The New Car: Kia Rondo

I didn’t really expect to be spending money on a new car this break. Sure, the old Dodge Stratus was a rusting, unreliable pain in the butt that was no fun to drive, but it was, for the moment at least, a working pain. And money, as they say, doesn’t grow on trees. So the idea that we’d actually replace it with a shiny new car wasn’t really planned.

We had looked, though. At the Honda Fit, the Nissan Versa, the Kia Rio, and a smattering of other good and cheap (the latter being of much importance) vehicles. We liked most of them, but not so much that we were willing to shell out the money for one. We were especially disappointed in how darn small they all were. With the kind of money we wanted to spend you just couldn’t get much car. So we’d tabled the idea.

All that, though, was before I got an email from Sam Washington at our local Kia dealership promising some great deals on the Kia Rondo, which are apparently overstocked. Sure, I thought. A great deal. We’ll see.

Well, it turns out that it was a great deal. No, more than that. When I was through with them it was a bloody terrific deal. The Rondo is just about the perfect car, and in the final count we’re hardly paying anything over sticker for the car over the life of the loan. Seriously, the price of the car we wanted, with extras like the spiffy third-row seat and styling roof rails, plus an extension to the best warranty Kia offers (10 years/100,000 miles bumper-to-bumper), plus interest over 63 months, and we barely cracked sticker.

Wow. I daresay I’m a hell of a negotiator.

So, anyway, I signed and bought. Couldn’t be happier. The thing is a blast to drive, and it’s solid. Really well built. Comfortable and comforting, given the length of that (transferable) warranty. I thought the 7-year b-t-b warranty on the LJ was good!

The picture here, obviously, is a stock photo. Ours is gold, and it sits on pavement rather than white ether. I couldn’t recommend a vehicle more highly.