Hey Scotty! What are your thoughts on a 2018 Kia Cadenza? 3.3 N/A GDI V6. 48k miles. Not much info on the internet regarding longevity, but they were made in Korea and I have heard they’re fairly reliable. What are your thoughts?
Price?
$24,900
$24,900
isn't that almost the price of a new Toyota?
@MountainManJoe The Cadenza is an Avalon competitor, and it’s fully loaded. A new Avalon Limited is $45-50k.
The Cadenza is an Avalon competitor, and it’s fully loaded. A new Avalon Limited is $45-50k.
Still not worth it.
You need to factor in the cost of replacing all your belongings when your house burns down.
Since most of my friends have Kia here in Kuwait and one of my earlier colleague had a Kia Cadenza 2017, I will advise the truth as it is .
The good : A good car on the budget. Quite and excellent ride if you buy new. The features are worth for the price. Good fuel economy even for the V6 engines unlike European or American cars.
The bad: Although the parts are shared, still has problems with the engine on the long run unlike Hyundai which takes some more thousand miles before something could happen.
The Ugly: Whilst the engine and Transmission are less likely not to have any issues if you baby it, the built quality of certain plastics/ hoses/ gaskets are still not up to mark on the Kia's and surprisingly give up much sooner. These are were the Japanese dominate in the quality control even in the smallest factors.
Although Made in Korean ones are much better to the ones made in the USA (My cousin in USA has reported more problems than other friends which is Made in Korea).
If you are a person who is less likely to look after your car beyond normal services at dealership, Get a Toyota Camry base model. That has no CVT and can bear any kind of trouble all the way and will go long miles. As MMJ has advised, those features would be used on the lesser side. Moreover, the more tech you have, the more trouble and expenses if something goes wrong.
@pranavesh-chander thank you for your feedback!
All the best!
Totally agree with @mmj. They are asking basically $25k for a used Kia. A brand new Toyota Camry starts at $25,395 and without a doubt it's going to be a much better purchase than the Kia. At that price it's just not worth it.
@fjcruiser2014 yes but that’s for a bare bones Camry, which isn’t even the same class of car as the Cadenza that’s fully loaded. An Avalon Limited would be in the same ballpark, and they go for wayyy more.
Still not worth it and I will stay with my suggestion for a Camry. You need to pick between quality and reliability versus bells and whistles without quality. Even a base Camry has convenience options, and to me it's more important having a reliable car rather than bells and whistles. So up to you which one you is more important for you.
@fjcruiser2014 I totally understand where you’re coming from. I know Toyotas are more reliable than Kias, but Kia doesn’t necessarily have the worst reliability either. My brother has had 7 Kias and never had a single issue with any of them. I have a 2016 Optima, and aside from a couple of mainly electronic issues, it has been running pretty good. I appreciate your feedback!
I suggest that you search about Kia quality and reliability on this forum so you get a better idea how it normally is. You can take a chance and see if this one will turn out good or not, or you can purchase something that is known to have quality and reliability like the Camry. It's exactly what Pranevesh is stating in his comment about why Camry over the Kia.
and it’s fully loaded.
lovely. More things to break down.
Toyota's and Honda's have gone through the stratosphere as far as price. There are no $25K Toyota's. Guaranteed if you go to a dealer advertising one it will have mysteriously been sold that morning and your led to lot where stripped down models reside. That being said 25K is a bit much for a 2018 Cadenza. It's Kia's mini SUV and it's four years old. Have a good mechanic check it out. Last August I bought a low mileage 2019 Sorento for less than 25k and that was from a dealer. You might shop around a little bit more. There are a couple of Kia model years that have engine problems. You might want to do some more research.
Good Luck.
There still are many Honda and Toyota brand new being sold at msrp (such as $25k base Camry), but it's just the matter of finding the right dealership and preferably buying from incoming allocation rather than on the lot unit. I haven't paid a penny over msrp for cars for myself or friends during this whole crazy car market.