(This is of my actual car, the rest of the pictures in this post were from Google.)
Gather ’round Curbivores, and listen to my tale of woe! I suffered with one of the worst cars I’ve ever driven for three years, having paid nearly twenty times the value of it by the end of my long lease (read: prison sentence). How does one find himself in such a disheartening situation? It all began with an accident…
(These are the type of pumps I used to wash, from the actual company I work for.)
It was my fault, really. I should’ve been paying better attention, yet my mind was swimming with thoughts of my college coursework, and the massive pile of paperwork I had to read through to get health insurance from my job working in the concrete industry. My days were long, and my nights were longer. I had realized that I had made a mistake. College wasn’t for me. The shine had worn off and all that lay ahead was a never-ending grind of dull classwork, and washing concrete pumps for a living.
On top of all that, I had made yet another mistake in my choice of vehicle. If I had only known that I can’t stand the height and driving dynamics of a crossover, I would’ve never picked that 2003 CR-V as my next car. I had been taken in at the dealership by how nice it was, how good the leather seats felt, and at the proposition of a six CD changer. However, a mere two weeks in, little things began to annoy me. The plastics felt hard and scratched easily, the switch gear was all over the place, and I didn’t feel like I was riding in so much as on top of the car.
This all came together in a perfect storm that day in 2015, as I made a left turn when I shouldn’t have. I maintain to this day that the light had malfunctioned, switching from flashing yellow, to green, back to flashing yellow in the space of a few seconds. When I made the turn, a car was stopped at the light across from me, as you would do when someone has a green arrow. However… There was a red blip that was getting closer and in an instant I knew the car wasn’t going to stop. I put on the brakes but it was just too late. I plowed into the Mustang that had sped its way through the intersection. I carefully limped my Honda into the parking lot of the diner that was my destination in the first place and tried not to break down crying, the weight of all my recent mistakes threatening to snap my spine like the toothpick it resembled.
(The only time a 2nd gen Rio will look slightly cool)
The rest of the story bares repeating, however, I now needed to find another car – and fast. Enter the Kia Rio. I bought it from the same dealership that had sold me the CR-V. It was the only car on the lot that the bank would finance me for, and the only one in which my pitiful 500 dollars down would be enough. The test drive hadn’t impressed me, feeling under powered and sad (more on that in a minute!), but come what may, I was now the slightly disappointed owner of Korea’s cheapest North American offering.
To end this ramble, my closing thoughts: Is it enough that a car simply gets one from point A to B without bursting into flame? I suppose so, and certainly the Rio did that if nothing else. However, I maintain that a car has to do more than simply get by. The body felt cheap and tinny and would dent if you looked at it the wrong way. The paint would scratch off with alarming regularity. It was already starting to rust by the time I bought it, and it only got worse from there. It felt like you were driving a go-kart, as the tiny four-cylinder would groan its way through the sluggish automatic gearbox, and the seats felt like they were stuffed with old newspaper for all the support they gave.
It got to the point where the engine was losing compression, and the whole thing was just waiting to collapse into a pile of cheap steel and blue paint. Perhaps this would be fine on an economy car from the early 90’s, but not from 2008, and certainly not one I paid $8000 for at the time of purchase plus another $2000 for in repairs for the time I owned it. I eventually sold it to a women that was desperate for a running car for the princely sum of $300.
Meet Helen. She’ll hopefully be the subject of an article one day.
I now have my first classic car, a 1987 Plymouth Gran Fury. This is my chance to hit the reset button with a car I love, and put this whole mess behind me.
Well, that is indeed sad. But I can see two silver linings here:
1 – If you weren’t permanently injured in your accident that is a tremendous blessing. I never carry collision insurance on my motorcycle because a: I you crash and you’re OK who cares about the bike? and b: If you crash and you’re not OK who cares about the bike?
2 – You escaped from it.
A former co-worker had a Rio, she was recently divorced so us engineers would consult on her vehicular issues. It was indeed a POS but did get her back and forth to work.
