About a month ago we picked up our new Kia Sportage SX Prestige. I was pretty impressed with the car when we test drove it and that first impression only improved as the last 4 weeks went on.

The only issue we found with the vehicle was a blown drivers side speaker for the Harmon-Kardon Stereo. After a trip to the Dealer to confirm, they ordered a new speaker for us - that should be in this week.

Other than that, the car has far exceeded our expectations. It is their top of the line model in the Sportage line (except for all wheel drive which we do not need here) and probably the least expensive car we have bought in 45 years. It has pretty much every option you could put into a car including autonomous driving while on the highway. It will not take you from your garage to your destination or make turns, but on the highway, the car does the driving. 360º cameras, heated and cooled seats, heated steering wheel, blah blah blah. The 10 year warranty on the power train and 5 year bumper to bumper is comforting to say the least! So far we are getting 28+ mpg around town (stop & go) and 36.5 on the highway. We have under 1,000 miles on it so far so the gas mileage should also improve as it breaks in. The car is very very quiet, rides great and handles well. So far the S. Koreans have really impressed us and I understand the car is actually built in Georgia, USA. BTW, the seating (front & rear) is notably comfortable!

I am still driving my 2012 Sportage Turbo and since it only has 35,000 miles on it I plan to drive it for several more years. Best car I have owned so far.

We bought a used 2000 in 2009 and it did just fine. about 24 MPG, It died on the side of the road because the plastic radiator hose connector cracked and wouldn't hold fluid but only when hot, so my life contributed to the demise. It lasted to 150,000 miles and I believe it died young.

It replaced with a GMC 4x4 Astro van. Those things are near indestructible! It was replaced with a 2008 Honda CRV two-wheel drive. 180,000 miles latter just some age-related problems.

Overall thoughts, I would own another Sportage.

Ivan

WOW! And I though my wife drives very little. Under 3K per year the car should last forever!

I truly find it admirable when a bottom of the barrel company pulls themselves up the ladder (big time) and shines as a #1 contender. Just about 20 years ago Kia and Hyundai (same Company) were the laughing stock of the automotive industry and now they are a coveted, quality producing company. I NEVER thought I'd own one - HA HA. It's true what they say....... NEVER say never!

The only way I think they could improve their line ups is to offer better color options - both inside and out. That they are lacking in - for sure!! For a relatively modestly priced car, I know of no other car company that offers what they do for the price. While they used to HAVE TO offer the 100,000 mile / 10 year warranty because of poor quality, that warranty is now a comforting plus they offer. Especially when many other company's like Toyota offer far less of a warranty. And...... even Toyota's do break and there are a few lemons that sneak out. Ten years is a large comfort zone!

Having come from the auto industry, I stick with American made vehicles from American companies. Granted, it's getting harder to do, but I'll do it for as long as I can.

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So many S&W's, so few funds!!

I would generally agree however many foreign cars are now built in the USA and classified as American vehicles. On the other hand, some of the so called American vehicles are built in Mexico, Canada, and most parts come from China. So as we are now learning, things are not always as they are represented.

While I have owned Mercedes, VW, Toyota, Volvo, I mostly have had "American vehicles" or so I believed. I think if we disassembled a Cadillac, Lincoln, Buick or Chevy we would find very little if anything still made in the USA. As someone who works on their own cars, I can tell you that I don't remember the last time I have seen "made in USA" on any parts I have replaced. Quite honestly, I'd rather put money into a non Communist country such as S. Korea than into Communist China dressed in our flag. I am as patriotic as anyone here - but we also need to come to grips with the world the way it is now. Sadly, we live in a "global economy". It took me many many years to swallow this distasteful pill!!

2018 Sportage here, 56k miles and zero problems, just regular scheduled maintenance. The Sportage is a zippy vehicle with a quiet smooth ride. Not the sexiest car out there, but I didn’t care at the time.

We shopped all the small SUVs for my daughter and ended up with a Hyundai Tuscon which is basically the same car as the Kia Sportage. I would give it highest marks for getting the most car for your money, my only desire would be for it to have a little more horsepower, but my daughter is happy with it. The problem with the most of the small SUVs is if you do want a little bit more power the upgraded engine is a hybrid or a turbo and it is much more expensive. Then you might as well buy the next size up SUV like Sorento, Santa Fe, Highlander, Pilot, etc. that has a standard 6 cylinder engine.

My wife and I both drive Toyotas . They were both built in the USA and have been for years .
I work at a Ford dealership and several models are made in Mexico.

I wish you better luck than I had with a 2012 Sorento. While it seemed the roomiest and most comfortable of similar-sized SUVs, it also felt the cheapest. Plastic door handles breaking, oil leak, axle replacement that never stopped vibrating, door latch failed. Seat trim breaking, and the finale was the ABS module failed ($1300 part). That was the cause of the sinking brake pedal that the dealer changed the master cylinder for and clearly did not fix it. Each repair took three trips to the dealer to get it right. When the ABS went out, I traded it for a Nissan Rogue.

