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Kia Rio review

Posted by Samantha Castle on June 23, 2008 4:51 PM

sam%20car-1.jpg

Car: 2008 Kia Rio Sports 1.6
Price: £10,095
Acceleration: 0-62mph in 10.2 seconds
Average consumption: 43.5mpg
C02 emissions: 153km
Eco rating: 7/10
In a word: Nice!
The reason I was given the chance to test drive the Rio is because Kia have just updated the Rio range, despite it only being two years old, to make it more affordable and more environmentally friendly. Rio models boast fewer emissions, lower tax bands, exempt from congestion charges and a more fun drive.
I don’t want to sound like an advert for Kia or get carried away with having a new car at my disposal for a week but I have really enjoyed driving it in comparison with my little six year-old Ford Fiesta 1.25.
At first glance it was almost love at first sight, with its sexy, sporty black leather and red stitch trim interior, sports pedals and 16-inch alloys (which I scratched ever-so-slightly thanks to some blind old fart on Tesco Junction roundabout!). However, I felt slightly disappointed that it came in silver, the same colour as my Fiesta and the most common car colour on the road, and that it looked a little box-shaped. But as our week together progressed my love for the Rio grew until it was a full-on love affair.
When *loml clapped eyes on my Rio he said he liked the look of the Sport model and said Kia was probably trying to move away from the OAP market and moving towards a younger type of driver- like me. (Young!?) He also said that offering a three year unlimited mileage warranty was very brave but also a very good selling point.
The big road test for me was my weekly journey to Chester for my shorthand class. Usually in order to get up Rhuallt Hill without being overtaken by countless HGV's I have to get a good run up before the start of the hill in my Fiesta. I have to really put my foot down and it’s not until everything is shaking in the car and the CD starts jumping that I know I’ll make it up the hill at a decent pace otherwise my speed just decreases to about 40mph. But I had no problem with the Rio, it took the hill in its stride, kept a constant speed and even picked up fine letting out a little growl after I had to break sharply mid-hill for a lorry pulling out in front of me.
It has definitely got some power when you need it and although I still think it looks a little boxy I do really like the Rio and just wish I could keep it forever.
On a 45ltr fuel tank capacity I drove roughly about 460 miles before I needed to put any fuel in which works out 46 miles per gallon, now I'm no petrol head but even I think that's very economical.

My free Kia Rio car

Posted by Dan Owen on June 17, 2008 3:27 PM

Sam in her Kia Rio
ONE of my favourite smells, along with Lenor, DKNY, new shoes and babies head’s, is the smell you get from the interior of a brand-spanking-new car. Don’t worry Penny Pincher’s I haven’t gone into even more debt and splashed out thousands of pounds on a posh new motor. In fact I didn’t need to, because those generous people at Kia Motor company have kindly given me a brand new Kia Rio car to test drive for a week, and included a full tank of fuel.
It arrived on Monday looking all shiny and new and smelling delicious, well it did to me anyway. And I now get to drive the £10.095, 1.6-litre, Sports model around for the week to and from work to see how it handles and how economical it is.
My sliver coloured Sports model is also available in a more economical 1.5-litre diesel version, however Kia boast all their models are kinder to the environment with some up to £500 cheaper.
The model I have is said to very affordable due to its combined fuel economy of 43.5mpg (?) and an insurance rating that puts it in group seven and it is also easier on the environment with a CO2 output of just 153g/km. Which may all sound like gobbledegook to you but carbon emissions are serious stuff for road users as the longer you are sat idle the more harmful emissions your car can produce. (Read more about that in my ‘Issue’ about the state of Welsh roads and the over use of traffic cones in this weeks Weekly News)
Kia boasts the Rio to be “ever-youthful” but I have to admit I’ve not felt very youthful in the car so far as already this morning I have been cut up at Tesco Junction roundabout, beeped at for stopping for a lolly-pop lady and ignored at a giveway junction, and it’s only Tuesday!
I will update my Penny Pincher blog next Monday with a review on Kia’s “ever-youthful” Rio, so don’t forget to log back on then.

