Kia Rondo is the cheapest 7 seater that has the best value. It is a Hundai/Kia, i.e. similar to Toyota the car is no fun to drive, but overall package is actually quite good especially considering that after 40+% in initial depreciation in two years from $21K down to $11K it is the only econo-box that could be had with leather and V6. Rondo cloth interior has "autostain" feature, i.e. seats stains all by themselves, thus cloth seats are no go. Engine wise both I4 and V6 are adequate and more or less have the same fuel economy due to I4 coming with 4speed auto and V6 paired to 5speed auto. Base trims (I4+cloth) might not have 3rd row of seats, while V6+leather almost always come as 7 seater and this is the trim to get.
Waranty wise, Kia 10yr/100K powertrain warranty is not transferable, yet 5yr/60K bumper to bumper is. 5/60K is standard these days, making any car build 2007 and later same as new built in 2006 (i.e. with only 3/36 that was the standard back then).
Mazda 5 is the only other 7 seater that apart from minivan doors and useless 3rd row seats is pretty much the same, alas more expensive and available in leather only with later models... The rest of 7 seaters are minivan 200+ inches long (vs. 180- inches) or fullsize SUVs guzzling way bellow 20mpg. Both Rondo and Mazda 5 do 19/25/22mpg with Rondo's I4 outputing a hair more then Mazda 5 and doing a hair more mpg on a highway... Those fuel consumtion figures are your average for 5 seater compact wagons with germans giving more performace and fun for the same MPG and japanese giving 30+% more MPG for the same performance.
| | L/W/H/ground | weight | cargo | turn | engine | MPG |
| 2007 Rondo | $11K | 179/71.7/65/6.1 | 3511 | 6.5/31.7 | 36.1 | V6 192/184 | 18/26/21 |
| 2009 Rondo | $20K | 179/71.7/65/6.1 | 3333 | 6.5/31.7 | 35.6 | I4 162/164 | 19/26/22 |
| 2006 Mazda 5 | $11.5K | 181.5/69.1/64.2/5.5 | 4572 | /44 | 34.8 | I4 157/148 | 19/25/22 |
| 2000 323iT | $7.5K | 176.3/68.5/55.5/ | 3351 | 25.7/ | 34.4 | 2.5L 170/181 | 18/26/21 |
| 2003 525iT | $11K | 189/71/56.7/ | 3682 | 32.7/65 | 37.1 | 2.5L 184/175 | 17/24/19 |
| 2006 A4 | $20K??? | 180.6/69.8/56.2/4.2 | 3671 | 27.8/59 | 36.4 | 2.0T 200/207 | 20/28/23 |
| 2009 Jetta TDI | $24K | 179.4/70.1/59.2/5.4 | 4324 | 32.8/67 | 35.8 | 140/236 | 30/41/34 |
| Insight | $20.5+K | 172/66.7/56/ | 2723 | 15.9/32 | 36.1 | 98/123 | 40/43/41 |
| 2007 Fit | $12K | 157.4/66.2/60/ | 2471 | 21.3??? | 35.6 | 109/105 | 28/34/31 |
| Soul | $15K | 161/70.3/63.4/6.5 | 2800 | 19.3/53 | 34.4 | 2L 142/137 | 24/30/26 |
| 2007 Vibe | $11K | 171.9/69.9/62.2/5.9 | 2700 | 19.3/54 | 36.7 | 1.8 126/122 | 26/33/29 |
| 2009 Elantra Touring | $15K* | 176/69.5/59.8/5.9 | 2937 | 24.3/65 | 34.2 | I4 138/136 | 23/31/26 |
First let's look at the performance group split between BMW and Audi/VW (Volvo V50 has way to many problems to be considered). In summer 2006 VW finally fixed sludge in 1.8T by updating engine to 2.0T and making A4 worth the look. Alas 2006 A4 is still close to $20K then the rest are close to $10K and $20K could buy many new cars these days. On VW the same engine appeared only in 2009 Jetta together with new TDI, i.e. the priviledge to drive 2.0T would cost $20+K this way or another. In addition to 2.0T in 2009 VW started to put DSG on Jettas and Golfs making it the cheapest DSG out there, yet technology aside the value of DSG is questionable especially on Jetta with TDI where 5-speed should be optimal. This once again leaves BMW as the only performance wagons out there. 3-series is as good as it gets overall, and 5-series is the wagon when 3-series become too small. Suprisingly enough, 5-series is almost the same when it comes to performance/mpg as 3-series being way bigger car (well 19mpg combined is bellow 20mpg and 10% worse then 323iT with 21mpg). 2003 was the last year they sold 5-series wagon before the redesign and any 2000+ 5-series wagon is the best 5-series BMW, same as 4 cylinder E36 being the best 3-series.
The bottom line however is that $10K and 20mpg used to move 5+luggage in style thanks to BMW, they still do, but also $10K+20mpg could now move upto 7 and have 2-3 years of warranty left. Also these days other options are not limited to VW with dirty cloth interior.
Asian 5 seater wagons are not as fine as germans and hardly could be inspiring to drive, yet they offer far better fuel economy starting from 25-30+% more per gallon and all the way to twice or 100% more for Hybrid Insight.
Insight is not quite the same class being smaller and crampier yet even with rear-seats up it could haul more then your average sedan (more then E36). Still the point about Fit being $5K cheaper and more capable for 10 mpg less is a good point. Those $5K even at $4/gallon would buy 1250 gallons of gas (or 3+ years of driving assuming 12K/year or <400 gallons/year), thus to catch up Insight should burn x/31-x/41=1250, or x=1250*41*31/(41-31)~160K miles... (the formula thus is miles_to_catch_up = $*mpg1*mpg2/$pg(mpg1-mpg2)...) Being twice as efficient and twice as expensive to catch up with 21 mpg E46, Insight should drive $10K*21*41/$4*20 or over 100K miles ($3 gallon makes it close to 150K miles, while $5 per gallon still makes it 86K).
Clearly fuel-efficiency cannot be major factor in selecting asian econo-box. It gotta be capabilities per aquisition costs and this is what makes slightly used Hyundais and such far better buy then Hondas. Their initial depreciation makes their value shine even more then while new. Thanks to Big 3 crysis thus the only car that could approach Kias "value" when used are Pontiac Vibe. Yet they still have a long way to go when Elantra Touring goes for $15K new *after rebates ($1.5K cash and $1K marketing to dealer). Ultimately this race to the bottom should push 1-2 year old 5 door wagons value bellow $10K and at those price points Vibe vs. Elantra is worth a test drive despite being offered in single trim and cloth only.
Overall, Soul appears to be a bastard child in this segment, neither cheap, nor offering utility, and thus test drives are
- Insight vs. Fit Sport manual - both are Honda, read too expensive.
- Rondo vs. Soul
- Vibe I1.8 vs. Elantra Touring. 1.8L Vibe might not be adequate, 2.4L GT could match up a hair more powerful Elantra.
Despite touching $10K with 2 yo cars, asian econo-wagons are no match to 6 years old BMW, so the only news is that there are 7 seaters now.
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