Our kodiaq was pretty amazing. Proper waft along motoring. Not as clever inside as the yeti we had before that. VWGs quality is a bit dubious though & we’ve had lots of issues with the 4motion system cars in the family. Their software is also a bit test-it-on-the-user with seats that would misremember positions, vanishing radio presets, gearbox defaults that would change with every update and still be inconsistent across the ranges (superb, caravelle & kodiaq with the same box, behave totally differently). My yeti had every door replaced because of corrosion.

Kia used to produce soulless heaps. That is definitely no longer the case. MG, Dacia, Ssanyong perhaps.

You had to absolutely thrash it to do stuff like join the motorway, which was actually brilliant fun

Yep, that was pretty much it 🙂

As others have said, neither of them are bottom end anymore, simply mainstream. Saying that, I’ve never really liked any Hyundai I’ve sat in and my pal’s 17 reg i30 has incredibly uncomfortable seats.

If I were you I wouldn’t be looking at a mid range SUV with all the bells and whistles, I’d spend the same on a ‘premium’ brand. Depreciation is usually through the floor for specced up boggo cars and regardless what tales are told from my experience the ‘premium’ motors are nicer places to be in the long run. If I was buying a Ford/Kia/Seat/etc again I’d go mid spec and save some money.

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

Same as my wife.

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.

Easy enough to dismiss when you can buy a Seat or VW that will be virtually the same.

We have a Kia Ceed Estate. Been incredibly reliable. Its now 8 years old, Kia were great with the 7 year warranty, they even covered items I thought of as consumables.
I still think they are a lot cheaper than their german counterparts. We’ve decided we will run this one into the ground rather than replace it, when it does eventually get replaced it will be with another Kia.
The inside of ours is still clean, no rattles. Carpets are worn, but thats fair enough and easy enough to replace if we thought it bothered us. Its a level 3, so has Sat Nav, USB and Bluetooth connectivity and rear parking camera.

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

This is certainly to be the case.  My job is to present her with a series of viable alternatives to test drive.

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.

To some extent they are designed to … that is some cars are targeted at a buyer that feels a need to change cars every couple of years. It’s not necessarily manufacturer specific as the target new car buyer.

To some extent some cars are just not designed to last … do high miles or be quick/easy to service or change parts easily whereas others are because their expected buyer is a fleet market.
It’s not just trim levels or engine… it’s the amount and solidity of metal in for example a door or bonnet.

and in more modern cars there is guff like sat nav and bluetooth integration which certainly on the cheaper ones is just “dated” by the changes to electronic wizardry almost from the time the car is designed.

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.

even though running in is less important than it used to be ragging the nuts off it (which we all do in a 1.2 hire car) is rarely a good start to the first 5000 miles….

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

what about Arseton Martin?

BuMW?

Capri Pants?

Bearded Clamborgini?

Porsche Barking Spyder?

SEAT?

We’ve just gone through the same thing. Mrs Inbred is changing jobs and needs an automatic. Test drive a few Kia’s and Hyundai’s. Quality is okay but the drive was horrible. Steering felt Woolley and the suspension was horrible. They are no longer cheap either. Ended up with an X1. Knocked everything into a cocked hat to be honest.

what about Arseton Martin?

BuMW?

Capri Pants?

Bearded Clamborgini?

Porsche Barking Spyder?

SEAT?

You missed Kia Stinger. On topic too 🙂

Jenson Button

Sir has not had a Vauxhall Nokia.

Nor a VW Up! – Nasty, hateful, gutless little shlt-box.

I say that from the perspective of owning a Hiyundai i10 for the last 10 years. (Which has been great – never missed a beat, but is starting to get tatty inside now.)

Mrs has got a 67 plate kuga tdci awd 180bhp,and its actually quite good, and this is coming from a real car snob.

We looked at seat ateca, Nissan quashqai and x trail and bmw x1 and x3.

The bmws were clearly the best, but were also the most expensive by quite a long way.

The quashqai was awful I thought, very cheap feeling inside, the xtrail was a bit better.

Couldn’t bring myself to consider a kia or hyundai, audi or skoda.