I'm back...

Posted by Samantha Castle on June 5, 2008 10:49 AM

SORRY I’ve not written an update for over a week, I’m not neglecting you, I just thought you needed a bit longer to fully absorb my pole-dancing escapades.
Many thanks to over 1,000 of you who have so far viewed my video, I hope you enjoyed it?
I’ve also been away on a little holiday with *loml, not abroad- we can’t afford that kind of holiday! No, we did the paupers holiday, staying with relatives.
Although we couldn’t afford the luxury of a package holiday somewhere hot it was still lovely to get away from work and have a change of scenery for a week. Staying with relatives has some distinct advantages as well, they can’t do enough for you: clean sheets, fresh towels, cooked meals, packed lunches, it really does cost nothing when you stay with the old folks and all in exchange for our scintillating company.
We headed up North on our jollies to visit one half of *loml’s family, who live in Pontefract stopping off on the way in Leeds, a great city, to have a quick catch-up with friends for a boozy stop-over.
We really did have a nice time and we hardly spent a penny, well maybe about £300, but who’s counting! (Big thanks to Nigel and Liz x)

Sam Pole Dancing. The Video- six weeks on....

Posted by Samantha Castle on May 21, 2008 2:57 PM

Regular readers of my Penny Pincher blog will be aware that I took up the offer of free pole dancing lessons at the Break ‘n’ Spin dance studios, www.breaknspin.com based in Llandudno, some time ago.
I agreed to the six week course, normally priced at £90, as I was curious about all the recent hype surrounding the dance crazy that’s sweeping the nation and encouraging women everywhere to swap their pinnys for lycra hot pants to spin round a £180 pole.
After six weeks of spinning round the pole, under the watchful eye of fitness instructor Zara Groves, I had perfect my Seated Lady, Fireman’s, Wheel Spin and various other hip gyrating moves and decided that I should share with my progress with the readers.
With the help of professional dancer and fellow Break ‘n’ Spin fitness instructor Louise Munro, 27, I have made a video so you can see for yourselves (and have a giggle) at how I got on.

Negative Equity

Posted by Samantha Castle on May 14, 2008 3:44 PM

I can remember bragging to you last month about how I’m the optimistic one in my relationship and I always refer to *loml is the pessimist (realist!). But all my happy, shiny thoughts and rose tinted theories were blown out of the water this week when I found out I could soon be made homeless.
It was only a few weeks ago that my landlady made a throw away comment when we passed in the garden about putting her house on the market. “Just to test the water and see what it’s worth, its nothing to worry about,” she reassured me and I honestly thought nothing more of it even when *loml pointed out that her curiosity spelled trouble.
I dismissed his sighs as negative pessimism and I told him not to be so silly. The country’s in a recession after all and houses just aren't selling so why would she bother, right?
Wrong! Low and behold the credit crunch with its rising cost of living really is effecting everyone including my landlady, who’s only option to keep her own head above water financially is to sell her beautiful Victorian four storey home, basement flat with sea views included- (my basement flat!)
Bless her, its not her fault. But on the other hand irrespective of trying to point the finger of blame for our sorry situation, it still doesn’t help me and *loml as I fear we will never find anywhere as lovely or as reasonably priced as our wonderful beach hut style one bedroomed flat.
Although we’ve only called it home for about 10 months we have made it our own with lots of personal fixtures and fittings (junk) and I have enjoyed every money-draining day of my time living there.
I know I’m not a realist, otherwise I wouldn’t of got into all this debt, but even I can see that we are faced with yet another money related struggle as we begin our search to find somewhere else to live which will no doubt cost us more than we pay out now. However, I do believe in fate and that ‘things’ happen for a reason, even if I don’t necessarily agree with them.
So if anyone has any suggestions of somewhere available for rent with all bills included please let me know!

