Entourage anyone?

Own the ... well either twin sister or kissin' cousin, the Kia Sedona. And actually, the 2007 is my third one.

While Consumer Reports may or may not be your favorite magazine, they JUST released a report on the new 2008 Chrysler. To say the least, they were NOT impressed with it, even with the pleasant new (and VERY welcome) 4.0L V6 engine. Handling is not up to the standards of the other minivans, and not even up to previous Chryslers, and braking is MUCH worse than in previous models.

What is worse is that you have to spend thousands more $$ to get that 4.0L V6 engine, along with tons of options you may or may not want. For Hyundai/Kia (and all the others), they only come with one very impressive engine - all models get that.

As opposed to the Chrysler/Dodges, the Hyundai/Kia is fairly impressive. It is competitive in most areas with the other minivans. But Hyundai and Kia offer their minivans for thousands less than the others.

Bluntly, I got into Kias back in 2002 because even that was more minivan than I could afford, but it was the only one that could even came close. But I wouldn't trade them now (except for newer models) for any other make and model. For the money, you can't do better.

Test drive one, and then see what kind of a deal you can make - compared to other brands you will be stunned for what you can have this minivan for.

Hyundai or Kia? Whichever one has a better dealer and a better service department. Those are important.

Hope this helps.

Reply to message from Matt Whiting (Sat, 08 Dec 2007 13:

MW> I haven't read much commentary here about the Entourage. Anyone here MW> own one? I've owned Chrysler minivans for 12 years now, but do not MW> care much for the new design they came out with in 08. I'm wondering MW> about the Hyundai, but haven't taken a real close look yet.

MW> Comments or experiences?

Excellent minivan (based on my test drive and close inspection. The Chrysler products still don't compare - even Consumer Reports alludes to this.

Bye Wayne Moses Sun, 09 Dec 2007 00:18:18 -0600

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Wayne Moses wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@wayne.moses.comcast.net:

We love ours. We bought one the first month they went on sale. We have almost 18,000 miles on it now and still enjoy it as much as the day we got it. We were hit by a tractor-trailer on our way home from vacation in July, and all 4 of us walked away without even a scratch. Mind you, it was a low speed crash, but it was also a tractor-trailer!! The final cost to repair was just over $10k!! Since then, we've put about 4,000 miles on it and have no issues with the repairs either.

But it isn't perfect. A few sqeaks and rattles have developed inside the cabin. Mostly from the large, adjustable front tray that sits between the driver and front passenger. I've been able to quiet it myself without any problems, but it can be annoying if it happens on a long trip.

While the engine and tranny are smooth 95% of the time, if you get towards redline, we have a weird vibration that develops. Kind of a hum. Luckily it has plenty of power at lower RPM's, so you don't need to wind her out much.

The passenger side sliding door has done some weird things from time to time. Like close almost all the way, open about 6" and close again without any obvious cause.

Oh, here's another weird one....when you have the sliding door windows open (even a crack) the doors will not slide all the way open. They still open 90% of the way, but they won't finish, and the alarm beeps to tell you the door has something blocking it.

Overall, we get almost 17 MPG, which I think is pretty good for this vehicle.

If you have any other specific questions...fire away!

Eric

Thanks. Yes, I subscribe to CR and just read the report. I'll admit to also being skeptical of CR as well as I've personally driven many of the vehicles they test (I travel a lot on business and rent a variety of vehicles), and I often disagree with their results. However, I don't much care for the looks of the new van. They have made it look like an SUV and I'm not an SUV fan. And if the brakes really are worse, then I don't want one.

My Hyundai dealer is closer than the nearest Kia dealer so I'll probably lean that way. I'm not in the market immediately, but my current Dodge van has nearly 100,000 miles now and the AC compressor just failed and that will likely be a very expensive repair ... once they find a compressor as there is a nationwide back order for some reason..

Matt

What is your driving mix? My wife drives our van about 50-70% highway and the balance in town and we average 21 MPG or so, a little lower in the winter. We get 25 on the highway. Have you taken any long trips to get enough tankfuls on the highway to have a feel for mileage there?

Matt

Figure $400 to $600. You can get a rebuilt for reasonable cost, but the one I had was replaced twice under warranty and failed again after. It was cheaper to replace the car at that point.

