So, it is time for the Rio to go. Thought I would share my experience of it as a long term prospect and write an honest little detailed review.

 

After careful consideration and a decent test drive, I bought a Kia Rio 2 1.1crdi as a driver training car. Among the main considerations fuel economy and comfort where high on the list as I clock up a lot of miles (94,000 in 25 months in this case). So how has it been?

 

Quality / reliability

 

The fit and finish of the exterior seems generally good. Paint seems a little softer than some cars I have owned, but is very resistant to stone chips. The front bumper is a slightly different shade of Blaze Red to the rest of the car, which has become more pronounced with time. Slightly different paint? Pre delivery repair? Not sure, it is only noticeable if you are tuned to this sort of thing. All the trim parts are well attached and nothing has come loose or fallen off.

 

The interior looks pretty good for the sector. I had the well recorded dash rattle (eventually fixed at 70,000 miles after complaining about it at every service from delivery onwards). All switches and buttons feel good and everything still works properly. Although the black dash and interior look a little austere, it is nicely put together. The floor mats have held up well, still on the originals that came with the car. The fit of the seat covers around the rear entry release was very poor on my car and this was never rectified by the dealer. It looks properly shabby. Seats have been very comfortable, but where initially of some concern, the fabric started to stretch a little and they began to lose their crisp appearance within the first 5000 miles, but to be fair, never got any worse after that and still look OK now. There is still no pilling / fleecing or noticeable wear on the seat fabrics. In the last few months, the driver seat back padding is going a little thin in the lower lumbar area, but still comfortable. The dash area and other interior plastics still look very good and after a good vac and wipe down it comes up close to new.

 

The oily bits have generally been very good. I had the common squeaky clutch master cylinder from around 1200 miles, but it quietened itself down by 6000 miles. The car was recovered to the dealers a couple of times for what appeared to be clutch hydraulic failure, but this turned out to be the Kia fitted dual controls which where incorrectly set up, limiting the clutch return stroke just enough that the master cylinder could not replenish. Result was a dragging clutch in cold weather. Talking of clutches, it is still on it's original clutch which still feels like new. Other than that, the car has been totally reliable.

 

Driving

 

The car is generally light and easy to drive. The trainees all like it and nearly all of them have been able to find a comfortable driving position. Long periods in the car are easy and even after a 12 hour day, I am still comfortable in there. Controls are light and easy, gear change is nicely biased, the shift feels good and the gate well defined. Steering is light and lacking in feel (much like most of the competition in the sector) but grip levels are pretty high and the car is composed at speed on even quite challenging roads. It is possible to cover ground pretty quickly and carry good speed, but start to really push on and the chassis unravels and loses its composure, the front and rear ends seeming to not really work together under serious duress. It is not in the same league as a similarly tyred Fiesta, Clio or Mini, but as good as the rest out there.

 

The engine has truly exceeded what I would expect from a 1.1L diesel. It has a sonorous but slightly gruff sound under acceleration, settles back to almost inaudible at a cruise, seems to rev out well (for something fuelled from the pump of shame) and is IMO a characterful power plant, well matched to its gear ratios. Sure it is no fireball, but it handles fast A roads / motorways better than something that small has any right to. Changing down to maintain speed on hills (at least with only 2 people on board) is not something I have had to do anywhere I have been. My other job takes me on long motorway jaunts and the car copes well with a 3 hour stint.

 

The audio system is natural sounding and pretty neutral. It does not go particularly loud or deep and generally loses the battle with tyre noise.

 

Running costs

 

Fuel consumption has averaged 55.5mpg. This is a pretty constant figure. Used for longish urban / slow A road journeys, the car can do more (best I have seen is 63.0 on a tankful) and if you really worked at it, you may get a little better than that in general driving. On the motorway it is working hard and fuel consumption will be low 50s. I would suggest the 1.4 would serve you better if motorway use is your main use. The trip computer is a proper liar, generally telling you a figure about 20% better than what you are really achieving, so don't be fooled by the numbers on a test drive.

 

Servicing is good value on the plan you buy with the car (I got a care 5 package that took me through year 1 for £500) but once that expires, the servicing costs get quite steep, particularly if you want to change oil every 10,000 miles. The dealer has been a bit flexible on servicing costs, which has helped, having no cambelt is good news too, but costs are still in the order of £1200 per year for me.

