This is to prove a point...

[NY.AD.MAN]

How many of you Versa owners out there would trade out your car for a Hyundai or Kia?

[kc5f]

"I wouldn't drive a Hyundai or Kia over my Versa..." Of course not - just think of the nasty marks it would leave!

If there had been a Hyundai dealer within 30 miles of us, I would have at least looked at them, from what I've heard. Not so of Kias. But I think I still would have ended up with the Versa.

[gtrisfun]

kind of a rant/ramble:i nearly bought a 2003 kia spectra back in july 03. the sales staff didn't know very much about their own cars, i wanted a spectra LS in charcoal (includes power accessories, alloys, 6 speaker, etc), the guy took me over to base models then was looking in each on to see if they had a power package. damn car only says "LS" on the trunk! they didn't have the color i wanted, but wanted to make the sale. the sales manager decided he was gonna show 'em how to close a deal. i brought my wife and my dad with me (i was maybe 28-29 at the time) and for some reason he thought my pops was gonna buy me this car, i just brought him for moral support. anyhow, we couldn't come anywhere close on numbers, the interest rate was BS and they guy insulted me. he ended up turning red and practically yelling at us "try to find a new car for cheaper than this, i've got the 10 year warranty, no one else does!" he realized what an *** he was being, regained his composure, then thanked us for coming in. he knew it was over. funny thing is the dealershi(T) name is "aloha hyundai-kia" (which they later lost the distributorship of hyundai for the island), and in the hawaiian language, "aloha" means both hello and goodbye.

within a couple days, called up the nissan dealership where my company had purchased a truck from, told the sales manager there that i wanted to get a car. within a couple more days got a 2004 sentra (which had just gotten in by then) at NMAC financing of 0.9% at 60mo, $0 down. i had already owned a hardbody pickup, what was i thinking when i thought about getting hyundai or kia?

nice how things work out in the end.

[bikeman]

We looked at Both Kia and Hyundai last year before buying the Versa. The cockpit on the Kia was built for short people and Hyundai didn't have a four door hatch. I could have spent more money to get a larger vehicle that met our needs with either brand but the Versa was just too good to pass up.

David

[Andrews Chalmers]

what's the point? some people prefer Nissan over Hyundai or Kia products?

[Ever Victorious]

How many of you Versa owners out there would trade out your car for a Hyundai or Kia?

Oh my god, could you POSSIBLY have come up with a more loaded question and more loaded answers?

Where's option 6 - The poster that made this survey is horribly biased?

I am NOT going to submit an answer to this survey because there is no appropriate answer. Nor would I think that, given your obvious extreme (and from what I can tell, seeing as how you have not reported to us actually OWNING either car) COMPLETELY UNFOUNDED hatred of these vehciles, you could possibly be anything BUT biased.

I would not trade my Versa in for a Kia/Hyundai, because the Versa is by far the best car IN ITS CLASS. The Kia/Hyundai "competitors" are the Rio/Accent, which are targeted at completely different consumers.

My wife and I DID, however, trade in a Subaru Legacy for her Hyundai Tucson.. and don't regret the decision for a second. If you asked me today if I would trade in my Hyundai for any other car, the answer would be NO. Not even for a Versa. The two cars serve different purposes in our family, and the Tucson fills a need that the Versa can't. Also, that a Rogue can't.

Jesus, at least when I spout about MY hatred of Honda, it's from personal fricking experience, not "oh, my cousin's roommate's nephew's boyfriend's manager's brother said...".. or worse yet, "Consumer Reports/Edmunds said..."

kc5f - Good joke there. But saying you'd look at a Hyundai but not a Kia doesn't make sense. That's like saying "I'd look at a Pontiac, but not a Chevrolet" or "I'd only buy a Mercury, not a Ford". The designs are the same, just different sheet metal and optioning.

gtrisfun - Yes, and I've run across a few Nissan dealerships that retarded. Most notably the one 3 miles from my house, on whose property neither of my Nissans have ever set tread. Your point is?

Bikeman - thank you for being the first person to actually give a LOGICAL excuse for choosing one over the other (besides kc5f's logistical reason). I completely agree with the issue of legroom. The V has more front legroom than the two smallest models in both lines. An Optima/Sonata would be the required step-up for you in that case. I could have purchased either one significantly cheaper than the V... but the fuel economy drop would have been a killer.

Andrews - This whole thread came because NY keeps automatically bagging on Kia/Hyundai at EVERY chance he gets, and I'm tired of it. So he thought that this thread would be a funny way to piss me off. Sad to say, it's working... But hopefully I'm not the ONLY one who looks like an arsehole in this thread. AHEM... OP...

[NY.AD.MAN]

No, my point is this:

People would prefer to drive the lowest end Nissan available over a Kia or Hyundai because of the idea of quality.

We all purchased a Nissan Product that we viewed as being a quality product.

Kia and Hyundai are products are just not where they need to be, and the market standard is rising because of inflation and gas prices. The average price to own a vehicle is a considerable amount more than just 5 or 6 years ago, so car companies are having to provide better and more reliable products.

Yes, there are good ratings for Hyundai, but the company just doesn't offer what it needs to in order to really provide the consumer with a legitimate choice. It was an argument from another thread...

zerothread/303375

[Ever Victorious]

PERCEPTION... Learn the word, start to use it.

PERCEPTION of quality, which I might add also does not necessarily have anything to do with reality.

Versa #1 was in the shop FIVE TIMES IN 7878 MILES for WARRANTY repairs. One problem was NEVER FIXED!

Versa #2 had a warranty failure before 12,000 miles!

Our Tucson has had ONE minor failure, and has more than twice the total logged mileage of BOTH Versas combined!

Unlike MIL's Honda Civic, the Tucson has NOT broken a crankshaft (which the Civic had done already by this point).

Going off reliability data from TrueDelta's reliability surveys, Hyundai/Kia's mid-size cars and compact SUV's beat basically EVERY Nissan/Infiniti product on the market. For that matter, those two categories of cars have significantly FEWER trips to the mechanic than the statistical average across ALL manufacturers. The statistics put them in the neighborhood of Toyota-like reliability on those models. And that's not good enough for consumers?

I'm not saying that there isn't a stigma still associated with driving a Hyundai/Kia, what I AM saying is that there is no current basis for this stigma, and I like to kick said stereotypes in the testicles wherever I see them.

We all purchased a Nissan Product that we viewed as being a quality product.

Don't presume to tell me or anyone else on this board why we purchased our Versa. That's just plain arrogant.

I NEVER viewed Nissan as a particularly RELIABLE product, even before I purchased the debacle known as Versa #1. I viewed them as "about average" on the reliability chart. If PERCEIVED reliability was #1 on my list, My choice LIKELY would have been a Kia/Hyundai or (GAK) a Toyota. After Versa #1, I would have been about as likely to buy a GM or Chrysler product as a Nissan, if PERCEIVED reliability was everything.

Quote »People would prefer to drive the lowest end Nissan available over a Kia or Hyundai because of the idea of quality. [/quote]Does this go to the fact that the lowest end Nissan product is more reliable than the highest end Infiniti product? Or have the major problems with the QX56/Armada/Titan slipped your mind conveniently? What about the horrible reliability at launch of the QR25 engine? Forget that too?

I'm starting to see how this works: Let's turn a blind eye to Nissan's CURRENT problems, but don't EVER forget the problems that Hyundai had (and resolved) 10-20 years ago.

[audtatious]

Come on guys....Lighten up

IBTL

[nchopp]

IATL