Why I Want a Kia Sedona

November 2, 2015January 1, 2016 by Kelly Dedeaux

I received a Kia Sedona to use for about a week to facilitate this review. All opinions are mine alone.

I love our current van, I really do – we’ve had it for 6 years now and it’s been fantastic. I even told hubby I didn’t care to ever switch until we absolutely had to because I was perfectly happy with it. After we tried out this other one on our recent vacation, though, there’s so many reasons Why I Want a Kia Sedona instead!

I’ll be honest – the first day I absolutely hated it! I wasn’t use to the many features, since the van I’m use to doesn’t really have ANYTHING special (as I now realize). After I got use to what different things were for, I realized how great it was to have all the bells and whistles! First of all, there’s the dash system – here’s a shot of the navigation/map along with the SiriusXM radio. You can adjust the layout and view on here, this is what we liked best. See the purple arrow there? It’s pointing to a spot where it will show you the speed limit of the road you’re on! LOVED THAT! It doesn’t show here because, obviously, I was parked in a driveway – no pictures while driving, of course!

I especially miss having the speed limit and map feature after our current move to a new area – it would help a ton as I’m getting use to the roads and what their speed limits are! When you put it in reverse, your dash screen looks like this….

….with the great cameras showing your surroundings! This was especially helpful in parking lots, or the Disney parking garage with lots of vehicles and people! Another thing I found really helpful and important were these spots on the side view mirrors….

…that little area where you see the vehicles, it lights up if someone is coming on the side of you. Perfect for avoiding going into a lane that’s already occupied! It also clearly lets you know which doors are still open….

Some other good things are the easily accessible (and multiple) USB ports and such. The ones I clearly saw were, as follows in the photo….top: head of front console, middle: inside the roll-out center of front console and bottom: rear of front console for the middle row to access.

That makes charging phones or tablets so much easier! And don’t you hate getting dings on your side view mirrors while you’re parked? When you lock the Kia Sedona, they actually FOLD IN! So handy – plus it’ll help you know when your car is locked or not 😉

There’s also the built-in window screens, which were a huge hit with our kiddos – especially since it was in the 90s and 100s during our trip! Don’t forget cup holders, of course – they seemed just big enough for most sizes, and not TOO big that things would tip and spill – at least not easily.

As for space – plenty of leg room, and it’s all adjustable forward-back which makes it perfect for different family sizes and ages. The head rests were really adjustable, too, which made it nice as we were driving a lot – and made it more comfortable when they’d fall asleep in the van driving back to our house rental after a long day at Disneyland.

As for driving, it was so smooth that now when I drive my own van, it seems really loud and shaky 🙁

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What I Did NOT Like About the Kia Sedona

Honestly, once we got use to the features (because at first they drove me nutty) there’s only really one thing I really didn’t like – okay, I hated – about the Kia Sedona……the tiny gap between the middle seats!

It was such a tight fit – and I’m not a very wide person. My 19-year-old sister road in the back seat with the kids a lot during the trip, and she’s TINY! Yet she had a hard time fitting through this small spot. But honestly – that’s about the ONLY drawback to this van, so I call it a WIN! The kids all really loved it, too – so even though we do like our own van, we’re talking about switching sooner rather than ‘when we absolutely have to’, and the Kia Sedona is at the top of our list right now!

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