The Kia Rio Will Keep Your Trips To The Gas Station Infrequent

I am really in love with the whole Kia line. I purchased one of the first models way back in 1996 (ish) and own a Sorrento currently. I have test driven a Soul for a week and an Optima too! This week, I am driving a Kia Rio. The Rio is an economical car, while compact in size, that still allows for 2 car seats in the back and enough space for my husband to drive. He is a rather stout man so this is an important feature for my family when we are travelling.

Currently we are on our way to St. Augustine to test the Rio for a family road trip. The trunk had plenty of space, more so than some compact cars and we were able to take the beach toys, four suitcases and a week’s worth of groceries. We could still see out of the back window and did not even have to adjust the hatchback flap (not sure of the techy auto term). I would be able to fit a double stroller in the back and have a tad bit of room for a suitcase or two on top. The beauty of having a hatchback, though, is being able to remove the hatchback flap and having a larger area to cart things around in.

The Rio comes with my standard check list of important features like passenger side mirror with light and back up camera, but also added a new must-have for my list. It comes with a gas gauge that tells you how many miles until you have to get gas. That is awesome! I hate getting gas so I try to milk it out as long as I can. Yes, I have coasted into a few gas stations on fumes and pride myself on only running out of gas 4 times (lol). That little needle that tells you when to get gas can be so finicky, bobbing up and down teasing you about how much time you have left before you have to stop. Look at this gauge! I know EXACTLY how far I can go. Perfect! Then, because of the fantastic gas mileage, i can stop fewer times at the pump. The Rio can boast of a 40 mpg on the highway and 30 mpg in the city. Woot! So I can go back and forth to town twice on one gallon.

Another great feature I wish more cars would have is a cup space in the driver door that can accommodate all sizes of bottles. Sometimes, I like to grab a 32 oz bottle of water, and it just won’t fit in the dang cup holder correctly. While travelling, I need to stay hydrated and it is a nice thing to have a place to put my drink besides the floor.

Also, while travelling, features like Sirius radio and UVO powered by Microsoft come in handy. We are traveling though so many different towns, it is so much easier to pick a station and listen to it straight through with no down time or searching for a station in a cow town. (You know the ones that just have cows and trees – so the only stations that come in are talk radio and AM radio) My husband paired his phone and we downloaded his jukebox to the car so we had the option of listening to his iTunes as well. This appeased him when the kids started asking,”Are we there yet?” lol The base price for the Kia Rio is about 13K and you can get a fully loaded machine with all the bells and whistles for 18.5K.