Four Years On

It was supposed to be my new commuter car, replacing my Ford Focus. It's now our main vehicle.

At the start of 2020, I had finally had it with my sporty, white hatchback. It was no longer fun to drive. In fact, for most of the seven-plus years that I had my 2012 Focus, it was more frustrating than fun.

The transmission was faulty and no matter how many times I took it in for service, it couldn't be fixed. The fob for the push-button start failed a couple of times—one time, taking six weeks in the shop to sort out. When the touch screen on the centre console went dim, effectively killing the radio/sound system and any voice commands, I reached my limit and it was the end of the road for that car.

It was and will be the only Ford I will ever own.

I was reluctant when we went to the Kia dealership. When DW and I lived in South Korea, Kia did not have a good reputation. They were basic automobiles, and the fit and finish on them were pretty horrible. I had driven a couple of them over the two years that we lived in that East-Asian country, and they were gutless, sloppy-handling pieces of junk.

Since our time in Korea, Kia had been acquired by Hyundai and I heard some good reviews of them. Also, Hyundai had really cleaned up their act and were putting out some great vehicles.

It looked like they were sharing their technology and craftsmanship with their sister company.

When I test drove the Niro, I was impressed with how well it ran, how solid it felt. The steering was tight and the suspension firm. Being a hybrid car, the acceleration was impressive, especially with four people in it (the salesperson, DW, a friend, and me).

There was good cargo space and the back seats provided excellent head space and leg room. And there were more gadgets than I had in any other vehicle that I've owned.

There was no "we'll think about it" when we finished the test drive, though DW and I did feel a bit of pressure from the salesperson. "We have a hard time keeping these vehicles in stock and this is our last one... I don't know when we'll get more in... the 2019s are almost sold out and if you wait, you'll pay more for the 2020 model."

We took delivery of our Niro two weeks later, on February 28. We could have had it sooner but winter storms through the week made us hold off for better weather. And even though it snowed on that Friday, it wasn't as bad as it had been previously.

Though, five minutes after driving off the dealership lot, I put the antilock brakes to the test.

I only drove my "commuter car" to the office six times after taking possession of it. It was impossible to tell how much I was saving on gas because after March 10, 2020, I was no longer commuting to work: the pandemic turned me into the work-from-home person that I continue to be to this day.

I do remember that it took more than a month before I needed to put gas in the tank.

With both DW and me working from home, we both choose the Niro as our primary vehicle. We only drive our Honda CR-V when we need more cargo space. And now that Kid 1 is living at home again, she drives the CR-V so much now that I practically think of it as her vehicle.

We may end up just giving it to her.

Four years on, we're loving our Niro. It still drives as well as it did on the day that we dumped off my Focus and drove home in our new wheels. We love how easily we can throw our kayaks onto the roof and head out for a paddle. We love how it cruises on our trips to Toronto and elsewhere.

December, 2023.

This week, I took it in for its first manufacturer's recall: a simple fix of replacing a potentially faulty fuse that could lead to a battery fire. In the 10 years that we owned our Honda Odyssey, we had three recalls, had to replace the alternator, and the automatic sliding doors stopped working.

And in seven years with the Ford Focus, I had countless service appointments and failures. One small fuse replacement in four years is pretty impressive.

Let's see how it does over the next four years. Will it outlive the Focus? Stay tuned.