I've seen a number of posts on this forum in which people come defend Hyundai/Kia products which is definitely surprising for those of us who know about the reality of the quality these two manufacturers have and have read all those firsthand experiences with their issues and also Scotty's thoughts on Hyundai/Kia. On a different forum someone was asking about mechanical opinion on a Kia vehicle which I responded to along with including a link from this forum about the issues with these brands. Someone came responding defending these brands and all the so-called arguments used were exactly the marketing tactics of Hyundai/Kia so I thought it was interesting/worth to post it here. As I always say some people their brain is in their eyes and what they see, not the reality.
https://community.yaamember.com/c/general/wanting-kia-k5
I bet if you go to almost any brand (e.g. Mercedes, BMW, Pursche,...) you will find more people defending that criticizing.
True, and also I feel like the reasons/sources people use to defend for example Hyundai/Kia are very unreliable and not even really actual reasons.
That's correct. Plus Hyundai and Kia put some techs in their cars which make the buyers excited without thinking about main issues or future reliability.
Totally agree with you. Actually the option Hyundai has for comparing their vehicles to other makes/models, I was looking at their comparison of Elantra vs. Civic and the items they list as making Elantra better is just ridiculous. Things like wireless android and apple auto on all trims or When the vehicle is parked, Safe Exit Warning (SEW) can alert the driver when a vehicle is approaching from behind. Definitely unnecessary extra tech to make buyers excited.
It never ceases to amaze me how blind people can be when it comes to vehicles.
Perhaps if For/GM/Chrysler. had given a 10 year, 1000,000 mile warranty, people wouldn't be buying Kia's.
The warranty sells the cars.
Even though Kia............................................
Killed
In
Action {pear}:wink:
Thanks for labeling your name in the forum. But yeah, I feel like that particular person never owns a Kia product. I agree Hyundai and Kia is probably the top 5 car companies that most people defend.
Good job on saving that person or otherwise he or she will have consequences.
they apparently decided to go with a Civic and test drove one too. Definitely a lot better than any Kia/Hyundai product.
He or she even made a right choice after you made your statement.
Hyundai/Kia does in the US they do what Honda/Toyota do in the rest of the world and sell cheap crap.
BUT, As far as European models like the Kia Stonic 1.4 MPi 6AT? Kia xCeed 1.6 MPi 6AT? Kia Pincato 1.25 4AT? These Euro-models are great simple, cheap, safe (for their size) cars.
People who have had these MPi AT cars, usually are very satisfied, because they just do not brake down with very rare exceptions.
All of these are genuinely good cars, I'd trust them to last over a HR-V, Civic 1.0 or a Jazz with those horrid Clutched CVTs.
I don't think general statements about a brand are true, "Honda is reliable" isn't true about ALL their models - we occasionally get the "My CVT stutters at 60K" post on this forum and some other strange issues. Or "Toyota is reliable" isn't true about ALL their models - we occasionally get the "my Camry's torque convertor went out" post, or the "My Camry Shifts slow and hard" (On later variants of the same gearbox, although this one didn't happen for a while) or to my car, a Corolla MMT (considered one of the worst gearboxes ever made).
I can go on, But I think that not in every case "Toyota=Reliable" is true, and not in every case "Hyundai=Crap" is true.
Hyundai's woes in the USA seem to have started around 2011 with their Theta-II direct-injection engines. I know quite a few people with mid-2000s Hyundais that are still going down the road just fine 15-20 years later. Those with later models have had much more trouble with them.
@ChuckTobias As I see it, It wasn't just Hyundai - I think 2010-2014 one of the worst period in the car industry.
Expect Mazda splitting from Ford - I can't really think of anything positive that happened in that period...
Bad products/decisions launched during this time that that jump to my mind:
Ford's "EcoBoom", Toyota's failed 6 speed, Ford's PowerShift, Volvo beginning to ditch the straight 5 everybody knows them for, Hyundai's exploding 2.0L and terrible 1.6T-GDi, Toyota ditching the 5/6 speed auto on the Corolla, Toyota's oil burning 2.4, Suzuki pulling out of the US (just before they've had a huge makeover), Hyundai launching some of the worst DCTs I've seen, Subaru switching to LineTronic CVTs, Nissan beginning to use Jatco CVTs, Ford's "International Engine of the Year" cylinder blocks cracking, PSA switching over to small engines like PureTech and the PSA Prince. and much more...
I agree with you that we shouldn't use the general statement of one brand is good or one brand is bad, but with the U.S. market incidents of problems and failures with Hyundai/Kia products is a lot more than them being good so I think it's a risk purchasing a Hyundai/Kia given their recent history.
@FJCruiser2014 Picking any car requires the owner to do research, All car companies currently sell models that are very likely to turn out to be huge lemons.
With some brands it's easy to find a car that's probably going to be reasonably reliable, with some others it's impossible as in some cases the entire lineup is trash.
Hyundai sits in-between these two categories, they do sell lots of cars of questionable quality, and it does require the owner to do research and pay attention to what he's buying - but if it's a Hybrid or an MPi and has an AT, 90% of the time it's going to be a good car.
I could go in-depth into this, I live in an area where Korean cars make up something like 6/10 of the top selling models are built by Hyundai-Kia so I'm very familiar with their products and how they compare to their Japanese counterparts - and if you pick the correct powertrain they can be very dependable.