Kia Sedona

We rented a car while we were on vacation and it just turned out that the 'small minivan' class was one-third the cost of any other vehicle, including sub-compacts! Works for us! When we picked it up they gave us a Kia Sedona with just 21 miles on it. I was a little dubious at first, but I've changed my mind and figured I'd share my thoughts.



If you have 5 kids or less and are on a tight budget (aren't we all these days!) you should have a serious look at this car. Everything worked very nicely, although I don't personally care for the placement of some of the dashboard controls (wipers, etc.) I suppose I could get used to them eventually, though. The interior is very comfortable and easily reconfigured - seats can be stowed flat into the floor (copied from Dodge). Ours had a CD player with MP3 capability and Sirius Satellite radio. It sounds pretty good for a stock system, but not awesome. The sliding doors move almost effortlessly and the windows in them roll down!

The real surprise was how much power was under the hood! That little bugger just gets moving in a big hurry for a mini-minivan! The tranny changes gears smoothly and immediately kicks down when asked for a burst of acceleration. Even more fun, the console-mounted shift lever can be slid through a gate that allows the driver to manually control shifting by bumping up or down a gear at a time. It was most fun using it to force engine braking to assist in hard deceleration.



My only real complaint is that the road noise was almost unbearable, but it should be taken into consideration that the freeways in Washington are very rough concrete with no asphalt to quiet them down. We never really got up to freeway speeds on any roads paved with asphalt, but the road noise seemed less obnoxious while on tar.

I'm not ready to give up my Dodge Grand Caravan for one of these, but if you're thinking about a 'mini-minivan', have a look at the Kia Sedona. It might make you smile.

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