I thought My 2011 Ford Ranger was made here in Canada but it was the last vehicle made at the Twin Cities plant in MN. The list of Ford factories on Wikipedia shows they're spread all over, including China.

The original "Canadian" Ford connection was way back when they tried Robertson™ (square drive) screws but settled on Phillips as they would cam out when the screw was seated by the automated machines.

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"I drank WHAT?" (Socrates)

I have a GMC Yukon SLT that has a "Proudly Made in Texas, USA" sticker on the drivers door - felt good about that too! Today 50% of GM is Chinese owned! I wonder just how many of the parts were actually made here! Not saying it wasn't assembled here, but more than likely assembled with Chinese parts - to me that's not an American car - even though I thought at the time that it was.

Wife has a Buick regal of 2011 vintage.
Due to having me maintaining it, it's one of the precious few still on the road in my area.
Having been elbow deep in that crime scene, it's a rebranded Opel Insignia chassis populated with Chinese parts.
I see no point in trying to buy American if they don't build American.
Meanwhile, I'll tug the thread drift wheel a bit closer to its original collision course to say I've noticed the recent evolution of Hyundai/ KIA.
I suppose they really had to up their game after the USB steal me feature sullied their names.
I kinda hope to see them join the ranks with Honda, Toyota and Subaru. I'm not sure they're there yet but they are obviously trying.

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it just needs more voltage

Kinda like my STI Spartan 1911. Parts made in the Phillippines by RIA but assembled and fine-tuned by STI in Texas. Not that I have any complaints about it being sourced from the Phillippines. China is another matter, though.
Agreed.

I'm following this thread not because I'm in the market for a new vehicle - I plan to keep the Ranger until either it breaks down completely (unlikely) or I just don't need a pickup any more - at which point I'll probably be looking at a SUV / Crossover, possibly a hybrid (if we're even allowed to buy one by then.) It's always good to get personal reports on these things.

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"I drank WHAT?" (Socrates)

Our 2019 Honda was assembled in Mexico.

To date it has been issue free.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

What I'm keeping an eye on is the caffe reports, which won't be in for some time.
After the Regal, I sat in a greasy spoon with a view of the intersection.
There I just watched the traffic looking for junkyard refugees. Noting make model and approximate year of each.
I've seen Civics somehow propelling themselves while dragging it's vital organs behind ... Toyotas with name plates in Egyptian hieroglyphics and Subaru's with fossilized body panels.
That's where I placed my bet. Those cars proven to achieve unnatural life.
Perhaps the current generation of Hyundai/ KIA may achieve the same. I hope so. Time will tell

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it just needs more voltage

My wife had a Buick LaCrosse (2010) with just under 90K (all stop and go local driving, almost no highway) and the car served us quite well. Basically it cost us 2 sets of tires, a set of brakes, a few air filters, 2 cabin filters and a wheel tire pressure sensor - that's it! At 15 years old I did not want to go any further and besides, my wife wanted an SUV for a change of pace - her first. No complaints all throughout that 15 years.

The Buick got about 30 mpg on a road trip but locally in stop and go she got about 18. This car is much better on gas!!

NO! 50% of GM's plants IN CHINA are Chinese owned. Not in the US.

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So many S&W's, so few funds!!

We bought my wife's 2009 Kia Borrego in 2012 with 58k miles. It now has just under 176k miles on the clock.
In that time I have replaced the brake pads once (just a couple of months ago), a front drive line (because a non-replaceable u-joint went bad) and an air conditioner compressor.
Other than that I've replaced the spark plugs twice, the tires twice, replaced a few light bulbs and done regular oil & filter changes.
I've put less than $3k total into maintenance and repairs in 12 years/120k miles.
It still runs great, the interior has held up well, and other than a couple of little spots of peeling clearcoat and a scrape or ding here and there it still looks good too.
Best car I've ever owned. If I could buy a newer one just like it I'd do it in a heartbeat. Since I can't we will be replacing it with a Sorrento - probably sometime next year. We may even get one of the hybrids - the reviews for the 2019 & 2020 models I was looking at last year were getting 4.8 out of 5 star ratings from owners.

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Send lawyers, guns & money...

Here are a couple of articles from cars.com that address the Made in U.S.A. question:

https://www.cars.com/articles/2023-c...erican-467465/

https://www.cars.com/articles/2023-c...n-cars-467588/

If you want to buy 100% American, go with Tesla. If you want an internal combustion vehicle, start with Honda products. The "most American" vehicle from a traditional U.S. manufacturer is the Lincoln Corsair. And good luck finding a convenient Lincoln dealer these days.

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What, me worry?

