Mercs, which had a horrible lane assist thing that seemed to grab the steering wheel at random moments including on narrow lanes, really unpleasant and we couldn’t see how to turn it off. We were so un-nerved that we even stopped the A class twice thinking something was hanging down in the wheel arch.

Korean made vehicles are far better put together than you imagine. You may think they’re “undesirable” or “cheap” but you need to go sit in one and test drive one.

Badge snobbery must run in the family eh 🤪🤷‍♂️

Wasn’t that long ago you were bemoaning the same question when hopping out of your 1series, but times moved on in so many ways that it’s best to try for yourself the options put before you.

If it’s mainly your wife’s car, let her choose it.

I think only Dacia operate in the ‘bottom-end’ car market now.

My mate who work for Jaguar (and has worked 40yrs in the car industry) always tells me there is no such thing now as a bad car now. Standards are so high generally that companies simnply dont sell any if they are “really” rubbish. Not saying there arent the occasional dud but even that is less common now as even the cheaper brands are either owned by big companies or have their own good quality processes which are generally good.
I bought a Merc C class sport as an ex demo with about 4k on the clock in 2011. Still have it and it has 160k now. It is still an absolute joy to drive. No petrol head but it is quiet and smooth and incredibly comfortable. When people tell me they have driven a Merc and it is crap then I cant argue but I take it with a pinch of salt. I cant believe they built my car in 2011 then regressed to building crap.

Seeing a lot of Kia’s in town these days, especially the hybrids/EVs. For sure the styling has got better and the warranty on the new ones is really good. Compared to a Ford, I’d choose the Kia (Ford have a poor rep for rust in these parts). Hell, the Niro is like the latest ‘in’ car to buy near me.

Seeing a lot of Kia’s in town these days,

5% market share now! No longer the under dog.

I’ve had lots of Hyundai hire cars and been perfectly happy with them.

A mate’s wife refused to get a Skoda till she actually drove one. Maybe blindfold her and lead her into the dealership like a race horse into the starting gate?

“I think only Dacia operate in the ‘bottom-end’ car market now.”

My last car died a couple of months before we were due to buy a new house. Not wanting to have outstanding finance limiting our choice of mortgages & houses, we bought a used sandero stepway for a few thousand cash. The plan was to swap out to something “nicer” once mortgage and house finalised.

That was 4 years ago and I can whole heartedly say the car has been brilliant and have no plans to change until it eventually dies. The car will be 7 years old in may and needed nothing bar tyres & routine servicing in that time. It remains rattle / rumble and squeak free. When the other car dies, it’ll likely be being replaced by a duster or the estate version.

I’ve had several hire cars where you’d say there was a serious problem with the engine and it’s doing the manufacturer reputation down (i.e. “I’ll never buy one of these!”). I then wondered if there was some form of restriction on the engine to stop it being ragged during its hire life?

I think it’s because they buy the base model with the lowest power engine. I had a Corsa once, it was a really nice car – quiet, nicely built (apparently), really smooth ride and good handling. But hardly any power. You had to absolutely thrash it to do stuff like join the motorway, which was actually brilliant fun. You could rag the nuts off it and still be doing 50mph.