So my gf bought a 2014 Kia Rio and I guess it didn’t have an owner’s manual. Our Scion also didn’t come with a manual but I was able to easily download that from Toyota, so I can see what Toyota recommends on regular maintenance. But on the Kia when I tried to download this it seems that they wanted some sort of verification of the original owner, and the vehicle was used.
The good thing (in my opinion) about her purchase was the car doesn’t have very high mileage, and supposedly the warranty transferred over (at least partially). I don’t think we get the whole 100K mile warranty. But regardless, somebody mentioned to me today that it has a timing belt that is supposed to be changed at a certain mileage and if it breaks it could damage the pistons, because the valves could be open and the piston hits it. And even if it was under warranty Kia would not cover this if the belt was not replaced. So this is one example of why I would really like to know what we need to do to keep the car running properly. It makes be a little angry that they don’t just provide the manual for free, so I can find out this information. Maybe we should have checked to make sure the car included the manual, but I was not with her when she purchased the car.
Keyword - Google . There are several places that will let you download a free owners manual . As for the timing belt a phone call to a Kia dealer will get you the miles or number of months when it should be changed .
On kia’s website (www.kia.com) click “owner” at the top. It will ask you to create an account. from what I can tell all it is asking for is your name and email address, after which I expect you should be able to view the owner’s manual for you car. they might ask you for the vin so that the correct version of the owner’s manual is served up for you.
If you want to skip all that, this link seems to go right to the owner’s manuals.
It IS sort of annoying you can’t just download the owner’s manual you want from the kia website without a bunch of login rigmarole. but that’s the way they do it I guess, probably has to do w/ marketing reasons.