Buying experience:
I decided to buy this model after going through many online reviews, since no dealer was available in my city didnt take a test drive myself..but asked my brother to take a test drive in bangalore.
I spoke with Kia dealer in Hubli( 350km from my place). The sales girl told me which variant is available for quick delivery. Biege Gold colour was available in 4 days time. I went for it. Nagashanti Kia ( dealers in Hubli) were good and kept their word. I got the delivery in 4 days.
Delivery experience was good. In 2 hours time we got the delivery.
Driving experience:
This is my first automatic car. So it took me about 10 minutes to adjust to it. Drive was good experience..we drove 350km straight back to my city. Its indeed less tiring to drive an automatic car. AC was good. Loved music on Bose speakers. When speed reaches 80 driver side digital panel gives warning beep to reduce speed once..when speed reaches 120 warning beep is continious till speed is reduced below 120. However we can just ignore the beep and it will race to 150 to 160 easily. Pick up is very good. However at 1st service the service engineer adviced me to raise speed slowly to improve milage.
Looks : made heads turn. People did notice and their looks on face gave me some satisfaction of having invested in this car. I took car to show to my friend at a playground..when we came near the car..found some people waiting near the car and they asked cost, features etc and wanted to hear the bose speakers..
Service and maintainence: have driven about 1200km till now, no problems so far. A few days back got 1st servicing done..service centre is well equipped, people are friendly and didn't make me wait, job completed in about 3 hours. However, there does seem to be a problem with fixing agents to get the car registered at our local rto. After nearly a month today i have got date for getting car registered at Gulbarga rto.
Pros and cons: i feel htx model offers best value for money. However top end is stuffed with lots of features..which will cost nearly 3.5 lakh rs more. I wish they could reduce top-end price by about 75k to 1 lakh. Has UVO to remotely start-stop car and AC, and keeps you informed of the where abouts of car when someone else is driving your car. Navigation is good. It Can take voice commands to navigate and do some basic functions. Has good safety features.
Rear seats are fine, if 1st two seats are pulled back too much then people sitting at the rear will not have leg space. Otherwise, there is enough space. If people sitting back are over 6 feet tall and bulky then legroom and space will be less. For normal people rear space is ok. I will not list all features or pros and cons since info is available on many youtube videos.
Overall very happy with my purchase