New Kia Niro Plug-In Hybrid for Sale in Fairfax, VA
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Consumer Reviews for the Kia Niro Plug-In Hybrid
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Things that drive me crazy about my 2023 Kia Niro
P. Collins, 02/07/2023
2023 Kia Niro Plug-In Hybrid SX Touring 4dr SUV (1.6L 4cyl gas/electric plug-in hybrid 6AM)
Having moved to a more urban setting where we can do most of our errands on foot, my wife and I decided to sell both our cars (2019 CRV and 2017 Toyota Avalon Hybrid) for a PHEV with enough battery capacity to cover our basic needs. As a means of transportation, the Niro PHEV has certainly met our needs. It drives well, has great fuel economy, and is relatively comfortable for a … small car. Now having owned the car for three months, 2000 miles (and only on our fourth tank of gas), I feel ready to share the things that drive us crazy about the car, first a couple mechanical notes and then the electronics.
1. No Tow Hitch Option - I wanted to put a tow hitch on the car to carry my bicycles – So far this is impossible because Kia placed the evaporative canister in front of the hitch attachment. The hitch shop was reluctant to move the canister to another location. I had to buy a new bicycle carrier that hangs on the rear hatch – not my preferred solution but I can live with it is as we have road bikes. If we had heavy electric bikes we would be sunk.
2. Brake noise – Six weeks after delivery the car started to make a horrible noise on acceleration after a stop within the first few hundred yards of starting a drive. The noise would then go away for the rest of the trip. The noise is especially prevalent when it is rainy or very humid. We have determined that rust is building up on the rear brake rotors and the tolerance is so tight that it must be burnt away on a daily basis.
3. Backup Camera – the camera is very poorly located. It is worthless in the rain as it is unprotected from the elements and quickly gets wet and dirty. We have not had this problem with any other car. Kia engineers were not thinking when they decided the location of the camera.
4. Memory Seats - As my wife and I share this car, the memory seat function was imperative. Unlike other cars we have owned, however, the mirror settings are not linked to the seat memory switch. Mirror settings are part of the Driver Profile settings in the infotainment system. While we have yet to figure out the entirety of what the Driver Profile controls, it does remember seat and mirror settings for each profile. Changing the driver profile is a major nuisance and potentially painful: Get in the car, start the car, (the seat and mirrors adjust to the last setting) wait for the infotainment system to boot, reset the profile, wait for the seat to move and mirrors to reset. What this means in reality is that if my wife was the person who drove the car before me, when I get in the driver’s seat and start the car, the seat pulls up to her setting, nearly killing my knees against the steering wheel, before I can activate my profile, thereby moving the seat back.
5. Infotainment system - While I could complain about the complexity of the system and its many options I will limit my comments to functionality. Two months into ownership, the system began to randomly and frequently cut-out and reboot when connected to the phone --- calls disconnected, no map, no music, just a black screen on the car. As this happened on two different phones (I-phone with new cable and Android) I can only assume there is an issue with the car electronics, that we have yet to work it out. It might be the effect of a known glitch between Google maps and Kia, or perhaps something as simple yet annoying as a USB port that needs to be replaced at the dealership. AS the problem is intermittent, I am loathe to go to the dealership until I I try to determine a pattern for the disconnect.
6. Conclusion: Good car with enough little glitches to make me wonder if we would have bought it knowing all of this in advance.
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