Check out the Mobius 2. An African built car.

what about Arseton Martin?
BuMW?
Capri Pants?
Bearded Clamborgini?
Porsche Barking Spyder?
SEAT?

mASSy Ferguson?
Swedish manufacturer- Vulva

Something I’ve noticed when visiting friends is that those with the plushest cars also have the most austere houses with the least comfortable sofas. The sort of sofas where there’s nowhere to rest your head and the squab is too long for your legs, yet their cars have seats nearly as comfortable as my super plush sofa.

With the exception of entry level Dacias I find the interiors of almost any modern car perfectly accpetable, and even if the Dacia seats look awful they are remarkably comfortable on long trips: Pau – Berlin in two days and no aches.

In terms of connectivity the trend seems to be just replicating the phone, so for as long as a phone has bluetooth and/or a USB port your car’s tech will be up to date.

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.

Aside from the fact it’s not; BMW’s idrive is now pretty much the best in the business, it’s a million times better then Ford’s diabolical Sync system. I prefer it to the touch screen that was in my vRS. At least they still give you buttons / idrive controller rather than making everything controllable through touchscreens, which seems odd when it’s illegal to use a smart phone but pissing about on a giant iPad fixed to the car to change the temperature or whatever is ok.

Back on topic, the likes of Kia and Hyundai are making much better cars than they used to, easily the equivalent of a Ford or a Vauxhall. Sone of the plastics are a bit naff, but it’s easy enough to find crappy plastics in the big German brands now they’re chasing volume. Skoda are no longer a bargain basement brand, yes there are often pretty big discounts but they’re still far more expensive than they used to be.

Also have to remember than since BMW (for example) went for sales volume and became mass market, their quality has dropped with the use of cheaper plastics etc. It’s not just the bottom end has progressed, but the top end has not carried on at the level it once was either.

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

Nah, Ssangyong hold that honour. Really, really cheap hard plastics on the dash, in a sort of Matt metallic grey and silver, looks like a Philips boom box from the 70’s.
I really like the Sportage, current styling is smooth and uncluttered, nicer looking than the Tucson, although the Tucson with the bigger engine goes like the clappers! The Sportage GT-line gets paddles with the auto ‘box, and is nicer finished, handles well for a tall-ish car, better than the Tucson. Nothing wrong with the Qashqai, higher spec models get heated screen, bigger infotainment screen, very reliable.
My personal favourite at the moment is the Ford Ecosport, especially the ST-Line spec; Fiesta based, lovely seats, heated screen, larger infotainment screen with satnav, paddle-shift with the auto, the 1.5 diesel can be had as a 4×4, although the little 1.0 Ecoboost goes well, very quiet and solid feeling.
Vauxhall are actually doing an SUV version of the Viva, which, while pretty basic, still gets cruise control, BT connection, etc.
The Corsa gets a heated screen, and are a delight to drive, I drove six back from Cornwall over the space of five days, from a body repair place, did a total of about 1200 miles in them, very comfy drive, quick and quiet engine, good auto ‘box as well.

Nor a VW Up! – Nasty, hateful, gutless little shlt-box.

Is that right? Well, I’ve driven lots of them, the Up!, Citigo and Mii, I drove a Citigo back from Cornwall, about 220 miles, two years old, had about 1200 miles on it. Overtook a Disco 4 on the M5 near Portishead, my satnav said I was doing 105, it didn’t feel at all stressed…
‘Cos my job for nearly four years has been vehicle logistics I’ve driven the majority of models across most of the major car brands sold in the UK, so I’ve had a good opportunity to get a good idea of what each has to offer, and I’ll take a Kia, Hyundai, Ford or Vauxhall over a BMW or Mercedes any day – Mercedes are seemingly plagued with electronic issues, get a flat battery and you also get an engine management light that has to be seen to, we’ve had two at work that just couldn’t be made to run after a flat battery, one couldn’t even be got out of Park, both had to be trailered away. Beemers are just not comfortable to drive, I hate the driving position, although their engines seem ok.
Although to be fair we had a fairly new X2 SUV in recently, which I really liked the look of, sadly I didn’t get a chance to drive it. Nice looking car, has a hint of Hyundai Tucson about its lines…