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Carbon · 07-21-2014, 01:57 PM

I love the car... but I bought it with almost 13,000 on the clock and had realistic expectations. It's not a Lexus.

The car it replaced was a 2003 Pontiac Grand Am GT. The last straw with that car was the exhaust valve rocker stud on cylinder #2 liberating itself from the head. Turned out that this was a relatively common problem, and either it happens or it doesn't. In 2003, GM switched from 10mm studs to 8mm studs and if the new ones are over-torqued, they can pull the threads with time. Well, mine happened.

After some careful drilling, a tap, a helicoil and some red loctite, I decided I didn't want to do this up to 11 more times.

I only looked at two cars... this and a Chevy Sonic LT Turbo. The fuel economy ratings are actually pretty similar, but the Kia is sooooo much more of a car. Mine is an optioned out LX not an EX, but looking at the feature list there's nothing missing that I really would want to pay more for. So with the $3400 the dealership gave me for my 105,000 mile basket case, I only ended up spending around $16,500 for a year old $26,000 car. Kia/Hyundai made significant changes in MY2013 to correct the drivability issues of the MY11/12 and so far it has been great, since June anyway.

I've only had one fill up under my control but I was able to go almost 708 miles on 16.7 gallons. I could barely make 300 miles on a tank in the Grand Am and it usually took about 13 gallons to fill.

I will admit having a game on the dash has modified my driving habits and that I bought the car for ECOnomy not for ECOlogy.

07-21-2014, 01:57 PM	#6 (permalink)
Carbon EcoModding Lurker Join Date: Jul 2014 Location: Eagan, Minnesota Posts: 26 Optima Hybrid - '13 Kia Optima LX Hybrid 90 day: 33.02 mpg (US) Outlander - '15 Mitsubishi Outlander SE AWD 90 day: 25.17 mpg (US) Thanks: 8 Thanked 26 Times in 10 Posts	I love the car... but I bought it with almost 13,000 on the clock and had realistic expectations. It's not a Lexus. The car it replaced was a 2003 Pontiac Grand Am GT. The last straw with that car was the exhaust valve rocker stud on cylinder #2 liberating itself from the head. Turned out that this was a relatively common problem, and either it happens or it doesn't. In 2003, GM switched from 10mm studs to 8mm studs and if the new ones are over-torqued, they can pull the threads with time. Well, mine happened. After some careful drilling, a tap, a helicoil and some red loctite, I decided I didn't want to do this up to 11 more times. I only looked at two cars... this and a Chevy Sonic LT Turbo. The fuel economy ratings are actually pretty similar, but the Kia is sooooo much more of a car. Mine is an optioned out LX not an EX, but looking at the feature list there's nothing missing that I really would want to pay more for. So with the $3400 the dealership gave me for my 105,000 mile basket case, I only ended up spending around $16,500 for a year old $26,000 car. Kia/Hyundai made significant changes in MY2013 to correct the drivability issues of the MY11/12 and so far it has been great, since June anyway. I've only had one fill up under my control but I was able to go almost 708 miles on 16.7 gallons. I could barely make 300 miles on a tank in the Grand Am and it usually took about 13 gallons to fill. I will admit having a game on the dash has modified my driving habits and that I bought the car for ECOnomy not for ECOlogy. Last edited by Carbon; 07-21-2014 at 02:38 PM..