As former owner of a 2006 Rio — the last car my bride and I bought new — I can attest to the underwhelming aspirations under the hood and the hard, cheap plastics. I hated the toy-car 13-inch wheels. We had a virtual clone of the silver model pictured above.
I part ways with you on the dependability issue, though. We drove our Rio for, say, five years, and it never gave us a whit of trouble. It even survived our daughter clipping a deer on one of the many rural roads around these parts. We might still have it, but we had to sell it (got my asking price) due to a sudden financial setback some years ago. All in all, it was just about the most reliable vehicle of the 20 I’ve owned in my lifetime.
It is both a tale of woe, and a tale of Whoa!
I understand that when one is a young man with limited choice, one often makes decisions that should have never seen the light of day, but $8000 for a 7 year old Kia? They cost about that new. If it was a 2008 model in 2015, someone was making a killing on your innocence. I certainly hope it was a learning experience, and sorry that you had to experience it.
Good luck with the Gran Fury. I hope you and it have a long,fulfilling relationship!
Two words: predatory financing. He was desperate and the initial down payment for the seven year old penalty box was only $500. I doubt the principle was all that much and the majority of the rest of the $7500 was interest due entirely to poor credit. The bank did what banks are wont to do: took advantage of the situation and screwed him over.
As someone once explained to me, used car dealers that feature low-end cars aren’t selling cars, they’re selling credit.
Yes.
“As someone once explained to me, used car dealers that feature low-end cars aren’t selling cars, they’re selling credit.”
Exactly right. I once knew of a couple of guys who had been in banking and wanted to get into the finance business for themselves. The started a string of BHPH car lots. They said they weren’t in the car business but in the finance business.
Indeed, my first “real” job after I dropped out of college in the early seventies was as an outside collector for a fifth rate loan company. This was the type of company you went to for financing when your grandmother wouldn’t even lend you the money. This company had customers who had borrowed $1000 to buy a car and the total payoff, if they made all the payments on time, was near $4000. My job was to try and collect the overdue payments from these customers; I wasn’t very good at it but in the few months I kept the job I certainly learned a lot about the world and the people in it.
I had no way of knowing this when I worked there but the loan company was basically a front for a money laundering operation. The office I worked for and some 25-30 others scattered about Kentucky and West Virginia were part of a holding company called the Diversified Mountaineer Corporation. It turns out that some of the higher ups in the corporation were involved in crime up to their eyeballs and at least some of them ended up doing some federal time.
I never like that gen of Kia. Seemed like a penalty box to me. I remember around the same time I had a buddy who picked up a rio 5. For the same money up here, in the great white north, you could get a city golf. Or for a grand more a city Jetta with the 2.0 slow motor that at this point had all the bugs worked out. He was some kind of math genius and said the Kia was 0 percent down. I tried to explain that in a few years the VW would still be worth something on the used car market. Oh well it served him well and I think he drove it until the wheels fell off so no big deal on the resale. I still see 2007 city golfs going for what you paid for the Kia around here. Hopefully your next car was more entertaining.
Congrats on your inaugural post, Pioneer! Looking to hearing about your adventures with the Gran Fury.
Right now I have a 1993 Toyota Camry stick shift and I sometimes look at cars to upgrade to if I have to. Good to know that a Rio is a terrible idea, thank you for enlightening me.
I did drive a nearly new 08 Kia Rio rental about 30 miles to Bridge City, Texas and I thought the car was decent enough. I liked the crank windows, CD Player, and the acceleration was decent, however, I was used to driving a worn out 87 Caprice Estate so my standards must have been low. I too do not like feeling like I am sitting on the car instead of inside. That is how I feel in my folks’ 05 Sedona.
Quite the ugly tale of woe! And it appears you have all your mental faculties still in order after the accident. Be thankful for that.
