Mazda5 vs KIA Rondo comparisons and articles (merged)

[was98strat]

The biggest thing I would be worried about is crash safety. The new Sephia (the minivan) just did absolutley horrible in crash tests!! No manufacturer should be performing poorly in crash tests! From what I've read I'd much rather be in a Mazda in a crash than a Kia!

Other than that the 5 is a pretty fun to drive vehicle, I don't know about the Kia, the rondo wan't around when I bought my 5. but the sliding door is fantasticly useful! the Manual gearbox is great and the car handles like it's a sports sedan not a micro-van!

The Kia's I sat in at the auto show last year all had one thing in common...the interiors all felt cheap and poorly thought out.

 

[II-Savy]

Drive them back to back and go from there. KIA= Hyundai, which is not bad at all.

(shocked)

 

[zoomzoom mazda5]

It's your call, but with poor resell and crash testing i would think about it carefully but it's up to you. Good luck zoomzoom

 

[jandree22]

...you really want to risk $20k of your hard earned bucks on a manufacturer with such a $hitty reputation?! If nothing else, at least you can keep your dignity with a Mazda. Sorry, but I don't know what other worthwhile advice you're expecting from a site with pure Mazda bias.

Happy car shopping

 

[zoomzoom mazda5]

Hey jandree22, when is the baby due? is it soon, hope everything goes great for the both of you.

zoomzoom

 

[Rally Ninja]

Lets see. Working at a kia service dept and only 1 person in the whole place owns a kia..........

Cheap ...you get what you pay for.

Badly designed.

Resale value........what resale value? Is it me or is the lifecyle of a korean model like 2years before they update it?

 

[03MSP]

No way I'd buy a Kia. The Koreans just don't know how to do it yet. There are a TON better vehicles out there! They are making progress but everyone else is also improving...other manufactures don't stagnate while Kia jumps ahead.

You really haven't researched it seems, and nothing wrong with that as Hyundai and Kia probably aren't of interest to you. Only reason I know anything about Hyundai is because my Dad has a Santa Fe.

Take a look at the brand new Santa Fe, to sum it up it blows a lot of SUVs out of the water and it's a very comfortable/quiet/loaded car.

I am not sure if Kia is related to Hyundai, besides both being Korean based, but if they are I would not look past them so quickly.

 

[mountjonas]

yeah, hyundai controls kia. the sedona and entourage are pretty much the same minivan. the koreans have made big strides in quality and seem to be fairly competitive. that said, i'd still take my 5 over a rondo.

 

[jandree22]

Hey jandree22, when is the baby due? is it soon, hope everything goes great for the both of you.

Due early May. Everything's going pretty good so far, Babies-R-Us own3d my wallet, and my wife is getting nice and plump. We did find out it'll be a son. Thanks for asking.


Back on topic, I'm much looking forward to tending to my child via the sliding doors my Mazda5 is so conveniently equipped with

 

[mountjonas]

Back on topic, I'm much looking forward to tending to my child via the sliding doors my Mazda5 is so conveniently equipped with

that makes handling our 8 mo. old very easy.

 

[opus]

Any time I'm faced with an option decision, I make a list of positives and negatives for each option:
Mazda5
Positives; Better reliability, better handling, WAY better resale
Negatives: Less Horsepower, More expensive

Rondo
Positives: Chepaer, Longer Warranty, Slightly Quicker
Negtives: Horrible resale, Reliability Issues,

Then there are all of the opinion issues. I find the 5 to be a far better looking vehicle than the Rondo. Dealership issues also should be considered.

Just my 2 cents
Opus

 

[Wytchdctr]

http://members.tripod.com/~aiki_joe/i_hate_kia/

Done.

lol, for those saying kia sucks in reliability. Guess where they were getting there motors when they got that bad name, yep thats right. Mazda.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kia_Sephia

As for hyundai and its crappy name. They where mitz in the beginning. Only difference in those motors in the pre-96 time was the valve cover.


Now maybe Im a little biased but I see more stuff in the "help" forums here for the brand new cars than I do on my hyundai forums. MANY more cars going in for random cels, bad ecms, doors that don't work, etc. Id put that kia right next to my 5 in terms of reliability.

