A rolling living room, if that's what you want

I doubt very many people will be looking for reviews of this vehicle because the new model out now. But that is how we ended up with ours--a generous (insane?) $4000 rebate on the EX edition. We were replacing a small sedan and could not have otherwise afforded a new minivan. After 20,000 miles, we still like it--the only thing that is even a bit annoying is the gas mileage, but even that has actually gotten a little better since the engine has worn in. We get about 20 mpg in mixed driving, even when towing an 1800lb trailer. This is pretty good, I'm told by other minivan owners, but still mentally tough after driving a Hyundai that got 30+ on the highway.

Interior seating: The 8-way power adjustable driver seat (w/ adjustable lumbar support), and 6-way front passenger seat, are both very comfortable. Our only complaint is that when the arm rests are down, they can interfere with buckling the seat belt. Truthfully we haven't needed them much, except on longer trips. The rear seats, including the third row, are all easily removed when need be, although they are rather heavy--the engineers seemed to notice this, expecting frequent removal of the third row chairs and equipping them with wheels for being shoved around the garage. Heavy in this case does seem to equate to solid build, and that is mentally comforting. The second row seats can take a bit of jostling and head scratching and re-reading directions to get them back in again, especially since the floor mats tend to get in the way of them locking again if you aren't careful. They do lock with a reassuring thunk.

Materials: So far we like the fabrics (having no major spills yet). They seem durable and are comfortable; the floor mats are specially cut to cover most of the carpeted area. The dashboard has a good feel to it, not cheap, but the plastic stuff in the rear (the cargo area) seems to be easily scratched by everyday hauling. Not a big deal, but definitely looks "used" with only 20K on the odometer. The trim piece around the shifter, and the shifter itself, feel cheap compared to the Hyundai Elantra we turned in, but given the price we paid, we can't complain too much.

Storage: There are lots and lots of little storage spaces throughout--cupholders galore, drawers, bins, pockets, a locking box under the pass. seat, a folding tray between the front seats which extends toward the second row, and even grocery bag hooks on the back of the third row seats. There is a place perfectly sized for CDs and a sunglasses holder too. We have found all this stuff to be functional, and most of it to be useful--even the bag hooks, despite the fact that we laughed when the sales guy pointed them out. Now we understand!

Telematics: This minivan has a tachometer, which seems odd considering it only comes with an automatic transaxle, but is actually useful since we started towing. The CD stereo works fine, but skips strangely under certain road conditions (not consistently or regularly, but enough to be annoying). The factory tape player (har!) is OK. There are some pre-set equalizer curves to choose from but the only things that are manually adjustable are bass and treble. The fader does allow you to send all the tunes to the front if a small person is napping. Nevertheless, there are six speakers and overall the sound quality is well set up for the space. We are considering buying an aftermarket unit with a Nav system. The wife loves the overhead console...but she's a sucker for gadgets. It displays the time (no clock on the stereo, which is where most everybody is used to looking for it), and also the ambient (outside) temp, miles left on your tank of gas (not very accurate in city driving), and can track the minutes/hours in your trip. It also has a programmable garage door button (which took some figuring out but works great), and two other buttons that can be programmed to do something (we just haven't figured out what yet).

Performance: Despite 3.5 liters, the Sedona is not exactly fast. Nissan is making 240 horses with the same displacement! However, our Sedona is quite peppy around town, pulling its nearly 4000 pounds with relative ease, and is fairly responsive once rolling, especially for an automatic. The transmission makes good use of the five speeds (5th is an overdrive which can be turned off, supposed to for towing, although my wife forgot on one trip, with no real obvious negative performance). Trying to accelerate up a hill while already at speed can cause a rather harsh downshift on occasion, but mostly the shifts are only heard, and not felt. The engine does seem to rev pretty high for a six-cylinder (the tranny holding a gear on up to 4000rpm or 5000 even with the O/D off), but I don't really know if that differs from other designs on the market. Gas mileage, which by my very loose figuring averages about 19-20 miles per gallon, even on the highway, even when towing nearly a ton. The downshifts give the impression that the engine is working hard to meet the load demand, and that's with only three (and a half) passengers and a little of their stuff. With this MPG, you'd think there's gobs of unused horsepower someplace, but it doesn't seem that is the case. Torque is adequate, and except on downhills the trailer is barely noticeable except in terms of revs (you can definitely hear the engine, very harsh at 4k on up, passing on the highway or going up a hill with the trailer).

The suspension is very soft, soaking up all the bumps, and barely any road feel at all, really. The steering borders on numb--this is why I call it the rolling living room, the Sedona seems to have the same handling characteristics as you'd get by putting a motor on your family den. You can definitely feel every pound of the thing when braking at highway speeds, like an old Buick or full-size Chevy station wagon. In high 80s, low 90 degree temps, brake fade is noticeable on journeys of more than a few miles. I think some of this could be greatly improved with some wider wheels and lower profile tires--so the only reason I can possibly see for running such a tall, relatively skinny tire on this vehicle is precisely the elimination of contact patch; the tall sidewall helps soak up bumps too. Although I'd like some more contact (friction) when braking, the smaller patch probably translates to some MPG, and I shudder to think how bad it would be without this choice, seeing as it's not great to begin with.

Reliability: We have needed the rear wiper arm replaced, as it stopped making any contact with the window, even after a fairly easy winter. This was "fixed" free with no questions, but not replaced, and has since become a problem again--the hinge point is obviously corroded. But on another exterior issue, there is visible corrosion (RUST) already on the front hood around the grille, bubbling from UNDER the paint--even though Kia America insists this is not a defect, and refuses to repair or repaint it. It's not very noticeable from a distance, so we have let it go so far. If it rusts through before the 5yr bumper-to-bumper we will find out if that warranty is worth the paper it's printed on.

Overall Build Quality: So far, everything on this vehicle (except the rear wiper) functions exactly the way it is supposed to, and all the doors and windows close up tight. There is a fair amount of cabin noise, both from the engine and the wind, but hey, it's not a Toyota. It hauls our small family just fine for now.