Would you buy a Korean car?

[hoffy]

The missus and me are looking at new cars at the mo, to replace our aging, but still reasonable 86 Laser (somthing to do with 230k on the clock and the fact nothing has yet gone wrong, tick, tick, tick).

Well, we've stumbled apon the Korean built cars and have actually found one we quite like (no, its not a bloody Lanos or Excell) Putting aside things like resale value, would you buy Korean. Yes I know, they all speak about build quality, but Ive had a good look over a few examples of this particular car (O.K. its a Kia) and compared it to a Lancer and the only prob I found with build quality, was the same on both cars.

[Craig]

Hate to say it, but I wouldn't touch one with a barge pole Had one at work as a courtesy car whilst one of our vehicles was in the body shop, and the thing went from being brand new to being a wreck in the space of the 2 weeks we had it. I kid you not.

[redback]

I've heard KIA stands for Killed in Accident just kidding. I had a Ford(KIA)Festiva Trio for 2 years and 100k trouble free kilometers. 50 mpg as well.

The Hyundai Accent came out well in recent crash tests results in Australia. But I suppose that doesn't really worry you because the Laser is rated as one of the worst ever. The Accent's build quality seems to have come a long way also. Talon have a pretty cool body kit along the lines of the rally car too.

I think all of the cheaper cars these days are more or less disposable. I wouldn't expect one to go the distance of the Laser. I hear the dealerships rarely see them for service as people just run them into the ground and then buy another one.

[Sharky]

I agree with Craig. I wouldn't even consider buying one of those things. I've always seen corean cars as cheap, disposable vehicles. I remember that when the fisrs hundays arrived here they were blowing a lot of engines because the road characteristics overe here were too much. However, they solved the problem but I don't know how exactly.

Personally my first option will walways be an european car, my second a japanese car and my third a bike.

[redback]

My friend has a Holden Barina/Opel Corsa GSi. He is not hard on the car and does about a 100km round trip to work each day. It has broken 3 timing belts (no, I am not exagerating) and each time has put the valves through the pistons and has been off the road for ages each time. He paid about 30,000Aussie dollars for it but it is not worth a cracker now even though it looks mint. Holden don't even want to know about them anymore. I think you need to be careful buying a European car also. I'd go the Korean over anything by Opel. I comes down to bad word of mouth I guess.

[Bluebottle]

One of the worst cars I've ever driven was a rented Accent in New York in 1998. It was new, only delivery miles on it, but it couldn't be described as good, or even nice and did not inspire me with any feeling of safety at all- I don't like steering wheels with bombs in them and I find small cars with power steering feel very unsafe. It performed reasonably well, all things considered, but I could find nothing to recommend it! I do think, however, that where a car comes from is largely irrelevant- we used to say similar things about Japanese cars.

[elephino]

One of the worst cars I've come across is the Ford (KIA) Festiva.

For now, I wouldn't touch any Korean car. Hyundai looks like it will be ok in a model cycle or two but until then I'd steer well clear.

The Barina isn't much better....

[EERO]

Answer to original question: NEVER.


However there was a time not too long ago when serious enthusiasts said that they "...would never buy a Japanese car."


Give it time, eventually they will make a good one.

[Airhead]

Down here Daiwoo sell a car called a Lanos.

Maybe it should have been Christened the EEROS!!!

hahahahahahahahaha...

I won't buy one - I'm still smarting from buying a Samsung TV 6 years ago.

[mtpanorama]

Dont think I would ever buy a korean car. The price range you a looking at you are probably better of to buy a low km 1-2 year old laser or corolla. Better quality cars and will last a lot longer than the koreans. The other option which you may have not looked at is the suzuki baleno.