So you have resale being crap, yeah Ill agree to that, lol. Thats one thing still killing the korean cars.

As far as the 2.4 vs. the 2.7 in the kia, get the 4cyl. What 12hp difference and the v6 is a much older design. The 2.4 much like out 2.3 has enough grunt to move that heavier car.

IMO

Mazda5
Pro:
Sliding doors, looks better, resale
Con:
Weirdo issues when new, price (relative to the kia)

Kia
Pro:
Price, warranty, great engine (2.4), v6 torque (if you go that way)
Con:
No sliding door, stigma over driving a korean car, resale.


Also Im on my second hyundai, both have been great cars to me. Hyundai also really backs that warranty. Have an issue with a dealer they have a help line. Call it the issue will go away, lol.

 

[Rio Racer]

I have a kia rio and hyundai tiburon and my family has a Hyundai XG 350 and we had a kia sedona and I have taken care of a kia sephia for several months. I don't know how many of you actually owned a kia but don't listen to the haters. They are really not terrible anymore. My kia rio has 111,000 miles on it. Here is what went wrong with the car....crank position sensor at 105k (70 dollar fix) Seized caliper pin (my fault), and a recall... thats it. It runs perfect gets awesome gas mileage. Ok now the sedona we had had one thing wrong with it in 70k miles which was a bad speed sensor which was covered under warrenty. The sedona was t-boned by a FX 45 at full speed and the driver of the sedona just walked away. The sephia I drove had 80+k miles on it (although the some oil change receipts list the car having oil changes at 170K, 150K 180K so perhaps odometer roll back lol) and it ran perfect no problems. The rondo has the new hyundai theta motor (I4) and Hyundai Mu motor (V6). The hyundai Mu motor is just a 2002-2005 sonata V6 motor with CVVT. The V6 is very proven motor and was responsible for multiple JD power awards won by the sonata. It's also the motor used in the tiburon which I own and have 0 problems with at 41k+miles and with a supercharger installed on it. The I4 motor is hyundais brand new design that is used in the 2006+ sonata which has also been proven to be reliable so far. The theta motor is designed to go 300k miles without any major engine failure. Infact chung mung koo (Hyundai CEO) had to delay the launch of the new 4 cylinder sonata by nearly a year because the parts suppliers were having difficulty meeting the hyundai 300k mile engine life demand. He refused to roll any cars out until that motor was able to meet hyundais expectations. Kia=Hyundai. They keep extremely strict quality control now. I bet the rondo will be just as reliable as the mazda 5. So you can cross out the "will it be reliable" quesiton. There is also a member on the boards here i think his SN is spike blue, that has a kia sephia with over 300K on it original motor and there is another guy on the kia forums with a sephia with mods that has over 340k miles original motor and tranny. Oh also some guy posted that the kia minivan had horrible safety ratings... uhm..well seeing that the IIHS just rated the kia sedona (minivan) and hyundai entourage the safest minivans they have ever tested ever... oh and also the previous gen sedona was the only minivan during it's time that got a quadruple 5 star crash test rating by the NHTSA ( this mean that it got 5 stars getting hit in every direction). Here you go.. http://www.iihs.org/ratings/rating.aspx?id=591 seems like the sedona is safer than any minivan out there.. still need convincing? Also I do like mazda and i know they're not crap this is why i'm on the boards here, but it's really frustrating how some people write off korean cars as crap without actually researching or owning any of the newer korean models (when they were using their own technology not hand me downs from japan). There is a reason why hyundai/kia has very high owner loyalty and are the fastest growing car brands in america. I mean think of when mazda first entered the US market they prolly made some crappy rusty cars but look at them now. Kia was the same way. Now they are great cars that are very affordable with a long warranty that they back. I also think the dealers are not as mod nazi warranty voiders as the mazda dealers are, I heard mazda NA is really strict about mods (at least from what I see on the threads here) . Hyundai/kia are not, at least from my personal experience and from many posts on hyundai and kia boards. Kia is not a fledgling car company infact they are koreas first car company I believe they've been around since the 50s End Rant. *Goes over there--------> and puts on flame retardant suit getting ready....* lol

 

[Airmack]

I have a Mazda and my mom has the Kia and it has over 100k miles on it and its a 98. The only this we had to do to it is a water pump and that was a first gen Kia which was made when they supposedly sucked. My car has been in the shop twice now for minor things and it has 1600 miles. Nevertheless... You should buy what is right for you, there are bad apples wit all car companies. Hell, the most prestigious car company's have the shittiest reliability...