I have similar tales of woe. Back in 2000 I was involved in 2 car accidents in 6 months (January 11 and July 5). In the Jan. wreck I was driving an ’86 T-Bird when someone conveniently pulled out in front of me. Ugh! I had my shoulder seat belt on, but I went straight ^up^ and my head hit the hard plastic sun visor and I had a scalp laceration that required over 20 staples to fix up. I admit I had a headache after the accident; before going to the hospital I walked in to a nearby Dunkin’ Donuts to go in to the restroom and look in the mirror to see how bad I looked. I think the patrons in the restaurant were surprised to see a 26-year-old pasty-faced white guy with blond hair covered in fresh red blood . . . I felt eyes watching me from everywhere!
Then several months later I was riding home in my girlfriend’s car [a ’92 Camaro] as a front seat passenger. We never made it. More head injuries; I was knocked out for 3+ hours so I was told after I woke up in St. Mary’s. If we had taken my ubiquitous car (Cheapo Falcon) this accident would not have happened. My gf at the time liked riding around in the passenger seat of the ’64 and when we’d go out to eat I’d do the driving. This particular evening, however, she wanted to go to a restaurant that was not so close to home and I didn’t know how to get there. I no longer remember the name of said eatery, but off we went in her Camaro. So we left for dinner on July 5, 2000 and I got home on July 22. Alive and on a walker.
—————————-
Give Helen a quart of oil and a pat on her hood for me. 😀 She looks like a happy car ready to go do stuff!
Purchased the same Kia used from a Kia dealer two years ago for my step-daughter. Not my style, is a bit of a pos, but she likes it, is happy with it. So far no issues. Gets her from point a to b.
Whenever I see one of these Rios I wonder what they are like as cars. Obviously, they are transportation, but are they dependable? Are they even remotely sporty?
I test drove a very similar CR-V, TWICE, a few months ago. And I also felt like I was riding on and not in it. But I considered that to be a good thing as my other Honda vehicles left me feeling like I was riding just above the road.
I am currently driving Ford’s answer to the Gran Fury, a Crown Victoria. It hasn’t been too bad but I do want something smaller/more economical.
Look at a Fit. It’s at that butter zone of 5′ overall height where you’re not sitting on the floor but not handling-compromised-crossover-tall.
Sorry to see that you had such a bad experience (although I am glad to see that you came out of the accident so well and are now posting here.) I look forward to reading about your Fury (and anything else you might care to post).
I have no experience with the Rio, but I wonder if much else at that price would have done much better? The rule with Kia and Hyundai seems to be every generation is an improvement on the one before. My 2012 Sedona’s design dates back to around that time and I will agree that I have seen nicer interiors on minivans. It has, however, been quite a good car for us as it starts to approach the 80K mile mark.
You have me curious about the loss of compression – did you have a test done? And how religious were you with oil changes? Having bought it used, perhaps the original owner caused your problems. A mechanic once told me that he saw a lot of Kias and Hyundais that were bought used right at the end of the warranty that suffered from a lot of deferred maintenance.
Admittedly it is a different engine, but my 3.5L V6 has gotten regular 5k oil changes and has yet to use a drop, still running as good as it did when we bought it.
I’m not sure how many owners it had when I bought it, but it was pretty well done by that point. Many dings and scuffs, rust forming where the cheap paint had been scratched away. I had a dent near the A pillar that was starting to rust at the point of impact, so a buddy of mine tore a little chunk of crumbling weather stripping and smooshed it into the dent where it stays to this day.
In fact, he and I saw my Rio again just recently. It was parked outside a set of apartments still with no plates and a new dent in the driver door. My concrete pumping decals still peeling off the windows and crappy spray paint job I did on the rear quarter panel (after I backed into a tree) baking in the sun. Judging from the amount of dust covering it… I’d say the Rio hadn’t been driven in months. I think that modern Chevette has finally found it’s resting place until it gets hauled off to the junkyard.
We purchased this 2002 new. I turned it into an “art car” in 2007. There’s about 150k on the odometer. It’s a 5 speed and I now have trouble using the clutch so we are selling it.
I’m wondering how many miles the Rio had when you bought it and how many more were added to it while you had it. Cars like this tend not to be well maintained, maybe the previous owner didn’t do enough oil changes, from what little I know of these cars they tend to develop problems around 100k miles.
