Looking for a new car...

My wife and I were looking for a new car that would accommodate five passengers in reasonable comfort, including two children in car seats and one adult on the back seat. This implied that the back seat leg and hip room had to be good. The car also needed to provide enough trunk space to store everybody's luggage. Since we were replacing a hatchback that we had occasionally used to transport bulky appliances, we were favoring hatchbacks and station wagons, but also considered mid-sized sedans.

In terms of features, we wanted power steering/brakes/windows/doors/mirrors, air conditioning and a radio, preferably with CD player, but not really much else. We prefer a manual transmission over automatic, which turned out to be harder to find in general.

We wanted decent gas mileage - at least about 20 mpg city, 30 mpg highway, but preferably more like 25/35 or 30/40. A hybrid would be great, but it would have to satisfy the other requirements, too.

And we wanted a car, not a minivan or an SUV.


The Competition

(In this section I will outline our decision making process and the cars we considered. If you don't care about either, but just want to read about the Spectra5, feel free to skip ahead to the next section.)

First, what about hybrids? The Honda Civic hybrid is too small with respect to back seat hip and leg room (one of our other cars is a regular Honda Civic, so we knew this already). The Accord hybrid would have been an option in terms of size, but Honda decided to make a hybrid version only of the more expensive and less fuel-efficient V6 version, which ends up getting barely better mileage than the non-Hybrid 4-cylinder Accord at a price tag of $10,000 more. Not very sensible.

Only the Toyota Prius was a potentially serious hybrid contender. But in terms of spaciousness it's not really a big improvement over the Civic, and it just feels weird driving it. I especially dislike and am confused by the oddly split rear window. In addition to that it has a rather intense "new car smell" which does not seem to go away even after many months (years?).

After researching car specs online, I came up with this list of possibilities:

- Hyundai Elantra hatchback
- Kia Spectra5
- Scion xB (the xA is too small)
- Suzuki Forenza wagon
- Toyota Matrix
- Volkswagen Passat wagon

In addition I decided to check out the possibly most popular mid-size sedans, the Honda Accord and the Toyota Camry. But we rather quickly ruled them out - I was rather unimpressed with the way the Accord drove, especially the stickshift was not much fun to deal with. The Toyota dealer didn't even have a manual Camry, and the automatic one I tried sitting in did not impress me at all in terms of spaciousness.

The Toyota Matrix was quickly eliminated, too - it looks spacious on the outside, but it's way too tight on the back seat. The Scion xB, which is also made by Toyota, looks very odd. It's a box on wheels, basically. It has more headroom than anybody could possibly want (I'm tall, so I know what I'm talking about) and also lots of leg room on the back seat - so much in fact that the area between the front and back seats could probably serve as extra luggage storage space. Which it unfortunately probably would have to because the one sore point of the xB (apart from the weird looks) is its inadequate trunk. While the official luggage capacity sounds pretty good, a lot of that goes towards the not very practical to use area between the top of the back seat and the ceiling (anything put there would come flying forward when you brake...). The xB really needs to be about a foot longer, or else some of the excessive rear leg room needs to be converted into extra trunk space. Finally, the rear hip room was at the lower end of what we would consider acceptable, so we ended up ruling it out even though we very much liked the way it drove.

With the Accord and Camry ruled out, by far the most expensive vehicle left on the list was the Passat. There is a Diesel version of the Passat wagon that supposedly gets pretty good gas mileage, but it's not available for sale in Massachusetts (according to the dealer). The version that is for sale costs more (MSRP over $25k) and gets much worse gas mileage - 20/30. I didn't particularly like the way the Passat drove, and there was really nothing at all about the car that seemed to justify its rather high price tag compared to the remaining cars on our list, so it was out, too.

The Suzuki Forenza wagon is very similar in appearance to the Passat wagon, but costs only about half as much. It gets about the same (not so great) gas mileage, and it also drives about the same way - i.e. I didn't like it all that much. But I think as far as the limited selection of station wagons available today goes, the Forenza definitely deserves a second look. Possibly the major problem I had with it was that the clutch was ridiculously high. If you want an automatic, you obviously wouldn't have that problem.

So we were pretty much left with the Hyundai Elantra and the Kia Spectra5. The Elantra turned out to be hard to get hold of with manual transmission in the hatchback GLS version. We test-drove a manual GT hatchback. It was ok, but we both liked the handling of the Spectra5 much better. The Elantra had seemed appealing based on its specs as the car with the most rear hip room, but in practice it almost seemed as if the Spectra5 was wider in the back. In part this may be explained by a more efficient use of space and less "sloping" on the sides (the sloped space on the sides of the back seat isn't really usable for car seats).