 

[D-rock240]

lol, for those saying kia sucks in reliability. Guess where they were getting there motors when they got that bad name, yep thats right. Mazda.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kia_Sephia

LOL this is from that wiki link you posted:

"While the build quality has been questioned and the effectiveness of the air conditioning system is marginal at best, the powertrain under the hood is surprisingly durable and the Sephia is a snappy car to drive, at least with the 1.8-liter engine."

So it's not the motors that were the problem.

I know someone that got a Santa Fe and is happy with it, but they aren't interested in it, just A-B transportation. I would pick the 5 for the handling if nothing else.

 

[Rio Racer]

The 1.8 liter motor in the 2nd gen sephia is an in house designed kia motor called the T8D it's also really reliable the two sephias I listed with 300+k miles above are T8D motors I believe.

 

[D-rock240]

Yes but the model that used the Mazda engines used the 1.6 and 1.8. That is what I was talking about.

"1.8-liter DOHC 4-cylinder found in Mazda's Protege and Miata."

 

[Rio Racer]

Yes I know thus I stated 2nd gen. I'm not doubting the reliability of the 1.6 and 1.8 mazda motors.

 

[7red7]

I don't think there is anything to worry about with buying a Kia...My mother in-law has the same little red Kia Rio sedan since the day she drove it off of the lot in 2001 and it's one of the most able bodies dependable cars I've ever driven...There has never been a single problem with the car...A friend of mine has a new Kia Rio 5 hatchback and loves it to death...And these are the supposed entry level cars in their lineup...

As for myself I've driven three Hyundais and two of them ran like a dream while I owned them...One was a buyback lemon from Hyundai, however a lemon can come in many shapes and sized: Meaning any car no matter how expensive or cheap can have its problems...Oh and for the record, my Hyundais that were great were a 1994 Excel hatchback, and a 2003 Santa Fe...

Kia has come a long way since Hyundai took over the company a while back, and the newer models in both lineups are built with a lot ore durable and with better quality materials both inside and out...True they are a bit lackluster in terms of the setup and appearance, but you get what you pay for, and hey I'll take a fully loaded car with a modest interior before I shell out thousands more on something fancy but missing a lot of what I demand in my cars...

Okay now with all of this long-windedness here is the choice I would make...I would choose the Mazda 5 again over any Kia right now...Not because of engine performance or resale value (I could care less about a resale, I generally buy cars I can see myself driving for a long time...I never go in thinking about it being a one to two year investment I expect return on)...My choice also has nothing to do with the interiors as Kia offers a lot of options standard as opposed to having to add them on with packages...And let's be honest, the Mazda 5's interior is pretty plain and lacks the sports car vibe you get in the 3 or 6...The warranty on newer model Kia spanks anything Mazda could ever offer in the ass...

So why do I choose the Mazda over the Kia??? Simple...The exteriors...Kia has some great looking vehicles these days, but none of them have the character and rubberneck ability the new Mazdas seem to have...Oh and yes the sliding doors on a sport compact minivan also factor in there as well...Oh and the color of my 5 is also the least favorite one that Mazda has done away with for the 07 and beyond models...Everyone hates my color, I love it and wouldn't drive any other one

I'd say go with whatever car you feel comfortable driving in, handles nicely, and comes with the best options for your money out the door...The Kia won't let you down so throw the whole reliabilty debate out the door...Besides, Mazda has had a slew of problems with the 3 when it made it's debut and the 5 has now had three recalls in it's first year...Go with your gut and choose the one you like better

 

[Rio Racer]

Yes The mazda5 does handle better but apparently kia is trying to be the sporty korean car brand so their newer models are not boats at handling with the exception of the amanti. You've driven the rondo and liked it. I don't think choosing the 5 or the rondo is really a loss. Both are good cars. I personally don't mind the styling of the rondo. In person they look alot better than in pics.