I bought it at 120k. When I parted ways it had 150K. I was pretty good at keeping up with oil changes, but not much else, I’ll admit. I drove it to and from work down a very rough road to the truck yard six days a week and took it all around the city. I wasn’t exactly kind to it. The poor thing was already on it’s last legs when I purchased it and I pretty much kept whipping it down. Some of the problems I had were my fault. I knew it wasn’t worth the paint left on it and treated it as such.
Civilian Gran Fury! That’s RARE. Like “there were Rolls Royces imported in greater numbers” RARE.
Fortunately rare does not equal valuable.
Really? I knew you didn’t see many late model Gran Furries, but I thought it might be like the Crown Vic as it aged. Bought mostly by older folks from time to time on the civilian market, but mostly used as fleet cars.
They made about 10k Gran Fury’s in 1987. I don’t think that generation ever topped 20k in any of the years they made them. That’s not a lot to start with, and I would assume most of those went to fleets. You’ve got yourself a pretty rare vehicle there, especially in that condition. A nice looking car!
10,377 built for 1987. I owned one and was curious how many myself. Look forward to hearing about Helen.
Congratulations on your first article; looking forward to the next installments. Sorry that the Rio didn’t treat you better. I had one for a rental last year and wasn’t unhappy, though it had the same easily-damaged interior you mentioned. Almost new but lots of scratches. That said, it drove pretty well, didn’t handle too badly, and did a steady 80 with no complaints. Don’t know how it would hold up long-term, but at least Kia’s making some progress. Eager to hear more about Helen.
Glad you weren’t seriously hurt in that accident. Your comment about feelinglike kyou were riding on top of, and not in, that Honda SUV is one of the reasons I also don’t like these kinds of vehicles.
My partner Matt had a 2002 Kio Rio wagon bought in 2008 when it was just 6 yrs old. It had low mileage, auto/pw/pl + AC and seemed to run good. He paid $10 grand for it (Cdn). It ran good but honestly it didn’t seem as solid as the ’94 Escort we were trading, but the Escort was on its last legs and we needed something. 18 months later it developed a no-start condition leaving us stranded multiple times and the local dealer could not fix it after multiple trips. The dealer ripped out the remote-start thinking it was part of the problem (without telling us and refused to reinstall it). Also it turned out the dealer in a nearby city who sold us the car lied about it when telling us it was a local trade in since it was bought at auction and they washed their hands of it when our local dealer called and asked for more info.
Bottom line: he got rid of it at the local Ford dealer and bought a Focus hatch that turned out to be a great car. And swore off the Kia brand forever and ever.
Bad luck with your Kia, Hopefully the Gran Fury is better, you have the same model GF as is parked near me, very rare here though the local one is ex Florida police.
This car may be the last sold in the American market that could be called a total shitbox.
I don’t know; the current Mitsubishi Mirage hasn’t been getting great reviews.
What an enjoyable post, Mr Fox (or is it Mr Pioneer?). Good writing always involves honesty, and you’ve been about as honest as they come here! Well done.
In Aus, Kia released an early version of the Sedona that had an appalling V6 which failed in EVERY unit sold, but apart from that, their stuff has proven pretty unkillable. And until recent years, utterly undesirable. There’s a collective feeling in models like your era Rio that everything is made of Not-Quite-Good-Enough, even if it all lasts irritatingly long. The result is indeed anti-joie de vivre, very well-described by you.
Looking forward to your tale of Helen.
Are the CR-V, the Rio, and Helen the only cars you’ve owned:?
No, there was one more. My first car was a 2000 Honda Accord with an engine swap that we didn’t find out about until the first oil change! Now THAT’S a story for another time.
Completely opposite experience with my 2008 Accent, a car built on the same platform as the Rio. By far the most reliable vehicle I have ever owned. A quiet, pleasant sounding 1.6 litre engine. Peppy around town with the 5 speed manual. Low end plastics in the interior but what do you expect from a $10K car (new vehicle purchase price in 2008). Great city car all around.