My first new car was a 2012 Kia Optima that I leased my first year out of college while working for a Fortune 500 company. As my references for vehicle reliability, the car it replaced was a hand-me-down 2005 Chevy Equinox that had 150k on the clock when I traded it towards the Kia. Before that, it was a 2001 Nissan Xterra with 140k on the clock when I handed it down to my younger brother, who racked it up to 162k before he traded it due to a (believed) exhaust manifold gasket failure. Both of these reference vehicles were purchased new in my family and only saw engine oil, brake pad/rotor, spark plug, and filter changes as preventative maintenance - sometimes not even preventative and more like deferred depending on the family member using it.
The Chevy was the most reliable car I had/have ever seen. Literally 1 problem that whole time - gas cap seal went bad. Nothing else. And the car was abused to hell in every conceivable way during my college years. (LOL). Only reason I bothered to trade it towards the Kia was because I hit a deer at speed and it suffered too much cosmetic damage for me to bother fixing it myself either out of pocket or through insurance! Who knows how much longer that car would have gone...
The Nissan was also utterly reliable from new up to 162k miles except for a burned out AC fan motor and a burned out passenger window motor. Again, not a single issue other than those 2 electrical components burning out, which IMHO, were understandable physics-limited failures.
On to the Kia Optima...
It impressed me back in 2011 when I test drove it because it had a nice ride and all the features I needed (i.e. integrated bluetooth and a steering wheel
) along with the low price and perceived reliability stats. However, my nearly 4 years of ownership told a different story. For starters, the Khumo tires were absolute junk. They wore so unevenly and so quickly that they needed to be replaced at 22k miles, just after the 1st year. Next, my battery was dead at just over the 3-year mark. Went to get a generic battery at Autozone and they told me they don't make a generic battery that fits the Optima's battery compartment.
Went to Kia dealership and paid just over $200 for a new battery, and while I was there heard another person was in for the same thing! Apparently, Kia batteries don't last past ~3.5 years. Never seen any other car batteries die before 5-6 years. Finally, at some point between 20k and 40k miles, my steering rack started to loosen or something happened to cause steering feel to get really loose and sloppy. I never bothered to have it looked at and just drove it as-is until I eventually bought out the lease and sold it.
I will end my long-winded rant by saying I will not be buying another Kia... ever. Did it get me from point A to point B without killing me? Yes. But it barely had any miles on it and I still experienced a few too many annoying issues during the short time I owned it. IMHO, they do not build a *quality* car. They build an appliance-grade passenger vehicle that saves you some money up front, but gets you in the end anyway from all the BS wear items along the way and God knows what other shortcuts might have been taken by the Koreans.
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(Oh jeez.. and one more noteworthy word: depreciation! And you think BMW is bad. Unfortunately, I learned this the hard way with my Kia!
YMMV)
Cheers!