Kia Stonic

[natterjak]

I’m looking for opinions on the Stonic as a used buy, perhaps about 5-6 years old and 50k miles, or thereabouts.

Has anyone had a Stonic and liked it, or experienced annoyances?

I would be shopping for a Niro instead, which seems to be a much more popular choice, but the Niro is quite wide (only a few cm less than my Audi A6) and my wife thinks it will be harder to park than a Stonic.

[natterjak]

I guess no one has anything worth mentioning about the little Stonic, fair enough. It’s not the biggest seller, I don’t see them often on the roads and that’s one of my reservations really, but hopefully those who do have one don’t have any big problems with them.

We will go look at a few Kias tomorrow. Stonic, Niro and Ceed. Then I guess we’ll have a better feel for them.

[Sheepshanks]

I had no idea Stonic existed until we went to a Kia dealer looking at EVs, and I still can’t recall seeing one on the road. On that basis, it might be quite hard to sell on?

Hyundai had Bayon which was also a surprise to me. I think they’re basically the same?

[Trevor555]

If you're buying an automatic make sure you road test it, not the nicest gearchange.

Then try the Niro.

They need good service history to keep the warranty up.

Other than that, very pleasant cars.

[natterjak]

Thanks both. Trevor, do you think the Niro has a better gearbox? From what I’ve read they are both DCT, so I was expecting them to be similar in performance.

The Niro would suit us great if the main use case wasn’t supermarket trips with parking in tight spaces. My wife is coming from a 166cm wide Punto mk2, so the 183cm wide Niro seems daunting, with the Stonic at only 176cm maybe the better option.

[CMTMB]

My neighbour has ran a Stonic for the last 6+ years without any problems, seems like a decent little car.

On the point about the Niro - my 80 year old Dad has one and it's mainly used as a shopping car, no issues with parking it. It certainly doesn't feel like a big / wide car to drive.

[Trevor555]

natterjak said:

Thanks both. Trevor, do you think the Niro has a better gearbox? From what I ve read they are both DCT

Not sure of the differences, and at what years, but yes. The Niro's I've driven have had better gear changes.

[Quattr04.]

It’s essentially a Kia Rio on stilts, so do some research on those to get what you need to know

Gearbox seems to be DCT, I drove a Nero with a CVT and it was a gutless awful POS

[natterjak]

Thanks all. Having been to see some cars in person yesterday, everything we thought was pushing us towards the Stonic changed a bit.

We had originally moved away from the Niro and towards the Stonic, because of the width of the Niro, but after doing some car shopping yesterday I think we are now back in the larger Niro / T-Roc / Corolla cross category.

Personally I suspect we are going to end up with a Niro as they seem to be everywhere and must be doing something right to be so popular.