Kia Magentis?

E30i · 06-04-2012 5:59am #1

I'm looking for a diesel saloon and as I drive around 40k klms a year I tend to buy 3 or 4 year old and keep it for 3 or 4 years. By this stage the car will owe me very little and because I maintain properly I usually have no problems moving the car on at the right price for both the purchaser and myself.

Has anyone any experience of the above, I kinda dont mind the appearance, they are roomy, 160k Timing Belt Changes and unloved, rare and therefore well priced 2nd hand.

I'd welcome any views or real world experiences, especially around reliability and fuel consumption.

Coming from a Mark 3 Mondeo so my priorities are reliability, space, economy and the car has to be 'fresh' for the year. Mondeo's work out about 2 - 2.5 k more expensive for similar year/mileage

haminka · 06-04-2012 6:43am

http://www.topgear.com/uk/kia/magentis/verdict

E30i · 06-04-2012 7:15am

Tks for link, any real world experiences?

haminka · 06-04-2012 7:25am

unfortunately not for me, i'm driving kia ceed and totally happy with it, love the handling.

johnos1984 · 06-04-2012 8:31am

No real world experience as such but from test driving them I can tell you the radio is a crappy after market job and the interior plastics are a bit cheap. The ride is also soft but that's no bad thing. They are a fine car though and a bloody bargain. Never heard of any reliability issues with them

colm_mcm · 06-04-2012 9:08am

They're pretty much a Hyundai sonata. The seats aren't nearly as good as the mondeo

Francie Barrett · 06-04-2012 10:01am

johnos1984 wrote: »

No real world experience as such but from test driving them I can tell you the radio is a crappy after market job and the interior plastics are a bit cheap. The ride is also soft but that's no bad thing. They are a fine car though and a bloody bargain. Never heard of any reliability issues with them

My father has the 2nd generation petrol model in GS spec. The crappy radio can be replaced no bother. As for the quality of the interior, it's not much worse than that of the Avensis or other similar cars of its class, the important thing is that the plastics feel substantial enough that they won't break or fall apart. The ride is a little soft, and you will feel bumps on the road that little bit more, but if you're on the motorway, it's lovely to drive and cabin noise is actually ok.

Obviously, you wouldn't touch one of these new. However, these yokes have had hefty depreciation, so they're definitely moving into bargain territory. The CRDi engine is supposed to be a peach and actually delivers better refinement and economy than many of its counterparts (Toyota for example). If you're looking for a cheap, roomy and reasonably comfortable saloon to just chew up miles, then definitely consider it. Make sure you haggle though, because these things don't have a Toyota badge on them, dealers cannot shift them and will take massive price reductions.