A few months back I set out to drive a Kia Sedona and get a free Shrek video in return for my efforts. The dealer didn’t have a van to test drive, but I got my video. Still, I was intrigued, for the same reason that the dealer had none available. For under $20,000, Kia offers a minivan with standard power windows and locks and rear A/C. Anti-lock brakes, which I highly recommend, bump the price to just over twenty. At this price, about $4,000 less than a similarly equipped Dodge Grand Caravan eL, could this possibly be a good van?

I checked in at the Kia dealer again recently, and this time they had just received a truckload of Sedonas. These were sure to disappear quickly, so I seized my chance for a test drive. I fully expected to find that “you get what you pay for.” My expectations were dashed. The Sedona, though lacking in the latest minivan features, is a surprisingly competent vehicle. Nothing about it will excite, but it will get the job done. And did I mention that the base van I drove stickered for under twenty grand?

Kia Sedona Reliability

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Styling and Accommodations

The styling of the Sedona is bland to a fault. It looks very similar to the first generation Ford Windstar. I suspect this is because Kia was still affiliated with Mazda, which is controlled by Ford, at the time the Sedona was designed. (It is now part of Hyundai.) Nothing exciting, nothing wacky. There are nicer looking vans available, but the Sedona will blend in in the drop off lane at school.

Ditto the interior styling. Decent materials, but nothing fancy or potentially offensive.

The front seats are reasonably comfortable and supportive. They are moderately firm. The driving position is excellent. Even with the manually-adjustable seat in its lowest position, I towered over the low dash. The windshield is moderately raked, such that it neither gets up in your face nor results in a dashboard the size of a football field. Overall, I instantly felt confident behind the wheel of this large, heavy vehicle.

The rear seats are firmer than the front seats. They are too low to the floor for my taste, forcing me to cross my legs to keep my legs from flopping to the sides. This is common among minivans. Unlike in some larger minivans, there is plenty of legroom in both the middle and rear bench when adjusted rearward on the standard seat tracks. Headroom for adults is limited in the third row.

Tracks allow both rear benches to be adjusted a number of inches fore and aft based on the size of the passengers and the amount of cargo. Although other fancy features like seats that fold into the floor or power doors are not available, these tracks do permit a fair amount of versatility. To get maximum cargo space the seats must be removed. While the third row seat comes out in two pieces, the middle bench is one piece. I suspect this makes removing it difficult for one person. Middle row captains chairs come with the uplevel EX, so this is only an issue with the base van. Then again, people usually only remove the third row when they remove seats at all, so it’s not a huge issue.

For a bit more luxury, Kia offers the EX. With leather, power front seats, alloy wheels, and a moonroof, it runs about $23,000. Which is still a couple thou less than the cheapest extended wheelbase Chevy Venture.

Funny Numbers

Before driving the Sedona, I was skeptical about its performance. Some people will note that it has a 195 horsepower 3.5 liter six and assume it’s quick. A less publicized number concerns the weight of the van. At 4700 lbs, it is easily the heaviest minivan on the market despite being a few inches shorter in length than the leaders. It is 400 lbs. heavier than the Honda Odyssey and a whopping 700 lbs. heavier than the long wheelbase vans from GM and Chrysler.

Why does the Sedona weigh so much? It’s development might have been rushed, so there was no time to trim a few ounces here, a few ounces there. More likely, lighter weight steels might have been foregone to keep manufacturing costs low. Finally, the Sedona’s excellent crash test scores suggest that it’s structure is very stiff, and obtaining a strong structure with this size vehicle can result in much extra mass.

At the same time, I wonder how Kia managed to only get 195 horsepower out of such a large DOHC six. Oldsmobile gets twenty horsepower more out of a similarly spec’d engine, Honda gets 45 more, and Nissan gets 60 more.

Acceleration is a function of horsepower divided by weight. I expected that the result might be a sluggish minivan.

Fuel economy is also heavily affected by weight. With an EPA rating of 15/20, the Sedona does get much worse fuel economy than other minivans. For comparison, the GM vans are rated 19.26 and the Honda 18/25. Purchasers had better set aside some of the money they save buying a Sedona to deal with its thirst.

On the Road

So, is the Sedona sluggish? Surprisingly, no. I suspect the five-speed automatic helps. The extra gear compared to other minivans (with the exception of the 2002 Odyssey) enables first gear to be shorter. This gets the engine up into its power band more quickly, producing reasonable grunt off the line. If anything, the Sedona launches too strongly. Just a bit of throttle sends it to 4,000 RPM and beyond. It’s easy to get more power than you’re asking for. This engine is not quiet, so it makes the extent of its efforts known. Some torque steer is evident under moderate to heavy throttle, but no more than front-wheel-drive vehicles with large engines usually have. At highway speeds the Sedona feels more tepid, but still not sluggish.

Handling and ride are both reasonably good. The Sedona does not handle as nimbly as the 1999-2001 Honda Odyssey (click for review), or even the Chrysler Town and Country, but given the way minivans are typically driven it handles well enough. Most importantly, it feels less massive than it is.

Ride quality is similarly acceptable. Most road imperfections are absorbed well. It’s not quite as cushy as a Town & Country, but it’s roughly equivalent to other minivans I’ve driven. I figured that Kia’s lack of experience with such a large vehicle might result in a wallowing whale of a vehicle, but this is not the case.

Braking performance comes up a bit short. The pedal is very mushy, and the first few inches of travel seem to do very little.

Pricing

For quick, up-to-date pricing, and especially user-specified price comparisons, check out the website I created: www.truedelta.com. Why yet another vehicle pricing website? Well, I personally lacked the patience to keep using the others. They were too slow and required too much effort, especially when trying to compare prices. So I taught myself some programming and created a site where there is no need to dig through option packages, prerequisites, and the like one by one -- the TrueDelta algorithm figures these out for you in one swift pass.

Last Words

Though lacking the latest minivan gizmos, the Sedona is surprisingly competent at the basics. If the basics are what you need, and you want to spend as little as possible, this is your van. On top of the low price, a very generous warranty is provided to help ease concerns about the durability of Korean cars. Just be sure to set aside some of your savings to pay for the extra gas it will drink.

To learn more about my reliability research and sign up to participate in it, or to perform thorough, up-to-date new car price comparisons, visit www.truedelta.com. A link to this website and alphabetized links to my other vehicle reviews can be found on my profile page.
Amount Paid (US$): 24000
Model Year: 2002
Model and Options: LX with ABS