Rev_D21 wrote:
That's right Nissan...a Korean car is going to be in my driveway! The 2010 Kia Forte Koup! I think it looks amazing and I love it!It gets great mileage and we got it with 50k for less than $14,000 fully loaded. So bye post-2002 Nissan!! Call me when you start making cool affordable cars again because painting trash cans and sticking wheels on them is not what Nissan used to be. Any company that green lights the Murano Cross-Cabriolet over a new S-chassis or Hardbody certainly doesn't care about what I like. I'll stick to my pre-2002 Nissans thank you!
We purchased the Forte Koup from the Hyundai dealer I work for. So not only can our shop fix it I am also a Kia wholesale parts dealer so I get the smoking deals on anything this thing could need. The future-wife likes it a lot and it's clean. Under the hood is showroom condition. Just an honest sporty-looking clean car. So Rev_D21 is boarding the Kia boat. (I still have all 3 of my trucks so no worries about me leaving the older Nissan-fold any time soon.)
Your case is unique, and won't apply for everybody. You have the dealer service at your hand, so you can use the scan tools for free. Now lets do some mathematics here.
The Nissan -any model and year- will have a price of $20,000.
The Kia -the average model and year that fits with the $20,000 Nissan- will cost $16.000.
You have NOT the dealer on your side to perform the maintenance and repairs, you are a "do it yourself car owner" who have the intentions of doing the maintenance and repairs in your own alley or house garage.
You have the ABS or Air Bags red light in you dash and you want to perform the troubleshooting of the codes in order to follow any necessary repair.
For your Nissan, you just go to any auto parts store that sells the scan tool that includes ABS and Air Bags, if no one is found in your area, any online store will sell you such a scan tool for less than $500.00.
For your Kia. you HAVE to go to a special auto parts store to buy the scan tool, and if not any in your area, the online stores will sell you such a scan tool at an average price of $4,000.
The difference between the price of the cars themselves is $4,000, and the difference of the price of the scan tool needed for both cars is $3,500.
As we can observe, the "savings" are not as great as it appears.
In my case, having to take the Hyundai (Korean vehicle) to the dealer or to another garage that owns the Carman Scan Pro, is a pain in the butt, because the model I own inherited the problem of the Air Bag block connector getting loose just by moving the front seat forward and backwards. So, even when I click back properly such a connector, I must take the car to the shop and have the light reset...and, as I don't work like you for Hyundai/Kia, so I must have to pay about $120.00 to the dealer or about $50.00 to any shop every time the Air Bag light goes On...bad business,,,very bad business...
I think that as long as you work for Kia/Hyundai, you have the privilege of not paying for the expensive scan tool that is needed for these two car brands. The amazing irony is that even Volvo, Mercedes, BMW, Chrysler, Ford, Nissan, Lexus, the same Maybach! can have their complete codes read with a less than $500.00 scan tool...lol
About the car itself, the Hyundai or Kia is indeed a good car, good machine, good transmission...still, like some other brands, if you want to flush the steering power fluid you must buy the special fluid that meets the required characteristics given in the car manual, and so far, in my case, the Multi ATF Motul is the only one that fits...and in your dealer they might be using the regular fluid that won't reach the required specifications...I can tell, because I tried to buy this 'special" fluid from them (Hyundai dealer parts and service) and Hyundai won't sell it, and their service department told me that they use the regular ATF...lol
The same applies when you want to flush the transmission, it is not the regular fluid that applies for most cars but also requires of special characteristics...in this case, only the Mitsubishi Diamond ATF SP III fits, but the dealer's service department also told me that they use the regular ATF...Lol again...
Both, the steering power and transmission fluids for my vehicle are not cheap...but their price is not such a high to make complaints about it, still, you just must need to make your order online in most cases...
I guess that if you want to keep your vehicle in its best shape, you should buy your own fluids -the required ones given in your car manual- and use your dealer's service department to do the repair/maintenance, because as far as I know, the dealers themselves use fluids other than the required ones specified by the car manual.
Oh, congratulations for your car, it really looks good...