My father worked for a State Agency, therefore his work rig had the agencies logo on the side and the license plates said publicly owned. At that time it was a Nissan 4X4. As he was coming out of a store, a couple of guys in an F-150 started giving him **** about the State buying foreign cars. My dad told them, "It's made in Tennessee." "Yeah, out of Japanese parts!"
He then told them to pop the hood on their "American" truck. After he pointed out about 20 parts that had "Made In _____" on them, they were shocked. And after he explained the, at that time, large purchase price difference between a Nissan 4X4 and a Ford, they started to see the value. When he explained that, as a Game Warden, he had to take his rig some gnarly places and the Nissan never let him down, compared to the Dodges and Fords he had been issued in the past, one of them asked if there was a dealership in town.

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The best I can with what I got

Don't all Ford dealers handle Lincolns?

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So many S&W's, so few funds!!

My 2022 Nissan Frontier was made in Canton, Mississippi. 1st non-American (actually 1st non-GM) I've ever owned. Twice the horsepower of the Silverado it replaced and gets 7 more mpg. At 70 you can whisper, in the Chevy you ain't making 70 without knowing about it, shouting over the noise. Yeah it sucks sending the profits overseas but I bet folks in Canton are doing better for building Nissans. Joe

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Behavior Creates Destiny

In my early years I was in auto collision. Worked at a GM dealership and swore I would never drive anything else. Over the years I worked on every make and model out there and eventually the "foreign" cars came around and I found they were super easy to work on but still a true blue GM American buyer.

No more. It really started when we would use lasers and computers to measure the frames/unibodies of vehicles. At this time I was teaching auto collision in a college. American cars were well known to have very sloppy tolerances and it showed. Asian were much tighter at the time and European models outdid them all.

I lost my enthusiasm for American vehicles long ago. We have a Camry that is our get around town car and is the most trouble free car I have ever had. Bought a new Subaru in 2017 and it just hit 54K miles. It is a good vehicle but there are things I do not like about the Outback. Also have a 17 Ram half ton we just love to take to the farm, great value when compared to GM or Ford when we were looking.

Looking at customer satisfaction also is telling and the US automakers are in trouble. The overall best vehicle I ever owned was a 2004 Honda Pilot. That baby never missed a beat and drove like a dream and wasn't breathing hard at 125K.

I had a friend of mine that inherited some of the Canton property where the Nissan plant was built. After owning it for a couple of years he was approached by a man wanting to trade the Canton property for less acreage near Hattiesburg. My friend made the trade thinking the Canton property was only good for farming. Hind sight is 20/20. He lost a lot of money on that deal because some of the property he traded for was deemed wetlands and it wasn't worth near as much money as the Hattiesburg property.

I mostly drive vans because my hobbies sometimes include driving a van load of stuff to a show or carrying a van load of stuff home that I bought. I've had several including Fords and Chevrolets. I bought a 2017 Toyota Sienna with 2000 miles on it in 2017. I've done normal maintainence, new brakes, and new drive belt. I've got 140,000 miles on it and it still drives like new and is a very comfortable ride. It's paid for and I hope to drive it at least three more years. This seven years is the longest I've ever kept a vehicle and it is a joy not to pay a car note. I've been saving what I would have been paying for a note for my next future purchase. My Dad used to do this. He would save the money and pay cash for a new ride and start saving again.

I bought one of the first 4.0 Xterras in 2005. The only issues I had were with the windshield washer bottle (I had two develop leaks) and an aftermarket thermostat that I had fitted. I also had the radiator/transmission cooler replaced before something went awry. It turned out the originals used an aluminum cooler inside the bottom of the radiator and they would crack with age and heavy vibration. The replacement used a brass cooler.

I sold it after nearly fifteen years, and it was rattle free with excellent paint, good door seals and no dropped hinges or anything like that. Solidly built truck.

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Release the Kraken

Sloppy? They were continually messing with the frame on GMT800 Tahoe to the point that some exhaust shops here refused to even try and fit aftermarket systems as quite often nothing lined up. Then there was the body and all the shut lines. Sure, they weren't as bad as my '96 Firebird, but they were nothing to be proud of compared to say a Camry. I know, I had a 2001 Z71. Its successor was a 4.0 Xterra, with panel gaps almost half that on the Chevy. That was me done with GM trucks.

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Release the Kraken

I had a 2000 Buick Century, obtained very used with close to 200k on the clock. Wife and I put on over 100K more. It's longevity made me a fan of Buick. So we got a 2011 Regal I already touched on some of it earlier in the thread, but the Regal made me a fan of Subaru. Starting with an 06 Forester, it is twice the car the Regal ever was. When the Regal made another suicide attempt, I got a 2023 Outback XT so the missus would have the Forester to drive. This thing makes the Buick seem like a sorry attempt at a vehicle ... well honestly it is a sorry attempt given its ridiculous legacy of unreliability.
We drove from NE to WI without the wife needing to stop. that was a first among all the cars.

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it just needs more voltage