I’m thinking of purchasing my wife a 2019 Kia Sportage and she commutes with our 3 year old and I would like my family to be in a vehicle that’s reliable. I would like to hear any personal experience in terms of reliability versus major issues with this particular year, make, and model. My goal is to determine if the positives trump the negatives. Thank you for your time.
Same old reply that is posted here . Pay a good independent shop to look the vehicle over for problems . It is a used vehicle so it may or not have the same problems as other people have had.
You can go to the Carcomplaints web site but take most of the posts as the people who posted may have caused the problems theirself.
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5/5 score at Consumer Reports, but who knows about the exact one you are buying. See above. 2 recalls to check are done. Trailer hitch and brake related.
Does your wife like the car and find it comfortable? Is it easy to get the car seat in and out and load the rear cargo area? Does it offer good visibility and do the seats fit her?
There’s no point in buying a car with good safety and reliability ratings if every time you get in the car you think “I hate driving this car.”
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My first question would be…
Why did someone get rid of a 2019 model year anything? Does it have some mysterious problem no one else could solve?
Which is why it’s well worth paying a mechanic to do a thorough exam before you buy.
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hopefully the recall was taken care of, or this should be the first thing you should do if you get one.
- Probably the worst one in the list of Kia Sportage engine problems is that the engine compartment has the risk of catching fire. The brand has duly identified that it is due to a short-circuit and has recalled and is in the process of repairing all the cars affected.
There are any number of innocuous reasons a 3 year old car is for sale. I wouldn’t suspect anything suspicious about a 2019 on a lot.
My job transferred me 50 miles away, need something more economical to drive.
My job transferred me 50 miles away, need something larger and more comfortable to drive.
I just found out we’re having a third child.
We decided to buy a travel trailer.
We just moved and this won’t fit in the garage.
The three year lease is up and I want a different car.
The ash tray is full.
I took up kayaking and need a longer car.
Teslas are all the rage and I just had to trade this in to get one.
I never keep a car longer than a set of tires lasts.
And so on…
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Sure…in a normal market, that might be true, but this is not a normal market, and I would be VERY suspicious of a 3 year old vehicle being offered for sale. No one in their right mind would “trade up” in today’s grossly inflated used car market. Also, the main allure of buying a Hyundai or Kia is the 10-year/100,000 powertrain warranty–which is only valid to the original owner (the only exception is CPO sold by a Hyundai/Kia dealer.)
Personally, I would either buy new, or buy something at least 10 years old, in order to take advantage of depreciation. A 3-year old model is likely not much cheaper than what a new one would cost, but the bulk (or perhaps all) of its original warranty is gone. I don’t consider that a good deal.
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Right, totally agree that all of those are perfectly good reasons to get rid of a 3 year old car.
But…I’d still have it inspected before signing the dotted line. Most folks don’t get rid of a 3 year old car. It’s unusual.
A Toyota or Honda suv will cost more and sell for more when you get rid of it. And might be more reliable. Why are you looking at Kia vs 7 other makes?
By the same token, they should be getting significantly more for their trade in if the exchange happens in the same timeframe. Granted, it’s not going to be equal but then it never is but the ratio should be similar as long as it is used for used. Same goes for housing. I changed homes in the down market. I got less for my old house but also paid less for my new house.
Actually, the most common length of leases today is 3 years, so finding 3 year old used cars isnot unusual at all. The lease on my wife’s 2019 Hyundai Elantra was up this past june. When we brought the car back to the dealer it had 7,145 miles on the clock. Dealer sold it as a CPO in 3 days.
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It would be nice if you buy an off lease vehicle from the dealer that leased it and can provide records of maintenance. That is what I did, but that no way tells you the use it had. Only 27k miles when I bought it, transmission fluid was tan, not red which seems to be ok, but I had a change done anyway. I guess they might have done some towing.
Some manufacturers’ proprietary fluids are no longer red from day 1.
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I think you are overestimating the number of people who care about the sales price of a new or used car.
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I agree with you. My only consideration when my wife gets a new car is monthly cash flow. She makes the payment, but it’s my job to let her know if its within her budget.
Type Kia Sportage into the forum search feature, upper right this page, might get some clues to the sort of problems reported here about that car. Always a good idea to pay your own mechanic a small fee ($100 or so) for a pre-purchase inspection before writing any checks when buying a used car. My guess however, this car is an excellent candidate.