To KIA or Not to KIA That is the Question: The 2001 Sephia Kia

What seems like a dorky title is factually far more intense than it appears. We watch these relatively new vehicles come out, for example the Yugo a failed automotive venture, Daewoo is beginning to look a little shaky (a little?). Watching the speculative imports makes me a tad bit nervous in even considering a non-proven vehicle. Is the Kia in fact unproven? They were the first Korean Company to ever build passenger cars. They have been around for half of a century. The Kia is sold in 170 countries around the world. Ok, so they have experience under their belts, they are unproven to me!

But the Kia commercials with the 10-year, 100.000 warranty certainly did catch my attention.

10 years/100,000 miles limited power train warranty
5 years/60,000 miles limited basic warranty
5 years/100,000 miles limited anti-perforation warranty
5 years unlimited miles 24 hour roadside assistance.

When considering a purchase for a teenager so much more has to be taken into consideration. Granted I think about these things when purchasing a car for myself but when purchasing for an offspring concerns like warranty and safety become far greater issues.

What protects us when we make a purchase if it does turn out to be defective? I’ll admit it I’m a little nervous inconsidering purchasing a Kia.

Magnuson-Moss law - This federal law gives the consumer considerable rights when dealing with a “lemon” vehicle.

The Uniform Commercial Code or UCC - A source of law in all 50 of the United States dealing with contracts and the sale of products.
TARR BABY
“TENDER-The tender provisions of the Uniform Commercial Code contained in Section2-601 provide that the buyer is entitled to reject any goods that fail in any respect to conform to the contract”
“ACCEPTANCE-The new car buyer accepts the goods believing and expecting that the manufacturer will repair any problem he has with the goods under the warranty.”
“REJECTION-The new car buyer may discover a problem with the vehicle within the first few miles of his purchase”
“REVOCATION- What happens when the consumer has used the new car for a lengthy period of time?”

State Lemon Laws differ from state to state but do offer considerable protection.

Do these protective laws make me confidence enough to consider a Kia as a vehicle for my daughter? No, safety is even a bigger concern.

We are looking for a vehicle for our daughter. This review is on the 2001 Sephia Kia. Reasonably priced, reasonably safe, good mileage and comes with one of the best warranties in the entire automobile industry.

Crash ratings for the Sephia 2001. “NHTSA CRASH TEST RESULTS: Frontal crash ratings: Driver: Mar 2001 Passenger: Mar 2001 Side crash ratings: Driver: * * * Rear Passenger: * * * * Results based on a 35 MPH frontal crash and 38.5 MPH side crash. Results are reported in a range of one to five stars, with five stars indicating the best crash protection for vehicles within the same weight class. This test used driver and passenger belts and airbags.”

Not bad but not great either. Driving is the number one cause of death and injury for young people ages 15 to 44, pretty scary statistics!

2001 Kia Sephia 4-DR. Front drivers side fours stars, passenger side five stars. Side impact Front Occupant three stars, rear occupant side impact four stars. Let’s compare this data with the 2001 Saturn SL 4-DR. Front driver’s side five stars, passenger side five stars. Side impact front occupant three stars and rear occupant two stars.

Let’s examine these crash tests a little more closely. What does this really mean in reference to what I understand, body parts! To help understand the following numbers the lower the numbers are for the head, chest, and the femur load; the lower the potential is for injury in a 35-mph frontal crash.

Kia Sephia 4-Dr
Driver’s side frontal (head injury (398 hic (chest declaration) 46 g (femur load) Left 91 lb Right 510 lb.
Passenger's Side frontal (head injury) 396 hic (chest declaration) 40-g (femur load) Left 570 lb Right 559 lb

Saturn 2001 SL 4-DR
Driver's Side frontal (head injury) 521 hic (chest deceleration) 40 g (femur load) Left 485 lb Right 343 lb Passenger's Side frontal (head injury) 543 hic (chest deceleration) 41 g (femur load) Left 892 lb Right 551 lb

Another testing institute is the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

2001 Kia Sephia
Frontal offset crash test overall results - poor
2001 Saturn SL
Frontal offset crash test overall results - acceptable

The following website allows you to compare crash test between any two vehicles of the same class.
http://www.hwysafety.org/vehicle_ratings/ce/cecompc1.asp

The Kia does have an innovative driver’s knee airbag, dual front airbags, front and rear crumple zones, steel side-door impact beams and energy-absorbing bumpers.

