Why KIA are the new Toyota.

Very. Can’t bare his rambling nonsense.

After gifting our old Merc to the local Ukrainian charity, we needed something cheaper to run/borderline ‘disposable’, for the Mrs’ local running (and finally getting used to LHD driving 😁) and for our kid to learn to drive on/with.

So, after much list-making, ads-searching and a few tests, we just bought…

…a 2019 Picanto Xline, with the newer 1l turbo engine (100 horses). 3 year old/1 elderly owner, 11000kms, balance of manufacturer warranty to mid-2026. Every toy you’d want (GPS, touchscreen, Bluetooth, cameras, parking sensors, aircon, ‘vegan’ leather (LOL!), 16” alloys, etc, etc. Less than €11k. From a main dealer.

I’m sorry, but that value is pretty hard to beat. And after driving it a few times myself, I’d put it as a ‘halfway’ proposition between my first real car (AX 1.4, for the performance-as-perceived) and our Mini Cooper S of a few years ago (for the road holding and ride firmness…a minus for many, a plus for me).

It’s surprisingly engaging to drive, for a shopping cart, and even looks kind of semi-aggressive / decent. It’s not license-endangering material like my dailies, but there’s enough there to have some good fun, harking back to the GTIs of old, like the recent VW UP GTI. I understand well, where some YouTube reviewers were coming from with that.

I don’t get the brand partisanship in this thread.

BITD, my first-ever UK/RHD car was a Hyundai S-Coupe SE. Metallic green, alloys, factory-lowered version, it looked good (better than below, alloys & color were nicer), handled fantastically (Lotus had tweaked it, IIRC), and was properly bullet proof. Sure, it was grossly underpowered (1.5l) and had a 70s interior. But the sniggers, my God the sniggers, and the brand snobbishness at the time.

Nobody had heard of Hyundai then, I’d say they were at the stage where Kia is now in terms of appeal and reputation in the west-European/UK market. Fast-forward what, 20 years or so? And look where Hyundai is now, e.g. with the i30N (…really what I was after here, but can’t justify the monster Jag and an I30N, and how do I insure the kid on it as a learner? 🤪)

Is Kia the new Toyota? Who the **** cares: like most new manufacturers (or rebooted, like Skoda BITD, Dacia more recently) give them a chance. They might surprise you for the better.

Funny you say that given that you came on here more than once looking for advice from the very people who you cannot understand getting so caught up about cars:

Care to share with us your personal interests? I'm sure we can tell you similar.

So you and your cousin convinced him to not to buy Toyota, despite him not wanting Megane after having Renault 19 previously because of the dealer only, as the car was more reliable than Toyota?

Why?

You appear to try to convince so many people to drive the car you believe is the best for them. Why is that?

What is your car/brand experience?

Please share.

So it's not about Kia. It's about boring Toyota. You just hate it. Fair enough.

Kia is not new Toyota in my opinion.

They need another 20 years to get enough respect.

After a rather disappointing €550 repair in Kia dealership in Co.Kildare I wasn't convinced tbh.

That could apply to any dealership, though.

So no need to write off one brand over another ;)

They only recommended the Megane because the Sportage hadn't been invented yet and they had to make sure they were in negative equity.

How many clutches?

Kia would have been running Mazda running gear back then, Sportage, Mentor and Pride which was late 80s 121, quality would've been so so, Sportage bodystyle would have been 2/3 scale Trooper with the thirsty 626 petrol 2.0. Mazda parts were silly prices back then so most ended up scrapped quite young

There are plenty who would settle for nothing less than a Bosch or a Neff. My wife being one of them..

Bosch here too, none of that Beko or Whirlpool muck

The Toyota GR Yaris and now GR Corolla are very exciting.