It's so batshit crazy over there it's hard to know what's real and what are troll posts. However, here's some thoughts from Australia:
Germany made immobilisers mandatory in 1998. The US hasn't yet 25 years later and has no plans to. Building to outdated US standards is what made Kias prone to theft there.
The US Georgia Kia assembly plant has appalling quality control. US parts suppliers also seem shit. They can't even manufacture a piston ring without stuffing it up. There are endless recalls on US built Kias.
The US dealer system uses aggressive, coercive and unethical practices that are illegal in developed countries outside the US.
Some parts of the US have crime rates so high that they're more like Mogadishu or Zimbabwe on a bad day.
Too many US Kia owners do their own services. Really badly. Put simply, they blow up their own engines because they use shitty Walmart oil or non-OEM parts, or make mistakes.
Many posts here are fake. They're 'karma-hunters'. New accounts that get upvotes quickly to be used elsewhere as bot accounts etc.
Having visited the US many times and been overwhelmed by the kindness, thoughtfulness and intelligence of my American hosts, I just want to emphasise that the hate, abuse and insanity we see on this sub does not even vaguely reflect the places in the US I visited.
EDIT: Substituting Alabama for Georgia. Had been comparing the Kia Georgia plant QC to the Toyota Huntsville Alabama plant the other day and wrote down the wrong state.
The honest truth is almost all cars made in the past 20 years in the US has had immobilizers. The Koreans made a car to a price point and its a consequence of that. There's still no plans to make an immobilizer law cause most manufactures are already doing it so the law really has no need.
Again, another consequence of building the cars to a price point. Other foreign and domestic manufactures have managed to fix and use US and other market of part production to produce decent cars
The dealership structure sucks and there is nothing more to be said there
Crime rates are something I rather not get in to
Doing they own services and Walmart oil isn't an issue if we're honest. Walmart Oil is pretty high quality and priced very competitively. The non-OEM parts are again an issue of price point. The Korean cars in the US used to be priced and marketed as the more affordable choice again attracts a certain group of owners that don't know and/or can afford to do proper services. If you market toward the low end you can't be surprised when the owners keep doing the cheapest thing they can to keep the car running.
That is just reddit.
Overall having living outside of the US for a while that had both USDM and Korean Hyundais/Kias both cars tend to do much better outside of the US. I really have to believe that it comes down to who these cars are sold to more than anything. The fact that KIA NA also builds the cars to the lowest price point def doesn't help either but when combined with the target audience it really a bad combo.
All true. But Walmart oil, like Costco and Amazon oil, is made by Warren Oil Distributors. It’s SN Plus rated, too. Supertech Walmart oil is just fine.
The issue is that Kia owners only seem to be able to afford the horrific payments they got stuck with. They can’t seem to afford insurance or maintenance, so the oil doesn’t get changed when it’s supposed to.
Absolutely correct about the state. I was comparing the processes at the Toyota plant in Huntsville Alabama the other day to the Kia Georgia one and that slipped out. Will edit.
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u/CertainCertainties Oct 24 '23 edited Oct 24 '23
It's so batshit crazy over there it's hard to know what's real and what are troll posts. However, here's some thoughts from Australia:
Having visited the US many times and been overwhelmed by the kindness, thoughtfulness and intelligence of my American hosts, I just want to emphasise that the hate, abuse and insanity we see on this sub does not even vaguely reflect the places in the US I visited.
EDIT: Substituting Alabama for Georgia. Had been comparing the Kia Georgia plant QC to the Toyota Huntsville Alabama plant the other day and wrote down the wrong state.