“Would you sell a 10-year-old Honda Accord or a 6-year-old Kia Sorento (that has just cost $7k due to a blown turbo)? Our servo said the Kia. Though it’s lovely to drive – when it’s functioning!” JW, Victoria
It’s a difficult call on which car to sell. The Kia is worth roughly double the sale price of the Honda (depending on mileage and condition, of course). Not that it’s of any comfort, but if the Kia had been a few years younger it would still have been under warranty. If you’ve had your Kia serviced by the book (and that means both mileage and time) and by a Kia authorised repairer, you may have had some luck getting them to contribute to the repair (but that would also depend on various factors and you’re unlikely to get any compensation now that the repair has been done). It is recommended that any diesel engine that has done more than 100,000km or more should have the sump removed and the pick-up pipe strainer inspected and cleaned and if there are signs of excessive sludge, replacement of the copper washers on the injectors.
Send through some more details (such as the make, model and variant of the Kia and Honda, if you need two cars or one, if the car you keep will be your primary car or a second car, whether you’ll be replacing – if you only need one car, you might be best served by selling both and buying a new or near-new car). The Kia will probably be easier to sell but you could sell the Honda privately and get quite a good trade-in deal on the Kia. As always, car buying and selling decisions are highly individual with many factors affecting the decision, so the more detail the better.
The Honda is a very pleasant car with a good reputation for reliability and few reported problems, so keeping it makes sense, but it is ten years old. Even if the mileage is relatively modest (and even 10,000km a year puts it over 100,000km), its age will eventually start to impact reliability and increase ownership costs. As for the Kia, there have been a few reported issues with engines and transmissions. The turbo can be an issue; Kia issued a service directive to dealers about the iLoad and iMax vans that use the same engine and there is some possibility that the replacement turbo could fail again (because the oil sludge that caused the problem in the first case hasn’t been adequately cleared out). The first indication is when the oil warning light comes on, but by then it may be too late. Also, if the oil sludging was bad enough to destroy your turbo, it may have already caused some damage to the rest of the motor (big end bearings, crankshaft bearings) but with a $7k repair bill (ouch!) the repair will probably have been comprehensive.
Sorry I can’t be more optimistic!
Whilst every care has been taken in the preparation of this article, information contained is for guidance only. seniordriveraus recommends considering your own particular needs, budget and usage pattern before making a purchase decision