Quote:
Originally Posted by niwell
I recently joined Comunauto car share and have been using it fairly often recently on account of errands mostly related to our new puppy (goodbye, sleep). Most of the cars seem to be Kia Rio's or Hyudai Accent hatchback models, which are far smaller than the mid-size rental cars I'm more familiar with driving recently for road trips and occasionally for work. I obviously can't speak to reliability and there are drawbacks to the size, but wow are they easy to navigate the narrow streets around me, navigate parking structures and parallel park on busy roads. With a hatchback I have actually been able to pick up stuff from Home Depot for projects around the house, though I'm not exactly hauling sheet wood...
|
I drive a Rio (bought new in 2019) and my best friend drives an Accent (bought new in 2020 - before covid). They're basically the same car.
I'd argue if you're a city person who isn't hauling big crap and doesn't care about having a flashy ride, they are the best ICE car available. Cheap, reliable, good on gas, very maneuverable. They're also pretty well loaded on interior comfort features for their price points, with the base models still having a sizeable feature list (as typical of the Koreans). At the time I bought it in 2019, the 2019 Kia Rio LX+ trim was the only new car available in Canada for less than $20,000 MSRP that had both automatic transmission and heated seats & steering wheel.
I've moved since I bought it and had no problems buying furniture, home renovation projects, and even going camping with the cargo space I have. The back seats and the front captain seat all come down, providing quite the cargo space if you're willing to sacrifice being able to have any passengers.
The only downside is that Kia-Hyundai have an absurdly frequent servicing schedule - I have to get servicing every 6 months or 6000 km in order to keep the warranty. Thankfully I only drive about 10,000km a year so I just do it every 6 months.