My husband and I are former Audi S4 Wagon owners. It was a 340 HP, V8 beast (I wanted a 4-door family car and my husband wanted a track car, this fit the bill at the time). We loved driving it for 14 years, until coming home from a cottage after 2018 Labour Day long weekend, the AC quit (stone hit compressor) and we were stuck driving in extreme heat for 4 hours in traffic, not fun. The Audi garage toted up all the various things that needed attention and the bill would have $15,000 CDN, so we sold it for a pittance to a car enthusiast family member whose cousin owns a garage. They fixed all the bits and a year later the vehicle was done and had to be scrapped anyway. I’m sure the initial 4 years of heavy use at the track, and almost 10 years of being parked outside in the Canadian winter, did not help. The door sills were all beginning to rust heavily by 2018 and there was a persistent engine oil leak from the get go, and sometimes in the heat of the summer, the trunk latch would swell and rufuse to open — but other than that, we were sad to part ways. Looked at all mid-range priced available compact SUVs, and decided the Sportage was our favourite and decided on a 3YR LEASE to give us time to figure out what to buy next. Given that KIA hires former Audi designers, it’s no wonder we felt at home in the Sportage. Two years in, very happy with the Sportage other than performance of windshield wipers in blizzard conditions. Usually if weather is bad, we avoid driving. Happened to be caught in an early season white-out condition last year, and although we were using appropriately rated fluid for the cold, suddenly stopped gushing and even applying hot water supplied by gas station attendant, would not help. We made it home by closely following vehicles ahead for the 5 hour drive (Ottawa back to Toronto), using their spray on our windshield, to help lubricate our wipers. Hubby’s track experience paid off, but not fun. ANYWAY, back in 2018 we happened to test drive the Niro even though it was a sub-compact, and we fell in love with it (plus hybrid will ease our minds about climate change) — but, it only had Front Wheel Drive. We know that Niro owners have been asking KIA to offer the Niro in AWD, but so far no movement. I like the fact that the Niro is not as tall, it will be easier for my elderly mother to get in and out of vehicle, but wonder if that is maybe why KIA don’t feel it needs AWD as it is more car-like than SUV, even though they market it as a crossover. Thoughts? Also, I personally preferred the 2019 grill and overall styling. Apologies for long post.
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TorontoDrivers
i have no 4WD experience but my AWD subaru was superior to the FWD vehicles i’ve owned. it was marginally better starting from a stop in snow or going up hills around town but where it really shined was on the highway in light snow cover and heavy rain. i found that it tracked like it was on dry pavement. if anything it tracked too well in light snow cover because i probably drove too fast and an emergency maneuver likely would have put me on the median or in the woods. thankfully it never came to that. i would have bought another subaru but i wanted a phev or ev and the crosstrek did nothing for me. and i’m retired now so i feel no need for AWD, if the weather’s bad i just stay home, but it’s comforting to see the praise for the niro FWD.
the biggest problem i had with AWD was the tires. i had to replace one and the dealer told me i had to replace all four because the AWD will “wear” if all four are not the same circumference. the car was older so i got away with replacing two keeping them opposite each other. only other option i could find was having the new tire ground down to match the three remaining tires but i just couldn’t bring myself to trash half of a new tire‘s tread. later it occurred to me that if you could afford it the best solution might be buying an extra set of tires and rotate them all. happy motoring........
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