Going To Buy

[Bigusdickus]

Hello all

I am about to spend the most i have ever spent on a car, I am very affraid.
Being newly retired we are going to get a secondhand low miler Sedona,2.9 crdi auto for its large caravan towing abilities. New big caravan as well.
Can anyone give me some pointers, or tell me of any issues i sould look for.
I am disapointed about the low LPG posts, but it did seem a bit to good to be true.

**** Brooks

[CurlyWurlyGirl]

Hi,

Before I purchased my Sedona I did the rounds and visited most of the garages that produced MPV's and did the comparisons to see what you could get for your pennies. I also checked out the internet sites, looked at NCAP test results, etc., etc.

Every vehicle has its upsides and downsides, from price, mileage, insurance, parts .... whatever. I remember paying over £2,000 for insurance on a sports car a few years back! Madness!!!

There are many upsides to the Sedona. Unfortunately the biggest downside appears to be the mpg BUT for the size of the engine/vehicle you have to ask yourself if it is really that unrealistic? It also depends on how you are going to use the vehicle. Another point would be servicing and parts but I'm no expert there so that would be something to speak to your dealership about or other users of this site.

I too looked at up to 1yr secondhand sedona's. The one thing that immediately stood out was the state of the carpets as they were long-threaded and bitty. They can be made good but that will mean spending a bit of time doing it yourself. I would say investing in a set of mats would be beneficial (again, something to speak to your dealer about). Apart from that, the dealership I went to sold clean, serviced vehicles, all with histories and all under warranty.

In the end I chose brand new and managed to get a deal which I was more than happy with. That was a few months back now and the sedona is running great and I'm more than happy with it. It services all my needs from kids, shopping, holidays and hay bales and I haven't found the mpg to be that bad as I can do a run from Edinburgh-W.Sussex and back on one tank of fuel. However, I'm not carrying overhead luggage boxes nor towing! and when it comes to MPVs ... the name on the badge doesn't matter to me either.

All in all, great value for money!

I wish you well with your choice. Please let us know what you decide and how you get on.

Fiona

smiles across the miles

p.s. There is brilliant help and support available from this site. Just remember though, people are more likely to speak about faults and problems rather than the good things, as is the nature of this type of site. Still, it's helpful, constructive and is of benefit to us all.

[WhiteSadonaLX]

Originally posted by Bigusdickus@Sep 1 2005, 04:20 AM
Hello all

I am about to spend the most i have ever spent on a car, I am very affraid.
Being newly retired we are going to get a secondhand low miler Sedona,2.9 crdi auto for its large caravan towing abilities. New big caravan as well.
Can anyone give me some pointers, or tell me of any issues i sould look for.
I am disapointed about the low LPG posts, but it did seem a bit to good to be true.

**** Brooks

Quoted post

Just remember, if you are using the vehicle to tow you better take care of your transmission maintenance more than a non-towing vehicle. I would do a drain and fill or an extraction and fill on the transmission every 10k. You can request the dealer to do this. With the 10year/100k warranty you have some piece of mind but if you really want your transmission to last well after 100k you need to keep a close eye on it and baby it, especially if you tow.

As with any vehicle, if you treat it right and keep up with the maintenance it should treat you right too!

Good Luck

[maizetina]

i have had mine over a year, and tow a fair size van,it pulls like train with no faults so far .
We just load the car and go everything goes in the boot after i have folded the last row of rear seats awnning, poles groundsheet plus a fridge etc etc
kia want a lot of money for a towbar (i was quoted £450)l
look on ebay for one then get someone to fit it .
i have had the rear windows done as i people can see whats in the bootspace
i cant tell you what to look out for as i have not found anything wrong !!!!

[seacam]

I think CurlyWurly Girl said it all, I would just add this,

If one thing lets Kia down it is its out of warranty service just read the posts on this forum.

For what you want to use the vehicle for it's an ideal towing vehicle and there are things you can do to improve its MPG.

I would make sure your dealer knows and understands ( get it in writing if you can ), that the vehicle will be used for towing.

Unless your reasonably skilled, maintenance is not a DIY thing on the Sedona and getting at things has not been thought out well, remembering once out of warranty
the Sedona could be a high cost, time consuming vehicle.

