In recent years almost every vehicle has become expensive due to inflation. It’s why Kia vehicles are becoming popular nowadays due to their price.
However, there are 4 things you should know so that you don’t regret purchasing a Kia-made car.
There’s a Reason Why Kia’s Are So Cheap
Kia is one of the cheapest car brands in the market. You can get more features on a Kia vehicle than an alternative brand at a lower cost.
However, Kia’s are cheap for several reasons.
First of all, the engine build quality isn’t excellent. A Toyota or Honda engine will last a long time if you properly maintain it. It’s common where A Toyota will last more than 200,000 miles with minimal maintenance.
However, Kia’s engines are notoriously bad. After a few years, these engines start to develop various problems even if you do all the routine maintenance. Engine jerking, oil burning, getting too hot, or catching fire are common issues with Kia vehicles.
Moreover, Kia’s safety features aren’t that great. It’s one of the lowest safest cars on the road. Yes, Kia’s can be cheaper, but your safety comes first during an accident. And Kia’s are not good cars from a safety perspective.
The build quality of Kia’s is also not great. Even though they use parts made by Hyundai, the build quality is poor. To keep the selling price low, Kia’s QC ignores a lot of steps that make a car great.
Just imagine an iPhone vs. a Chinese phone. Nowadays, you can purchase a Chinese Android phone at a fraction of the cost of an iPhone. Moreover, those Chinese phones will have more features than your iPhone. However, these Chinese phones only last for a short time compared to the iPhone.
Similarly, even though Kia’s are cheap, they’re cheap for a reason. To keep the price low, Kia sacrifices engine and build quality. And these quality issues will come to bite you in the long run.
Even though every Kia vehicle has a long-term warranty, but those warranty has too many conditions to qualify. For example, you must keep documents and proof of all oil changes to keep your warranty valid. Kia will deny your warranty claim if you don’t have these records, which is unusual compared to other car brands such as Toyota, Honda, or Ford.
Kia doesn’t have the brand reputation of Toyota, Honda, or Tesla. Thus, if they make their vehicle price comparable to Toyota, people would not buy their cars. Because if the price is the same, people will consider buying Toyota instead of Kias. Thus, they have no choice but to keep the price lower than their competitors.
Kia doesn’t hold its resale value well. It’s a cheap car, and the depreciation is even worse. Thus, if you want a vehicle that will hold its resale value, you should buy Honda or other known brands. But if you are not worried about depreciation, you can buy a Kia.
The Kia corporate management isn’t straightforward with the build quality of their vehicle. A few years ago, almost all Kia vehicles had serious engine issues. But the Kia management dragged the issues too long before acknowledging the problem.
Here’s Why Kia Drivers Are So Bad
We always say that one’s driving behavior reflects one’s character.
First, we will examine what makes someone a bad driver and then explore why Kia drivers are so bad.
A selfish person will show his or her selfishness on the road. These people will not allow you to merge and will speed up so that you can’t change lanes in front of them. However, when it’s their turn to change lanes or merge into the traffic, they will do so aggressively in front of you.
There are also drivers who will tailgate you even on the highway, even if you are going at 70mph. These drivers who tailgate you are not only ignorant but also don’t have any common sense. Even though DMV and defensive driving courses repeatedly teach that tailgating is dangerous, they will still ignore those warnings and will create a dangerous situation on the road because they simply don’t care.
There are also drivers who will honk at you at a traffic light the moment it turns green from red. You will see these types of drivers, especially in New York City. These drivers are impatient not only on the roads but also in their lives. It’s entirely unnecessary to honk the moment the light turns green. Honking at others unnecessarily is disrespectful, but these drivers don’t care because they don’t respect others.
According to research, the majority of Kia buyers are aged 35+ and low to middle earners male.
At the age of around 40+, almost everyone goes through a middle-life crisis. Moreover, as people grow older, their attitude becomes more agitated.
Furthermore, income and financial situations also impact people. Those who are financially stressed will always be in either a depressed or agitated state.
Now, people buy Kia’s not for its reliability or look but because of its price. As Kia vehicles are cheap, people buy these vehicles to save money.
As we already know, Kia buyers typically tend to be 35+ and financially constrained; they are stressed out in their life. This stress affects their psyche, which we see indirectly affects their driving behavior on the road.
These are one of the primary reasons why Kia drivers are bad.
If you purchase a Kia, even if you are a good driver, people will associate you with bad drivers because of these stereotypes.
Why are Insurance Companies Not Insuring Kia?
Some insurance companies, such as state firms, farmers’ insurance, and others, have recently been declining to insure Kia vehicles. Other insurance companies are also dropping current insurance owners.
The primary reason these insurance companies do not insure Kia vehicles is that Kia’s are easy to steal. In fact, in recent years, Kia has been getting stolen everywhere.
Almost every modern-day car comes equipped with an engine immobilizer. A device that protects a car from getting stolen without the actual key with a chip present near the car. Report says that only 26% of Kias come with these engine immobilizers. Thus most Kia models can be started with hot wiring without an actual key being present.
This uptick in stolen Kia vehicles is a risk for insurance companies as insurance companies have to pay the vehicle owner if the vehicle gets stolen.
Ensuring Kia is a very high-risk liability for insurance companies. Thus, they are refusing to insure Kia vehicles. Even if some companies insure Kia, the insurance premium is typically higher compared to insuring other comparable vehicles.
Why is Kia Easy to Steal?
Not all Kia’s are easy to steal. However, there are Kia models that lack security features such as an alarm and engine immobilizer. Therefore, on these models, if a burglar breaks the window, there will be no alarm. Thus, no one will know if someone is trying to steal from the Kia.
Moreover, in every modern car, there’s a security feature that prevents starting the engine without the right key. One is the engine immobilizer, and another is the wheel lock.
In order to save cost and sell cars at a cheap price, Kia has made various models where there is no engine immobilizer or wheel lock. Therefore, a thief can get into a Kia and break the steering wheel column cover to hot wire to start the engine without a key.
We understand that saving money is important, but please don’t buy a Kia with no wheel lock or engine immobilizer.
Even though Kia has said that they will update software for those vehicles that are popular among car thieves, it doesn’t matter.
The main reason why these Kia’s are getting stolen is that it lacks security features such as an engine immobilizer. It’s a hardware problem. A software update isn’t going to solve the problem.
Kia also has proposed that they will provide external wheel locks to customers free of charge to prevent theft.
But one has to remember that, for thieves who are serious about stealing a car, the external wheel lock will not prevent them from stealing the Kia car.
