Written by Staff Writer : Chris
“This is hopefully one of many post in our “He” said “She” said series. We are giving you opinions from both the male and female perspective.”
Come take a ride with me for the week as I swap my ride for a sporty red 5 passenger vehicle. When the car was delivered to me it looked much smaller than I thought it would look, but after driving it for a week it never felt like a small car. While the dealer and I were doing the walk around I noticed it had so many cool features that I really like. Such as LED lights under the headlights and around the rear brake lights. Power windows and door locks, not to mention the completely all electric mirrors that fold in. After doing a double take I noticed it had 17 inch alloy wheels, and chrome exhaust tips that made this little ride scream I’m cool. The paint was a beautiful red metallic accented with black trim and very subtle piece of chrome outlines. As I mentioned this vehicle is a small compact, but don’t get me wrong it is very sporty and sleek looking.
Now opening the door to check the black interior accented with gray highlights, I saw the first of many standard features that make you fall in love with this car. Lets start with the leather wrapped steering wheel with all the controls at your finger tips. Not just your run of the mill cruise control, but you controlled the entire dash with your hands never leaving the wheel. You could raise or lower the volume on the radio, and change the station with the flick of your thumb. If the air was a little too cold just slide a finger over the steering wheel controls and lower the temperature. After syncing your phone to the bluetooth wireless stereo system, you could answer the phone from the comfort of your steering wheel. Can you start to see why you could fall in love with this great little car? Another feature that was unique to me was the mode control on ( and you know it ) steering wheel. You could scroll through both trip settings and also see how many miles until empty. But one thing that really stuck out to me, that was part of the UVO in vehicle information system, was you could actually see the miles per gallon you were getting.
Enough about the steering wheel, how about we move on to the Sirius satellite radio. I really enjoyed that standard option on this model. Not to mention you could plug any phone or iPod into the auxiliary jacks, and 2 more plugins for your needs. With a cup holder in the center console, there were map and bottle holders on all 4 doors. Both front seats could be slid back and forth that you can also recline. I did notice that they did seem to be a little stiff while sitting in them, but they did have nice lumbar adjustments. While getting me seat set to my comfort, I noticed how nice and wide the view from the front windshield was. Another standard feature is the duel front air bags and side mounted air bags, also all five seat belts were 3 point safety seat belts.
So let’s load up our family of 5 for our first drive, and for a small car we all fit with no problem. Like I said before I never really felt like I was driving a small car, so for a male at 6′ 1″ and lets say around 225 pounds, I was comfortable. When putting it in reverse the back up camera popped up on the stereo display, the one that everyone in the car loved to watch like they didn’t trust my driving skills. As we were driving it was very quite with no loud engine noise or whine, plus you didn’t hear any wind sounds. Very smooth handling with the sport tuned suspension and with active eco system. At times seeming a little slow to run up your speed, but once you were up it was quit effortlessly. Had to catch myself many times on the interstate because you would be going 90 mph before you knew it. It was very smooth and agile with more speed than you would think a little 4 cylinder engine could produce.
By now you have to be asking yourself what car is he talking about. Well it is the 2012 Kia Rio SX 5 Door model, with the sticker price of $18,545. Yeah, I know how in the world do you get all that for under $20,000? It’s a Kia, which I thought was a very nice, dependable and reliable vehicle. With all the options galore, and not to mention a warranty of 10 years or 100,000 miles. Maybe this car isn’t necessarily my cup of tea, but I would highly recommend it to my family and friends. I believe it is a safe vehicle and do more than just get you from point A to point B. As someone who will have a son driving in a year, this Kia Rio is just the car I would buy him and feel comfortable with the piece of mind that he is safe. Also with all the great features and options he would enjoy it. So if you are looking for an economical, smart and sporty car that is fun to drive, then the Kia Rio SX 5 Door is for you.
I hope you enjoyed your ride with our family swap your ride!
Disclaimer: We received this car to test drive for one week from Drive STI. Opinions are my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. You may read more of my disclosure here.