You have the option of extending your warranty for 2 years but all its servicing has to be bang up to date and will cost you at today's prices around £1200-00

As for build quality and OMPs, the tyres are not good and if your dealer thinks your keen, as part of the deal you might ask for the tyres to be changed to another brand say something like Firestone.

As for build I recently had a problem with the rear roof lining coming adrift at the rear hatch, a simple problem to resolve by oneself and a common one and as it turns out well known to Kia but not dealt with in its future builds, I don't know if that says anything to you.

Should you buy new?

Myself personally I don't have time to buy new or to go through the Kia servicing
routine, there are however some exceptionally good second owner deals to be had
still with warranty.

I always write this, would I get rid of my Sedona, yes but only if another vehicle came along that offered such room, great ride and comfort.

Are there any other vehicles to be considered especially from the towing angle?

You might wish to look at the Voyager and---wait for it----and this will have forum members laughing in their seats, a well kept/serviced 12 year old Rolls Royce, there are some great bargains to be had and servicing cost are, surprisingly, not bad.
Seacam

[ebod]

Bigus, my two-peneth is the following :-

We don't know your total criteria other than 'a lot of money' and '2nd hand low mileage auto for towing'

The Sedona is definately in the big 4x4 league when it comes to towing capacity, thats the single biggest factor in my choice to get one. But I have three kids so definately need an MPV.

You may not need the space, so maybe something like an Omega / Volvo could be up your street.

I only had a £7 - £8k budget but found an ugly duckling Sedona that I'm bringing up to swan status. If your budget is more like the £12 - £14k range then I wouldn't personally buy a Sedona....Assuming an MPV is a mandatory requirement then I will try to track down a 52/03 plated Pug 807/Citreon C8 with the 2.2HDI engine ( also Fiat Ulysse is identical ). Its power/torque is less but so is the weight. But it still has a legal tow limit of 1800kilos which puts it in twin axle caravan territory.

I got my 3½yr old Sedona at the flatter end of its depreciation curve so I'm not grumbling, but I'd NOT be happy with the depreciation on a £14k one.

[clartsonly]

I am sorry to say this - but I would say - save you pennies and not get a sedona - it was the largest amount I had ever spent - and sadly if feels no smoother, nicer, more powerful on the road than my volvo 740 GLT with 200,000 miles. (obvious space difference with 4 kids oh and a DVD player which are free in all new ones now anyway)

I still get a clicking from the wheels and the engineers say they can't hear anything at the dealership - it is running well at the moment but still 23-30 mpg. but in the 18 months 24000 miles it must have been taken for non service reasons to the dealership about 11 or 12 times. so far in servicing it has cost £550 (2 services and a paint service (mandatory)) - the next service 9000miles or 7 months time is £329. the front brake pads last about 10,000 miles in an automatic - so that is another £75. at 60,000 miles the service is from £600 <- please not the from.

I would say spend 6-8K on a decent VW Sharan or Ford with 80,000 miles on instead. if it has lasted that long it is bound to go for another 50,000..

[Murphwiz]

Originally posted by clartsonly@Sep 1 2005, 09:06 PM

I would say spend 6-8K on a decent VW Sharan or Ford with 80,000 miles on instead. if it has lasted that long it is bound to go for another 50,000..

Quoted post

Good grief.. think you got problems on a sedona...

[seacam]

Hello Ebod, Clartsonly,

I can't remember seeing a lot of Volvo,s tugging caravans,great for trailers, I sold my estate with a 174,000 on the clock and was still going strong and I wasn't afraid to tackle any maintance issues on that car.

I forgot about the Peugeot as a choice, not bad and perhaspe a little under powered for the job but like the Volvo, reliable.

Come to think of it BD might want to consider a Previa, it might be worth a look but that is one ugly vehicle but the Sharan and its Ford twin is not far behind and IMHO, **** difficult to see out of.

It's as I said in another post, I would not recomend a new Sedona to anyone untill Kia get their act together, two, three, four year old secondhand, low mile'er that's a diffrent matter.
Seacam

[eco]

I would think twice about the opposition too........
The three abreast seating is very tight in the galaxy and french rivals and your using all the seats check to see how close the head rests are to the rear window - still want your kids sitting there ?
I was in a postion where I could buy any and it was the rear seats that done it for me - mind you theres a new sedona arriving next year so it might be worth waiting.