I have had great luck with my Spectra

[xandro]

I bought a 2001 Kia Spectra GS in April of 2001, I use it for everything (business, home, etc) I do quite a bit of driving for my job....

long story short, two and a half years later I'm at 272,000 miles and still going!!

nothing major has gone out on it...except for a fuel pump at 140K...and just two weeks ago, the alternator went out.....I have some small problems to fix as it were now....I need new struts and shocks, there's a small whirring noise from the timing belt (I suspect the tightener needs replacing)

obviously it doesn't run as quietly as it did when new...and the acceleration is a little sluggish, but then again I don't really jam on the accelerator to begin with.

when November comes around, I do plan on getting another car for work and to keep my Kia at home, to rest it so to speak, i'd like to get some more usage out of it before I pay the damn thing off! heh

other than that...no real problems to speak off...the headlights go out about every 75 - 80K miles, that's a simple fix....maybe I've been lucky.

I think it helps that I've been using synthetic oil for my oil changes every 3,000 - 5,000 miles...one in a blue moon, I'll get normal oil...but about 90% of the changes have involved synthetic oil....i've also flushed the transmission fluid about every 75K miles....

*knocks on wood* hopefully my Kia will last for a little bit longer

[xandro]

whoops!

almost forgot....

my catalytic converter also went out at around the 200K mile mark and I've had to change my wheel bearings a couple of times

[ricebike]

its waay overdue for a timing belt change...

[Doohickie]

That's good to hear, and is similar to my experience with a 1995 Ford Aspire (built by Kia). I just sold it with almost 120k miles on it, but I think I may have gotten many more if I tried.

As it is, I may buy either a Spectra5 or a 2006 Rio5 to replace it and threads like this do nothing to disuade me.