So the Kia Spectra5 was the - somewhat unexpected - winner of our car comparison. It was particularly unexpected because we had originally gone to a Kia dealer to check out the Rio Cinco, which quickly turned out to be way too cramped in the back. The Spectra5 standing next to it looked more like a sports car at first, and we weren't sure there was any point considering it. But in spite of its sporty outside look, it actually turned out to best meet our requirements.

Other cars that are similar to the Spectra5 that we didn't test-drive include the Mazda A3 (it really seems quite similar, but it's a few thousand dollars more expensive); the Ford Focus wagon (more luggage capacity, but also more expensive and not enough rear hip room) and the Pontiac Vibe (again, more expensive and way too tight on the back seat according to the published specs).


Features and Options

Like many of its competitors the Spectra5 comes with a pretty good number of features by default that used to cost extra - it has "power everything" (doors, windows, mirrors, and of course steering and brakes), it has air conditioning, it has a radio with a CD player. It has keyless entry. There is no separate button on the remote for the trunk, although the trunk seems to lock and unlock automatically if one leaves it in the unlocked position with the key. The car even has fog lights and also a rear windshield wiper.

The Spectra also has six air bags, but in spite of that the sedan version allegedly didn't perform so well on one particular frontal crash test, as another reviewer already pointed out (although it did ok on other crash tests). The hatchback has not been tested separately, as far as I know.

The car's interior looks attractive and well-designed. The cloth seats look nice and are reasonably comfortable, although the front seats could be just a little bit wider. There are no leather seats or wood panels, but then I don't like those and personally don't understand why anybody would pay extra for them.

The rear seats come out and fold down flat, so the hatchback can be used to transport bulky objects like appliances. There is also the now commonly available 60/40 subdivision option to fold down part of the back seat, but keep the other side in place.

The available luggage space with the back seats and the trunk cover in place is certainly not huge - it's about as much as in a small sedan like my Civic. We'll have to see if we have to remove the trunk cover to gain some extra space for our luggage when we go on longer trips. There is also some extra space next to the spare tire underneath, which can be used for some tool storage.

The only options for the Spectra5 that I am aware of are floor mats (which came with the car we bought even though they weren't listed as an extra), ABS, cruise control and a sunroof. We considered ABS, but it was hard enough to find a stickshift in a color we liked, so one can't be too choosy. Of course one can custom order and wait or ask the dealer to track a car down and transfer it from another dealer, but then many dealers are less interested in giving a good deal, it seems. So effectively ABS might have cost not just the extra $400 list price for the option, but potentially more than a thousand. Moreover, the Spectra does have 4-wheel disc brakes, which are supposedly better than drum brakes.


Pricing

Speaking of price, the Spectra5 has an MSRP, including destination charge, of $15,790. The actual dealer invoice is about a thousand dollars less than that, and there is currently a $1,000 rebate on the Spectra5 (whereas there is a $1,750 rebate on the Spectra sedan).

So one might think that $14,000 would be a reasonable price to pay, but the dealer we went to actually sold us the car for $13,000. Again, this was for an in-stock base version of the 5-speed with no options (other than possibly the floor mats) and in silver. Sales tax and fees were extra, of course, the biggest fee being a $200 "documentation fee", which as far as I know is a common fee, although I have always considered it somewhat bogus, especially if no loan is involved. But even including all taxes and fees, we drove the car away for less than $14,000. (In case you think that's a really good deal and you live in or close enough to the Boston area and would like to have the dealer contact, email me at gw0143 at yahoo.com.)


Driving the Spectra5

The Spectra5 is fun to drive. It was very easy to get used to - within minutes of the first test drive, really. It accelerates and handles very well, it absorbs shocks from bumps and pot holes nicely and drives extremely smoothly.

The stickshift is not perfect, but was the best among all the cars I test-drove. I don't quite understand the trend towards awkwardly positioned and very stiff stickshifts. Maybe the message the manufacturers are trying to deliver is "Get an automatic!". The Spectra's stickshift is a little stiffer than I would like, but it's well-positioned and shifts ok.

All the pedals are well-positioned, too, and respond just as I would expect. Again, this is contrary to some of the other cars I test-drove - the awkwardly positioned clutch in the Suzuki Forenza, for example, of the way too sensitive brake in the Honda Accord. The Spectra pedals have a cover - as I discovered today when the gas pedal's cover came off. Not sure what to make of this; it doesn't feel any different without the cover. I suspect the pedal covers are for looks, but I really couldn't care less what the pedals look like.

One negative thing I have noticed so far is that it's a bit hard to find just the right amount of gas to start in first gear. Intuitively I seem to press down the gas pedal too far, which is partly because my Honda Civic needs that to prevent stalling, but then the Spectra makes more noise than I think it should. If I then take the gas pedal back, it doesn't like that too much either. Once the car gets going, there are no more excessive gas noises, even if one accelerates swiftly - in fact, the car is extremely quiet, and one may sometimes wonder if the engine stopped while waiting at a red traffic light.