In for a penny in for a pound

Posted by Samantha Castle on May 8, 2008 11:12 AM

IN this age of high inflation, national debts, recession and international economic vacuum, it remains with the individual to be penny wise but not pound foolish. Just how do you nurture your little nest egg in the face of the financial vultures that encourage you to part with your money at every turn?
Once you've got a reasonable grip on not overspending and avoiding unnecessary purchases (which is primarily a personal strength exercise), pocket change can be your biggest boost to monthly savings.
Rather than fish around for exactly the right money or use all those pennies you have for the little things, only spend paper money or large value coins. Take all the change you get at the end of each day and just stash it away into a jar, piggy bank or a sock. Then, at the end of the month, assuming you do a reasonable amount of cash transactions (and not debit card payments), you'll have a nice little stash of money.
I ended up saving £18 in £2 coins over the past couple of weeks which I took to the Llandudno Extravaganza and Colwyn Bay Prom Day. With my savings stash I was able to pay for my twin nephews to go on a couple of the extortionately priced fair ground rides and buy food and drink over the weekend without touching my bank balance.
Saving slummy coins this way you'll barely notice the shift in your spending from coins to notes, and over the span of a year or so, you'll have a significant amount saved, if you don’t spend it like me.
There are now coin sorting machines in many supermarkets that will sort your change very quickly, and give you a receipt to get notes at the cash register. This method does take a small portion of your money (usually 8%) as a processing fee.
At the moment I have a rather nice old glass jar in my living room with a substantial build up of copper coins and those annoying 5p coins, which I’m not going to touch until it’s full and I also have a little silver piggy bank, which my friend Sarah bought for me, which I collect £2 coins in, but they always end up getting spent before I get to £20.
I’ve even got *loml in on the act by getting him his very own shrapnel coin jar as a present, which has a convenient electrical counting function built into the lid, this morning it was registering £82! The first time it reached the £100 total he took me shopping and bought me a Nintendo DS with the money- bless him. He finds it very handy towards the end of each pay month for either an emergency petrol top up or for a cheeky beer purchase.

Bank Charges

Posted by Samantha Castle on April 29, 2008 6:55 PM

Great News(ish). High street banks have been told that they will have to cough up millions in repayments for overpriced bank charges to their customers.
The banks suffered a massive defeat this week after a High Court judge ruled that their charges DO fall under fairness rules.
Which means that charge-reclaiming for Penny Pinchers like you and me is back on.
Anyone who has been unfairly hit with excessive charges for bounced cheques, unpaid direct debits or getting over-drawn will now be able to claim back some of the £3 billion a year that banks take from our pockets.
However the banks have until May 22 to appeal this first judgment and at the moment nearly a billion pounds of reclaims are still on hold, but it’s worth asking your bank for the last six years worth of statements so you can total up the charges and start the reclaim ball rolling.
The comparison website uSwitch.com estimates that more than one million claims, totalling more than £713m, have been on hold since July 2007. And from the start of the claims freeze to January 2008, the banks have made £20.5m in interest on this money. For the foreseeable future, while the legal wrangling continues, consumers waiting to reclaim what they see as unfair charges remain out of pocket.
Last week, the credit crunch intensified when it was revealed that the cost of food has increased faster than the rate of inflation. Many families, who have seen their grocery bills go up by £800 this year alone, are now struggling more than ever to make ends meet. I asked around the office to see if everyone was feeling the pinch and to see what they were doing about it.
Some are growing their own vegetables and some are getting organic veg delivered straight to their door and cutting out the cost of air miles by using local suppliers and farm shops.
Start saving is my advice, I’ve found it very useful to have several accounts so I use different pots of money for different things. Open one account for holidays, another to pay for the car. This helps to identify money for particular future spending, rather than having it all in one big pot which is very easy to run down. While it is important to reduce debts, you should not ignore savings.
An emergency fund is probably more essential now than ever before, as credit gets harder to come by. Keep an amount in a savings account, ideally in an ISA for tax efficiency for those unexpected expenses, like a burst water pipe or new shoes (OK,OK not the shoes!).