 

Consumables have been limited to brakes and tyres. The car seems light on it's tyres, fronts (KH17 Kumhos) seem to last about 30,000 miles, rears about 35,000. Interestingly, the KH17s that where fitted when new only lasted 22,000 / 26,000 front / rear, but gripped better than their longer lasting replacements. Tyre wear is quite even, and tracking seems to stay well centred even in the pothole fest that masquerades as a road network here in the UK. Brake pads from Kia work out just over £140 per set and seem to wear quite evenly front / rear, expect to replace before 30,000 miles at best. The OE pads are a quality item giving excellent progression and linear, easily modulated response. On the downside, the discs will only last about 1.5 sets of pads and are stupidly expensive to replace. I went with pattern replacements as soon as they became available. Cost from Kia for a full disc / pad replacement set was over £700 in parts. Aftermarket parts came in at a very reasonable £176, but brake feel is definitely not quite as nice with the pattern pads.

 

I have never needed to top up the oil between services so no costs there. The two big trouble areas for the modern diesel car (dual mass flywheel and diesel particulate filter) have both been absolutely fine.

 

Gripes

 

Generally, it has been a very good car and I may well have another at some stage. There have been one or two gripes / annoyances though.

 

When I first got the car, it was pretty obvious that the ESC did nothing most of the time combined with the hill hold assist not working. Unfortunately, the dealer service desk guy tried to BS me telling me ESC should only work in snow, amongst other lame excuses. Having looked at it a little more, the ESC does actually work in a very limited range of situations where steering input mimics a rapid swerve manoeuvre. I would guess that the stability system is basically just there to satisfy the requirements of the SMMT agreement to pass the swerve test. The system functionality is considerably less than on the Mini I had before and other cars I have driven where the systems work to quell understeer / oversteer in all situations. Annoyingly, the only time ESC has ever intervened was when I was negotiating a 60mph left / right / left where I wanted a bit of mobility at the rear end and the ESC intervened making for untidy progress. Curiously, the hill hold function started to work after the 30,000 mile service, but a heavy stamp of the foot brake is required to trigger it's functioning, not at all like the other cars I have driven where it is fitted.

 

Tyre noise is the dominant factor in the cabin and is intrusive, 70dB is typical at 60mph on most surfaces and combined with a relatively quiet audio system, the cruising ability is a little compromised.

 

A drivers seat that does not have a memory slide function to let people in and out of the rear seats is poor in this day and age, and the seat back can foul the seat belt arm when the height is not set low and the seat is slid back. It never broke, but it made me wince when the two came together.

 

So all in all, a pretty good car. Not quite as good on fuel as Kia's figures had implied, the Rio is not as economical as some of the Hdi engine equipped PSA group cars or VAG group triples in Fabias / Ibizas for example. It has been relatively trouble free and good to drive. I will really miss its practicality and space too. Not a patch on my old Mk 1 Fabia VRs as a driving school car mind

 

Additional gripes

 

Ok, so forgot about these two: There is often a bit of a “crack” noise from the steering column when steering a lot at low speed, like something is winding up and releasing in the steering column. It has done it since new and Kia can find no problems with the rack, column or front suspension. The other thing is the ventilation system. When the air conditioning is used to keep the car demisted on cool or medium temperature rainy days, I noticed that in as little as 45 minutes, airflow into the car would stop completely, regardless of how the fans or vents where set. The dealer could find no fault, but a little lateral thinking revealed that what happens is that when there is high humidity and low to moderate ambient temperature, the air con evaporator coils frost up and close off airflow to the car. Switching the air con off gradually returns the flow of air into the car and when the coils fully de ice, condensation returns to the windows. Easily managed manually. I wonder how many new air boxes have been unnecessarily fitted in an attempt to cure this? I think it is simply a symptom of an air con system optimised for tropical climates.

 

Next stop, Skoda Citigo Elegance 75ps Greentec. Wish me luck!

 

Chris

I enjoyed reading that thanks.  A very detailed write up and it paints a good picture of the Rio.

Likewise, nice write up and very balanced. Its write ups like these I try to find when buying a new car instead of all the magazine items.

Thanks for that as I've been thinking about a Rio to replace the fabia estate when it finally dies or I have the cash. The write up gives me some food for thought.

Great review, good work.

Added a couple of additional gripes.