I haven't done a lot of highway driving yet, but it seems just fine on the highway, too. Since the car accelerates well, it's easy to merge onto a freeway. The engine does not get excessively loud in 5th gear at higher speeds, although it might not be as quiet a ride as in a large luxury sedan.

We tried the air conditioning for the first time last weekend as it was finally getting warmer outside. It's fine, but it seemed to me that my Civic produces more and cooler air than the Spectra. Or maybe the Civic's A/C is simply louder.


Gas mileage

The Spectra5 manual supposedly gets 25 mpg in the city and 33 mpg on the highway. I have found those EPA numbers very hard to come near with other vehicles I have driven so far. My Civic is rated at something like 30/38 and in the winter regularly gets less than 25 mpg (with maybe 75 % city, 25 % highway driving). It got just about 30 mpg with over 50 % highway driving recently.

So far the Spectra seems to be getting an actual mpg that is at the low end of the EPA range - I estimated 25-26 mpg with less than 50 % highway driving, but we'll have to see how this develops.

That's all not spectacular, but much better than a minivan and also better than a larger wagon like the Passat. The Toyota Prius is right now really the only significantly better alternative (with respect to gas mileage) worth considering, and even the Prius supposedly gets "only" around 45 mpg in real life (EPA rating is 60 mpg city, 51 mpg highway). I just quickly calculated that the price difference between the Prius and the Spectra (about $8,500) buys enough gas (say 4,000 gallons) to drive the Kia around 100,000 miles at 25 mpg. At that point you'd still be about $5,300 ahead because that's the gas the Prius would have used up by then at 45 mpg. I'm too lazy to calculate the break-even point right now, but it's obviously at least twice as high as 100,000 miles (since less than half the price difference is used up by then) and thus probably beyond the life of either car. Oh yes, gas prices might go further up in the future, but even if they doubled the Spectra would still be cheaper at 100,000 miles.

There is the hybrid car tax incentive which also improves the calculation a little bit for the Prius (depending on your marginal tax rate). But as far as saving energy goes, the big unknown in all these equations remains the extra energy cost involved in making hybrid engine.

Prius fans may not like to see their car compared to a Kia Spectra5, but to me they constituted two possible, similar choices - with the Kia being slightly more spacious on the inside and handling better and the Prius solely having the better gas mileage (and possibly Toyota's good reputation) in its favor.

Update 8/19/05

After a pretty long trip, mostly on freeways, at average speeds of about 75 mph and with the A/C on for most of the time, I calculated a gas mileage of about 28.5 mpg. Again, that's for probably about 95 % highway driving. I don't have similarly precise calculations for city driving, but it doesn't seem to get much more than 20-22 mpg. So 24-26 mpg combined, depending on your mix of city and highway driving, might be realistic to expect. Not great compared to the EPA numbers (which, among other things assume that you never turn on the AC or the heating), but that really seems to be true for pretty much all cars.

The A/C in the Spectra5 is really very efficient, btw. It's really just not as loud as in some other cars, which is another plus.

Warranty and Reputation

When the two Korean car manufacturers Kia and Hyundai entered the American market, they quickly gained a reputation for poor quality. If they had realized how hard it might be to shake off this initial impression, they might have postponed their market entry until after fixing some of their problems. Hyundai slightly improved its reputation in recent years and now Hyundai owns Kia. (As far as I know, the Kia Spectra5 actually has a Hyundai engine under the hood.)

While Kia as a whole still ranks low on reliability surveys, the Kia Spectra sedan actually ranked second in its class in a recent car owner initial reliability survey (behind the Toyota Prius and before the Honda Civic) - see http://www.smartmoney.com/consumer/index.cfm?story=20050519.

Both Hyundai and Kia have a very good warranty, possibly the best in the industry - 10 years, 100,000 miles for the drive train and 5 years for rusting through. Kia also has 5 years of roadside assistance (with no mileage limit). As far as I understand the first 5 years and 60,000 miles of the basic and drive train warranty continue even after selling the car, but the full 10 year warranty is not transferable to subsequent owners.


Conclusion

The Kia Spectra5 is a great little car with a lot more space than one might think based on its outside appearance. The relatively compact exterior makes the car easy to drive and easy to park; the spacious interior makes it a serious non-minivan, non-SUV contender even for long-distance trips with five passengers. Only luggage space may be a little tight.

It comes loaded with lots of standard features at a better price than most of its competitors. It appears well built and well designed. Of course, only time will tell how reliable and durable it really is, but the long warranty seems reassuring.

Amount Paid (US$): 13000
Condition: New
Model Year: 1950