Because people EXPECT the battery to be under the hood not in the trunk. You have to give people what they want, regardless of how little sense it makes. Remember the video card thread? ;) As we all learned from the NA & NB series Miata, the average consumer (m.net) does not want to buy a new $160 WestCo or AGM battery when they can go buy a $75 wet cell at WalMart and then blame Mazda when it explodes and/or vents acid into their trunk.

I wanted to like the optima

but when i look at the side of a NEW kia optima, all I see is:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1364505929

PANEL LINE PANEL LINE PANEL LINE PANEL LINE.

Seriously, it looks like it was designed by spider man with all that webby shit.

find me a car on the road that does the trunk lid edge on the side of the car where the world can see it in all its liney-ness. And while you're at it, hey guys, lets put the hood edge on the side too. and end the doors like 3 inches from a natural shadow line.

panel line.

To be fair, Mazda did not help the situation when they started selling the infamous blue-label battery as an "OEM-equivalent" replacement part at the north American service centers.

That said, I have been too cheap and lazy to do anything about the flooded battery (Duralast) which came installed in my '90 when I bought it. That battery has got to be at least 4-5 years old at this point, and it's still rockin'. It has out-lasted both the Westco AGM and the subsequent Optima Red that I put in the '92.

Kia offers a standard 7 year 150,000 km transferable warranty for cars built in Zilina.
Quality is the one thing you don't need to worry about.

7 year warranty | Kia Motors Ireland

Wife: I told you not to post that, you knew they were going to hate on it. You could have told them you were going to buy a Porsche and it would have been the same thing.


She gets home in a few minutes. Then we are going to the dealership to overpay for a kia.

make sure to lube up and don't clench

the salesman might go in dry

I don't know how anyone could look at resale values for the cars in this class and pick anything but the FIT.

Financially, it has by far the lowest cost of ownership in this class.

Even if it costs you $2k more up front, look at what a 6 year old fit is worth versus a 6 year old small ford or small kia, or versa, etc. etc.

Everyone raves about the Fiesta (ST looks interesting...) but the average transaction price for Fiestas is over $20k or something stupid like that. Equally equipped the Fiesta is expensive...

average transaction price for Fiestas over 20k? highly doubt it.

If I were buying a car in that class, it would be the Fit. Space trumps for me. But I'm also disappointed with the fuel economy so who knows.

more room and better economy? have you seen the thread split from this one? lol :D

This article is a bit older but this is what I was referring to:

Report: Ford Fiesta transaction prices higher than current Focus, Civic and Corolla

Apparently it was $18k, so shoot me.

According to this article the average transaction price of the Fiesta was higher than the Civic in that month.

Seriously? People were getting Fiestas for the same the could have a Civic? And they were doing this to buy a small cheap car?

In reply to the Sonic, it's also a Daewoo, just like the Chevy Cruze is a Daewoo, and also Korean.

I've been to the u-pull-it recently for something and a friend asked me to look for some Kia interior parts while I was there. His girlfriend has one and ALL of the interior plastics have disintegrated. The dash vents and their retainers have fallen apart and fallen out. The dash has cracked and sections are missing entirely. The ones in the junkyard were no help because they were all similarly disintegrating. I hoped they learned how to make good plastic since then.

Can't tell whether it is my hangover or buyers remorse that just woke me on my day off at 5am.

With a face like that it's gotta be buyer's remorse. http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...SJZYoBZTOAq9Mg

dude................:laugh:

https://www.miataturbo.net/general-m...81/#post995457

https://www.miataturbo.net/engine-pe...54/#post995259

LOL I didn't catch that. Did FowlerMotorsports build a shitty locost with a 1.6 motor? It all makes sense now!

Definitely buyer's remorse...

That or the nagging realization that you ignored every good bit of advice in this thread.

Bahahaha I love the KIA theme that is happening. The irony of the builder of the POS icantdo55 bought... Now works for KIA... Unbelievable. I bet he designed the suspension under the new Rio. Hey, didn't someone on this board just buy a Rio?

Trololololol