Hacker News Reader

Comment by programmertote | Hacker News Reader

Just out of curiosity, do you like your Kia? I see that cars from Korean manufacturers tend to be very competitive in terms of pricing and/or feature. But I am not sure if they are as reliable compared to, say, Japanese cars.

An anecdote of why I'm asking -- I have Samsung dishwasher, for example, and it broke less than two years for very, very minimal use (I use it like once every two weeks). Based on that experience and having owned a Samsung galaxy phone that slowed down significantly after about 2-3 years (again, I installed almost no apps other than essential ones like Gmail and a couple of bank apps), I am not sure if Korean manufacturing has matured enough for me to consider buying a car made by one of the Korean manufacturers. This is, of course, not to diss on Korean manufacturers. Just wanted to explain why I am asking this question to begin with.

View on HN

> Samsung dishwasher

Forgive me for getting up on my soapbox, but ... I strongly recommend avoiding Samsung appliances like the plague. I have had nothing but bad luck with Samsung appliances that were not TVs or computer-related. My washer and dryer both failed the first time after less than a year of use. My fridge lasted about two years before the control panel started losing LEDs, and now I replace that control panel periodically -- the replacements start burning out LEDs again typically within a matter of months. LEDs! Burning out! WTF.

To their credit, the mechanical bits of the fridge have been flawless so far (9 years later) but the control panel issue makes me hot under the collar. It's always a guess now as to whether the dispenser is about to give you cubed ice, crushed ice, or water. And judging by the volume of complaints online, I'm not the only one who has this exact experience with their refrigerators.

I even bought my washer and dryer specifically on the recommendation of Consumer Reports. The first time I can remember where they led me astray.

If it's literally just burning out LEDs, you could probably do some fairly simple modifications to protect those LEDs. It's not exactly ideal, but a simple resistor in line with each LED would almost certainly solve the issue.

My Samsung TV died after 3 years. LCD panel died. Never again.

I used to own a 2006 Hyundai and it was very reliable. I only sold it because I sustained a foot injury and could no longer operate a manual transmission, even the extremely forgiving one in that car.

I would prefer to never buy another car (and would absolutely not buy a Samsung car) but Hyundai's absolutely on my 'consider again' list.

Thank you for sharing your experience with Hyundai. I'm seriously considering buying Hyundai car IF I were to buy a car in the future. :)

I am in the same boat. Looking at getting a new vehicle and Kia is near the top of the list because of warranty. I'd love to hear about personal experiences with the brand.

I've owned GM, Honda, Ford, VW, and Chrysler. I've been very disappointed in all of them.

My father has 2012 Sonata with a 2.4 Theta II engine, which has failed at 70k miles. Dealer replaced with no fuss and he had a nice loaner for 2 months. Initially, he had to pay for a loaner before dealer inspected it. Hyundai corporate was a pleasure to work with to get his money back.

I bought a 2019 santa fe with the same engine. As these engines are now covered under lifetime warranty. I had 0 problems with the car in the last 2 years, and honestly I am quite amazed with how much of car I got for 34k with 0% financing. I have the highest trim with AWD, which had original MSRP of $39k, so I did get a decent deal.

IMO, hyundai/kia is a great buy, Toyota/Honda used to be a good deal some years ago but right now their cars are overpriced, toyota especially.

Toyota does still retain value quite well. However, carmax offered me $32k for my car, so almost what I paid. This most likely due to the chip shortage so that value would probably be lower normally.

Thank you for sharing your experience with Hyundai/Kia. I'll definitely keep that in mind when I decide to buy a car in the future (I unfortunately would have to buy one if I were to move to suburb some day...)

You have to check the model and engine specifics. Kia had a bad run of V4 turbos due to metal shavings in the manufacturing process. I think the electric Hyundai is on recall in South Korea because it overcharges and catches on fire. That is sort of a national scandal over there as far as I can tell which will probably lead to positive changes in their manufacturing processes. It also took a lot of hassle of those V4 Kia owners to get warranty coverage.

That being said the V6 lambda engines are very nice and considered reliable. They started with the Genesis which was an important flagship vehicle. I have a V6 and have had no issues approaching 100k. But I am the type of person that wants to get 200k out of my vehicles, I have no idea if that will happen. I'd be upset if the car failed before 10 years as well.

There are forums where you can get an idea, especially if you look at previous model years.

I have a 2 year old Niro EV with 20K miles. It is a fantastic little car, no issues or defects with it all so far. The dealership experience sucked, but that’s not the car’s fault.

I own a Kia (a 2nd gen Cee'd, the EU hatchback) and it's awesome. Zero issues.

Thank you for sharing your experience with Kia. If you don't mind me asking--how long have you had it?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com