Latest / In Wheel Time Podcast / Exploring the 2024 Kia Niro SX Touring: A Comprehensive Review in the New Car Showroom
Transcript
- 0:12Speaker 1: Mr Mike Mars here on the In Wheel Time show.
- 0:14Speaker 2: I got to get you down, Michael.
- 0:15Speaker 1: He has a review coming up, and what is that review going to be on?
- 0:22Speaker 2: Mike.
- 0:22Speaker 2: Well, let's hear this they're 2024 Kia.
- 0:26Speaker 1: Niro.
- 0:27Speaker 2: Niro Niro SX Touring.
- 0:29Speaker 2: It's a touring car.
- 0:30Speaker 1: Touring car.
- 0:31Speaker 1: It's a Niro, so I keep thinking of Greek mythology and Niro.
- 0:37Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm really not sure how they came up with that name.
- 0:39Speaker 1: Niro is burning.
- 0:39Speaker 1: Once you think of it, you know Not Nero, but Niro.
- 0:45Speaker 2: Niro of it, you know, not narrow, but nero, nero, yeah, and in fact this is actually the second generation because it was, uh, this generation was introduced in 2023.
- 0:49Speaker 2: So this is kind of a carryover, going to do a little tweaking on it, tweak it kind of get it going.
- 0:53Speaker 2: Comes in five available trim levels.
- 0:55Speaker 2: You got an lx, an ex, an ex touring sx, sx, touring.
- 0:59Speaker 2: We happen to have the sx touring, so we're sitting at the top of the line and this is a really nice vehicle, so it is considered a small, compact SUV.
- 1:09Speaker 2: They kind of changed Everything's growing a little bit, so they're trying to get away, I think, from the compacts and the subcompacts and just say it's small.
- 1:15Speaker 2: That way you don't have to worry about people getting insulted because they got the wrong thing.
- 1:19Speaker 1: I'm not sure.
- 1:20Speaker 2: Nope, but this one one because of the styling wall.
- 1:28Speaker 2: It goes between a.
- 1:28Speaker 2: It almost looks like a hatchback to some people, but it's not really a hatchback because of the styling on it, so it gives you a little more room in the back.
- 1:33Speaker 2: As far as the headroom in the back seat goes, it's not available with any r wheel all-wheel drive either, so it's got a couple of things here got led lighting all the way around, including the fog lights, got some gloss black body trim, including the rear spoiler and the roof rails.
- 1:47Speaker 2: So it's got a nice combination.
- 1:49Speaker 2: Whatever color you get, it's got some nice black to kind of offset it there.
- 1:52Speaker 2: Power lift, gate, power sunroof.
- 1:54Speaker 2: We had we were on the optional 18 inch alloy wheels, which were also black.
- 1:58Speaker 2: So once we got into it we found out we had leather seating surfaces the front seats are heated and ventilated, as you would expect, or a car like this 10.25-inch touchscreen Now this is the bigger one because they're up in the trim level lines.
- 2:14Speaker 2: But the strange thing is it's got a wireless charger.
- 2:17Speaker 2: But if you want to use Apple CarPlay or Android, you have to wire it.
- 2:21Speaker 2: You can't use Bluetooth.
- 2:23Speaker 2: Oh, it's kind of weird.
- 2:25Speaker 2: It took me a little while to figure out why I couldn't connect Old-fashioned yes, but, like I say, it does have the wireless charging pad.
- 2:32Speaker 2: Now it also has a seven-speaker Harman Kardon system, so it's got plenty of tunes on it that you can crank it up.
- 2:37Speaker 2: Now, up under the hood it's got a 1.6 liter inline four hybrid motor.
- 2:42Speaker 2: This is a hybrid 139 horsepower, got 195 torque, equivalent with a six-speed automatic.
- 2:49Speaker 2: You put this all together and the EPA says in the city, you should be looking for 53.
- 2:54Speaker 2: The highway, 45.
- 2:55Speaker 2: Combined, you're looking at 49.
- 2:58Speaker 2: Now I drove this car 315 miles.
- 3:00Speaker 2: I didn't have any issues with it as far as charging or keeping it going.
- 3:04Speaker 2: I had to put a little gas in it and that was about it.
- 3:05Speaker 2: It is very smooth and quiet around town.
- 3:09Speaker 2: I mean, this is a nice, easy driving city car.
- 3:11Speaker 2: You get out on the highway, you're going to pick up a little bit of road noise.
- 3:14Speaker 2: That I think is probably the tires, but I also think that you could turn up that hard and Carmen, and you didn't even notice it at all.
- 3:22Speaker 1: How about that?
- 3:23Speaker 2: Now, if you get to looking at it, base model price is $28,315 for this car.
- 3:28Speaker 2: Now the base trim price that we were driving, again top of the line $35,340.
- 3:34Speaker 2: Now as tested, the MSRP on this baby was $37,105, wow.
- 3:41Speaker 2: So if you're looking for something to compare it to, it's bigger.
- 3:44Speaker 2: But the honda crv hybrid kind of falls into that same hybrid, smaller type car.
- 3:49Speaker 2: It is 34,050, but again it's larger, smaller.
- 3:54Speaker 2: So the toyota corolla cross, which is fairly new, has, uh, but it's closer in size.
- 4:01Speaker 2: It's 28,220 dollars is what it's going to start at.
- 4:05Speaker 2: And I do want to mention that the Kia does have the 10-year 100,000-mile warranty, which I think is personally outstanding.
- 4:11Speaker 2: So if you're looking for something in that smaller, compact SUV CUV category, there's a lot of competition there, but this is one of them you ought to look at.