wrote in message
ps.com...
The Kia Sedona we rented to drive to Wyoming from Florida really was a
2006 model and we drove it for nearly 5000 miles so here is my review.

Overall, I liked it for travelling. It has lots of room, very good
climate control system with dual controls for front and back (at last,
the front and back can agree), good pickup and lots of legroom. The
MSRP tag was still in the glove box and it is about $24,000. It drove
very well with only a slight shimmy near 80 mph. It got about 23.5 mpg
at 70 mph (remember, this was serious long distance so I have lots of
data).

A minor problem was the suspension. It made the expansion joints in
concrete interstate seem like washboard roads.......brutal.

We tend to take vehicles places they are not s'posed to go and this was
no exception. We took her over nearly 4WD roads in the mountains and
she did well never bottoming out.

MAJOR PROBLEM: The transmission. Unlike most automatics that have
P,R, N, D, 2, 1 the Kia had P. R, N, D, +, -. From my reading the
manual, I think the +,- is sort of like "split" gears. In any drive
gear, you can either go up or down a half gear, a good idea in concept
but it didnt work. Obviously, for mountain driving, lower gears are a
necessity for going up or down steep grades. With a normal automatic,
you simply use the 2 or 1 (sometimes labelled 2 or 3) to go up a sttep
grade and use the same for engine braking going down steep winding
roads.
Casper, WY is at 5000' and the top of Casper Mt is 8000' and the road
is seriously steep and winding with no guard rails. The +, - thing
would not work at all so I had to allow the tranny to cool when we got
half way up. Coming down was worse as I coudn't do engine braking with
this inoperable +, - system so even pulsing th ebrakes and allowing
them to cool half way down, they were fading and smelling bad at the
bottom.
Going down Towgotee Pass toward Jackson, the tranny wouldn't work
although this is only a 6% grade. Going up and down Signal Mt in Grand
Teton Park, suddenly it worked very well and I liked it. It worked
going the other way through Towgotee Pass.
We went back through Casper to look at some property on the mountain
there and sure enough, it wouldn't work at all again forcing me to take
the LOOOOOOOoooooooonnnggg back way down the mountain to avoid
overheated brakes.

THE BOTTOM LINE: If the transmission worked, it would be a good
vehicle but as it is, I would reject it.

Sorry Rob.

I've driven the Toyota Sienna over the exact same roads earlier this year.
We got 26 mpg and there was absolutely no funny shifting needed at all. Let
me know when you get one to the top of Pike's Peak, Mt Evans and Mt Bross
(4wd). Ours has been over Imogene Pass as well. The transmission easily
handled the pass between Driggs and Wilson both up and down. I did see a Kia
on the side of the road, I thought they were taking pictures until the tow
truck pulled up.

The Kia's extended warranty is the same as a doctor promising to fix you for
free as a result of his own malpractice. Go for the real value, the trade in
value. The extended warranty is only worth something if the car breaks. For
the extended warranty to be of value, the car has to be of little value.
Either way, you pay!