Kia Niro reviews

Broke down four times - wouldn’t start - left me and my family stranded in the rain. 

 Painfully slow computers - take ages to get going. Have often driven off the drive and up the road before it will let me turn on the radio because, it’s just not ready yet. 

Running on a converted petrol car chassis: the NiroEV thumps and bangs over the bumps in the road and shakes the passengers about. Just awful. 
 You don't get EV benefits, only drawbacks. It’s an EV from yesteryear still catching up, and it charges yawningly slowly. 

 Live with the Niro EV long enough and you’ll realise it’s an exhausting car to drive and feels very heavy with that immense battery weight. The car is an ungainly behemoth, and not one to try and have any sort of driving fun. 

Supposed 285mile range yet useless on long journeys because, the sat nav is less than hopeless. 
So, it’s essential to plan your route thoroughly by working out any charging stops on your own wits. 
 All the Niro does is produce a massive long list of places to charge with no indication of where they are in relation to the road you’ll be using which, is stupid and pointless. 

Other far less expensive EV’s work all this out for you. 

 When the Niro software needs updating (which is frequently), you have to take the car to the dealership for a day. Who has the time to do this? 

No over-the-air updates available. Blimey. 

I had rattles in the boot (common fault apparently).
The heater suddenly blows out cold air and freezes your hands, and you can’t stop it. 
 An empty passenger seat rattles and vibrates. 
The headlights are odd, and make it hard work to drive at night. 
The windscreen is nasty and distorting. The automatic wipers work only sometimes. Impossible to rely on them. 
 However the battery and motor are nonetheless efficient. 
The stop/start cruise control pulls away in traffic like a chauffeur except that the brakes creak. 
 The dashboard rattles, or the drivers door rattles or likely both. 

Hardware faults, software bugs, glitches, rattles, suspension thumps and several actual breakdowns later, I sold the rotten thing on before I’d had it much more than a year. 

 And good riddance to it; the constant cacophony of warning bongs, and beeps topped off a horrible driving experience. 
My lovely new Niro EV was awful, and in my opinion, horrendously overpriced.

Spacious car which has been very reliable