We have 20 miles on it now, so we can give it a good, comprehensive review :^)
We weren't looking for one, I was just trying to find something affordable with a decent warranty as the oldest is moving a short distance away, and I didn't want her taking the older Taurus with 140k miles on it. It runs fine but it's old enough to need stuff like an alternator (a few months back), starter, etc., and I don't want to be paying a dealer somewhere to fix it. So, I started with the Edmunds list of economy cars, looked at the US News & World list, and working my down getting depressed at prices I noticed a couple of Kias on the top half of the list. Checking the Kia website they advertised a small SUV lease for $129 a month, so I found some local dealer websites to check it out.
One local dealer also had a Rio as a loss leader, so I compared the two. The SUV was a manual, $129 a month for 36 months, but the mileage seemed to be almost what I get in my 3/4 ton pickup. The Rio had an MSRP of $11.6k, but as a loss leader it was $7.6k net price. No AC or radio, it has rack & pinion steering, 5 spd, steel wheels, but decent crash ratings, 5yr/60k mile bumber to bumper with roadside assistance for the same, and a 100k mile powertrain warranty. Since it was about half price of what I was looking at earlier, I thought about it, and a few seconds later got it. A new 2008 1.6L DOHC 16 valve Rio, a surprisingly spunky car to drive, more so than the 87 Civic that we had.
It seems quiter than the newer Taurus, the Conti tires on the Taurus are loud, and being a stick more fun to drive (for me at least). Now I'll have fun teaching my daughter to drive a stick, will feel more comfortable that she has a newer car, and am glad to be able to keep the older Taurus close to home as it's running nicely, with clean metal looking inside the oil fill cap.
Anyway, take a look around, and good hunting.
We weren't looking for one, I was just trying to find something affordable with a decent warranty as the oldest is moving a short distance away, and I didn't want her taking the older Taurus with 140k miles on it. It runs fine but it's old enough to need stuff like an alternator (a few months back), starter, etc., and I don't want to be paying a dealer somewhere to fix it. So, I started with the Edmunds list of economy cars, looked at the US News & World list, and working my down getting depressed at prices I noticed a couple of Kias on the top half of the list. Checking the Kia website they advertised a small SUV lease for $129 a month, so I found some local dealer websites to check it out.
One local dealer also had a Rio as a loss leader, so I compared the two. The SUV was a manual, $129 a month for 36 months, but the mileage seemed to be almost what I get in my 3/4 ton pickup. The Rio had an MSRP of $11.6k, but as a loss leader it was $7.6k net price. No AC or radio, it has rack & pinion steering, 5 spd, steel wheels, but decent crash ratings, 5yr/60k mile bumber to bumper with roadside assistance for the same, and a 100k mile powertrain warranty. Since it was about half price of what I was looking at earlier, I thought about it, and a few seconds later got it. A new 2008 1.6L DOHC 16 valve Rio, a surprisingly spunky car to drive, more so than the 87 Civic that we had.
It seems quiter than the newer Taurus, the Conti tires on the Taurus are loud, and being a stick more fun to drive (for me at least). Now I'll have fun teaching my daughter to drive a stick, will feel more comfortable that she has a newer car, and am glad to be able to keep the older Taurus close to home as it's running nicely, with clean metal looking inside the oil fill cap.
Anyway, take a look around, and good hunting.