The Kia shopping experience. After our dismal shopping experience at the Ford garage in Stockton CA we were experiencing nothing short of a severe anxiety attack when heading to find a Kia dealer. I found out on the Internet that Geweke had a Kia dealership in Lodi CA. We ran into a Ford Geweke Dealership and stopped to ask where the Kia dealership was. Now THIS was a different experience. The salesman offered to take us over to the Kia lot. We followed him over in our car to the other side of town. He then explained he was a Ford dealer and promptly introduced us to the Kia dealer. Carlos Oliveira, the sales consultant at Geweke Kia was nothing short of a delight to work with. Friendly and not overbearing but intensely helpful. Sometimes I think I could be capable of buying a car simply because of a sales staff. We scrutinized every make of Kia on the lot and enjoyed several long test drives. Carlos allowed us complete freedom on the test drives. He did however, and understandably, take a copy of our drivers license.

The base price of the 2001 Sephia was $10,845. The optional air was priced at $960.00. The four speed EC automatic transmission was $975.00. The cosmetic rear spoiler that I’ll have to admit was kind of cute was $200.00. The floor mats were $79.00 and the body side moldings were $85.00. With the freight and delivery the final cost was $13,639.00.

The in-town gas mileage was estimated at 22 ranging from 1 to 42. The highway estimated at 31 ranged from 16 to 49.

The car is powered with a 1.8-liter DOHC 4-cylinder engine with 125 horsepower. When taking off from a dead stop it was no speed demon. But driving through traffic and passing other vehicles it had plenty of power.

The ride wasn’t jarring or bumpy and you certainly didn't slid across the seat when cornering. A Citation we recently rented you literally felt like you would slide across the street at every corner. The Sephia Kia rolled nicely into each turn. The features stabilizing this car are rack-and-pinion steering, front and rear stabilizer bars, MacPherson struts and four-wheel independent suspension.


The front seat was rather roomy. As Kia states an interior so roomy it makes paying for an apartment redundant. I wouldn’t go that far but the front seat was adequate. Now trying to live in the back seat? I don’t think my cat would be happy with the legroom. Now if you twist your legs over your shoulders there might be enough legroom!

I’m a women, I’ll admit the vanity features are important to me. When George and I were eyeballing this car he pulls down the visor and says, “will they could have passed on some savings by not putting in these mirrors!” Say what?! I don’t think so! I need those vanity mirrors! You don’t expect me to get out of this car with out checking if I have spinach between my teeth do you? Geez! The center console with the armrest was nice. The double cup holder was a joke. First, where could you possibly buy a cup that small to fit in that cup holder? Second, I pulled on the cup holder to “adjust it” opps, it wasn’t adjustable and I pulled it out, like, I had it sitting in my hand. Hmm, this probably isn’t a good thing! It did have a rear defroster. It was a rather warm day in the valley and when we turned on the air it cooled the car promptly. Not a windstorm, but it didn’t take forever to cool the car.

What I didn’t like. I’m cheap from the word go. I’d just as soon stick my own spark plugs in, change my own oil and filters. I opened the engine compartment and they seemed to have hid the spark plugs. Taking a closer look at the overhead cam cover I came to the conclusion this had to be removed to find the spark plugs. Carlos had a look of horror on his face when I pulled out a Phillips screwdriver so I decided to not look further for those elusive spark plugs.

The trunk had decent storage space for a small car. The spare was easy to get at. The inside of the trunk had an emergency hood release but no light. At least I couldn’t find a light.

Talking with other Kia owners, most seemed satisfied with their purchases and had no complaints. The only major fly in the Kia ointment is the class action suit on brake defects for the 1998, 1999, 2000 KIA SEPHIAS.

For the price this was a decent little ride. It was comfortable; the front seat was roomy. The safety features surpass some cars and fall under par for many others in the same class. I’ll have to admit Saturn spoils me. But this car has been put on the list to “allow” our daughter Erika to examine and test drive after a few concerns are addressed. “CONSUMERS SUFFER BRAKE DEFECTS IN 1998, 1999, 2000 KIA SEPHIAS; CLASS ACTION SUITS FILED IN PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY” What has been done to eliminate this brake problem, if in fact anything. I am waiting a response from Kia now and will include it in my next Kia review.