By Barbara & Bill Schaffer Lonepine, Mont. ?? When the invitation to Bill?s nephew?s wedding in Lonepine, Montana arrived, we had no idea where Lonepine was, even though Bill was born and raised in Western Montana. A quick check of Google Maps showed a small dot, in the middle of nowhere ? about 20 miles…
By Barbara & Bill Schaffer The Soul has been an overachiever in the Kia lineup since it first went on sale in 2009. Finally, after finishing as the second best-selling Kia the last few years it pushed the Optima out of the number one spot in 2016 to become America?s Favorite Kia. It?s easy to…
By Barbara & Bill Schaffer There seems to be renewed interest in minivans lately especially at Kia. Since the new generation Kia Sedona went on sale in 2015, Kia minivan sales have increased by more than 250 percent. Moving on into the first quarter of 2016, the Sedona sales are up more than 33 percent…
By Barbara & Bill Schaffer Even though the 2016 Kia Optima is a whole new rendition of Kia?s best-selling nameplate it doesn?t look a lot different at first glance. It?s more a product of the ?don?t screw up something that?s working well? school of design and engineering. While the Kia development staff may not have…
By Barbara Schaffer Aspen, Col. ? I went to new heights, or what seemed like the top of the world, for the introduction of the 2016 Kia Optima. I could still remember the excitement around the launch of the 2010 Optima when it got the great new body design, so was excited to see what…
By Barbara & Bill Schaffer We?ve driven each new Kia model since the South Korean company opened their first four U.S. dealerships in Portland, Oregon in 1994. Initially the only car they offered was the compact Sepia sedan followed a couple years later by the Sportage compact SUV. While the major appeal of those early…
By Barbara & Bill Schaffer So, there we were in the 2015 Kia Soul EV, zipping silently through traffic on our way to Kohl?s department store. We live in the northeast part of the Portland (Oregon) Urban Metro area and even though there are several Kohl?s stores closer, we decided to push our comfort level…
By Barbara Schaffer Lake Tahoe, Calif. ? I know I?ve said this before and am likely to say it again — every time Kia rolls out a new or updated model, it seems to be a major leap forward mechanically, in styling and in technology. Here we go again; I just had a chance to…
By Barbara Schaffer Dana Point, Calif. ? I happen to be one of those people likes minivans (Kia prefers to call them multi-purpose vehicles) because they are so practical, versatile and comfortable, so I was excited to try out the 2015 Kia Sedona. Like most of the latest new Kia products, the new Sedona gets…
By Barbara & Bill Schaffer The Kia Optima has certainly been the major success story of the midsize sedan offerings. The second generation Optima, which was produced from 2005 through 2010, had modest success, selling 27,382 the last year it was produced. Then Kia redesigned and re-engineered the Optima, and ?poof?, sales went up more…