Matt Whiting wrote in news:ekS6j.1060$ snipped-for-privacy@news1.epix.net:

My wife drives it primarily during the week, and while technically it is almost 100% highway, unfortunately it is usally in moderate to heavy traffic. As an example, it's an 11 mile communte that can take anywhere from 15 minutes to about an hour. Longer in bad weather. The longest was over 2 hours in a heavy snow storm once.

So most of its use is city.

On our trips to Ocean City, MD, and Virginia, we average around 22 MPG or so...a little better to VA. I think our best tank so far was 24.2 MPG, but I'm not looking at the numbers right now.

Eric

I was guessing $600 so looks like I'm in the ball park.

Matt

That sounds a fair bit worse than our Chrysler minivan, but we have the small 3.3L engine and I believe the Entourage is a little larger than that. My 96 Chrysler did even better routinely getting 27 on the highway, but the 03 van isn't quite as good.

My Sonata fuel mileage is disappointing for the car and engine size as compared to GM and Chrysler cars so I guess it isn't surprising that the Entourage is lower than similar minivans. I guess you have to figure you save enough on the purchase price to pay a little more for fuel.

Matt

Matt Whiting wrote in news:YDY6j.1072$ snipped-for-privacy@news1.epix.net:

Hey, I certainly wasn't claiming it was a fuel miser, and I agree that it could and should be better, but I actually thought it would be a little worse than it is.

It also seems that each year these vehicles get heavier and heavier with all of the safety and other "features".

And it is a 3.8 V6, just so you know.

Eric

Backorder? HHHmmm....

Sounds like the ol' Ford F53 Motorhome chassis fuel pump nationwide backorder...

At least that's what I heard. Mine's a NAPA.

I have a LeSabre with the 3.8 V6 and the Sonata with the 3.3 V6 and both get identical mileage. The Sonata is faster and handles better though.

I had a Park Avenue rental car that got identical mileage to my 2.4L Sonata on the highway! I drove that car to Boston and back from Elmira and it got over 30 MPG at 70+ MPH. It was faster and larger than my Sonata yet got the same mileage. I was impressed. I'm not sure the engine size, but I think it was a 3.8L.

Matt

The buzz I see is that rattles and squeaks are the number one complaint. I think I've only seen one or two in service like this.

There's a safety reason the sliding door won't open fully when the window is down. It prevents someone being injured in the event a body part is through the window when the door is opened. In fact, the reason you hear the blockage alarm is that there's an arm that comes out and blocks the door.

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"hyundaitech" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@localhost.talkaboutautos.com:

Call me slow, but I never even thought of that. I knew it was designed that way for a reason, since my van isn't the only one to do it, but I never put it together for that reason. I bet a 5th grader would have known that too. Oh well, we can't all be brain surgeons :-)

Eric

Reply to message from "hyundaitech" (Tue, 11 Dec

h> The buzz I see is that rattles and squeaks are the number one h> complaint. I think I've only seen one or two in service like this.

Hmmm .... interesting. Rattles and squeaks are usually a result of poor quality and we all know that Hyundai has pretty much arrived when it comes to [initial] quality.

What tends to be the source of these noises? My latter Hyundais have all been pretty tight.

Best Regards Wayne Moses Tue, 11 Dec 2007 18:36:45 -0600

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Having only seen a couple, it's hard to say where the sources of the noises are. We did have one van which seemed to have a squeak from the rear which was cured by lubing the tailgate stop pads.

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"hyundaitech" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@localhost.talkaboutautos.com:

I had them from the center cup holder tray thingy that sits between the driver and passenger. It rattles violently at times with no obvious cause....and that's without a drink or anything else in it. With the wrong size beverage, it can be down right deafening at certain speeds. There are two bolts that need to be tightened on the "arm" that supports the cup holder in the upright position.

Also, the drivers side middle seat has made some noise on me in the past but I found that if it doesn't secure PERFECTLY, then that noise will persist. I consider that a safety warning I guess (although certainly not designed that way) since it alerts me that it isn't completely secured. It is difficult to do it right too, but after some practice you can get it on the first or second shot.

The folding rear seats have also had a few rounds of noise from them for me. It seems to have no rhyme or reason to it, but if I change the seatback angle it stops. I can then change the seatback to the original poisition and it remains silent. I have to guess that something there doesn't secure right either, but that's one that I can't really see what's going on.

With all of that said, the body, door panels and trim have been rock solid so far.

I haven't investigated anything with the rear seats on one yet, but if the seat has a left and a right side latch, I'd suspect that one side is latched and the other side isn't.

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