They (we ) did and look how far they've come.
A friend of ours has a Kia Rio that's so old that bits of it have started to fossilise, it's on its nth owner and it looks pretty tatty. But it's done a bit over 600k km and still goes strong. He's been trying to palm it off onto his son for 10 years or so but he won't have a bar of it "because it's a Kia" and drives a continuously breaking down commode. All he's ever done is a couple of alternators, a few batteries and the brakes. He changes the oil and all filters every 20k km and fills it up and drives it. Apparently it's never broken down. The previous owners are all family so its history is known.
Given the history of the Kia and my experience (good) with an old Hyundai Sonata I'd not hesitate to by a Kia or a Hyundai.
Go back a few years I probably wouldn't have touched one.........
Then I bought an iload purely because I was a decent sized van that would fit in my garage. Hiace was too big.
Now I wouldn't hesitate to buy another. Have heaps of friends who've bought hyundais and Kias and no major problems.
Of course nothing is perfect and there is always a tale of woe, but on the whole they are pretty good.
My only gripe is why can't they make a mansize version........
?
Something perhaps 4WD with low range that can tow 3.5 tonnes???
C'mon, it can't be that hard........
