[Sylvanfan]

^^^
Yeah, I think Hyundai tried introducing the Kia brand to North America in hopes of spurring on some additional sales. Lets face it Hyundai had such a bad reputation from the 80's that people won't even give their products the time of day.

My wife and I did look at the Sportage when we were looking for new vehichles, and to be honest for the price you were getting far more features in the Sportage than you could in any other vehichle in the class for that price. Additionally the Sportage had features that no one else even offered that I thought were pretty ingenious and would love to have. They do back them with a pretty good warranty as well and it was almost enough to sway me.

But.....I also looked at the Rav4 with the V6 and ultimately determined that 5 years from now the Rav 4 with a V6 likley would be worth 15grand, and that Kia was going to be worth 9-10 type of thing. So although it was costing me 5 g's up front more to get a vehichle with fewer features, long term I was better off with the Toyota. Had my wife had her way we would have bought the Kia. Had the V6 not been available in the Rav4, I would have let her. IMO the difference to me was the engine in the Rav4 blowing away all others in that class. If not for that I thought the Kia was the best vehichle in the class for price et al.