Kia Sedona?

[stretch]

We are looking for a people carrier and been looking at all the common makes/models, trouble is that on most of them when you have the back set of seats up you can't fit anything in the boot never mind a double buggy. Like the s-max but lots of money even with high mileage.

I've been looking at the Sedona 2.9 Diesel as it seems ot fit the bill i.e spacious boot, sliding doors and a nice tow weight of 2000kg. I see the cam belt/water pump change is bit of a pig ie engine mounts need to be removed etc or it's a £500 main dealer job. Has anyone had or any experience of the sedona?

[Wilberforce]

Pete (RetroPedro) is your man for this, I think.
He was running one for a good long while, even brought it to the woods a couple of times.

[stretch]

Cheers Jim

[Retro Pedro]

What year you looking at Brian?
I ran a 2.9 TDi 2001 MkI for a number of years. Pulled like a train with mid 20 fuel return running about. Alot higher on a run.
The MkI do have a reputation of the cylinder head going porous and the sills rotting out. Mine ran fine when we first got it in 2006 but in the later years I did have over heating problems. No coolant leaks visiable so it must have been evaporating somewhere. That said, it didn't lose any power or run rough, just white smoke. Top the coolant up and it was fine until the next time. Have a look under the bonnet above the coolant expansion tank for signs of it boiling up. You'll see scald marks on the underside of bonnet. The over heating problem used to blamed on the rear heater pipe work. There is a flow and return pipes that run underneath of the vehicle to the back heater. These branch off from the main heater pipes under the bonnet. Roughly abvoe the rear wheels, part of this piping is metal in the area near the exhaust. Apparently the metal pipes would corrode and leak and the coolant lose wouldn't be noticed until it boiled up. Chances that could lead to cracks in the cylinder head. Also IIRC the front drive shafts would also need checking.
Beleive the MkII (51-54ish) with the straight lined grill had fuel pump failure reputation. Mind you, with the costs involved for a new pump, one with a failure would have been in the scrappers years ago.
The MkIII with the diagonal small squared grill were supposed to have been sorted.
Not sure about the MkIV latest shape apart from sliding door issues with the higher spec versions.
Your right about the cam belt. On the TDi (early MkI) it's a twin cam and fuel pump that have to stay aligned. As is always recommended, the tensioners/belt kit are not the cheapest. Again, recommended, water pump should really come into the equation. On the later CRDi engines, being common rail, it may not need to have the fuel pump locked.
As with any big MPV, there is alot of glass area, air con is recommended but it will need the associated maintenance.
Another mis conception is that the 2.9 diesel engines is Mercedes. What I used to get told is that only a few really early motors had the true Mercedes lumps, some had Mercedes components, i.e. cylinder head on Kia blocks etc. Wasn't long before all the engines were made in Korea based on the Mercedes design. So metal quality comes under the radar.

EDIT
Just remembered, the automatic versions just tip over the road tax band. The manuals aren't cheap to tax, but the autos are mega bucks. That did change with the latest models when they went for the 2 litre engines as opposed to the 2.9.
I know your looking at the 2.9 diesel, but don't be tempted on the 2.5 petrol engines The petrol engine was Rover and the resale values were very low compared to the 2.9.
All that said, I loved mine. Comfortable cabin seats with the high driving position.

[stretch]

Was looking around 06 somehting like this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2006-56-KIA-S ... 4d330c9612 not sure what Mark that is? looking at manual.

Lots of food for thought there Pete thanks for the info, I think it fits the bill well but trying to convince Gemma is another matter, I like the towing weight which other MPV's like the zafira suffer with partly due to the false floors. I'm diesel all the way mate The boot space with all the seats up appears still to be 'useable' but how was it in practical terms?

[2much]

Brian,

As i said at annual, you wont get more mpv for your money in terms of size, comfort, toys and reliability.

Only thing close is voyager but terrible mpg and reliability in electrics and repair costs.

Most cars will have some tale of woe and all modern cars are difficult to work on and/pricey on repairs. My wife's current car is engine out to do cambelt

Lowish mileage and a decent warranty should provide some comfort for anything you buy.....

[Retro Pedro]

The link in your post Brian is the later shaped MkIV.
IIRC there were three trim levels.
GS entry level
LS mid level (alloy wheels)
TS top level fully loaded
The LS and TS motors had authomatic rear sliding doors which did come with horror stories of people coming back to their parked motors and finding the rear sliding doors opened/unlocked. Not sure if Kia ever sorted it and I can't recall any reports of these doors opening of their own accord whilst the car was moving. The GS had the manual sliding doors so not an issue.
Deffo do your homework on the road tax and I'm sure I had it right regarding the difference between autos and manuals.
As for the boot space, the 2nd and 3rd row seats unclip and can be removed. So you can easily have a 6 seater with a decent boot area.
At the time when Kia replaced the 2.9 engine for the 2.0/2.2 (can't remember exactly) there was talk of Kia stopping production of the Sedona due to the high tax bands. The smaller engine sorted that problem and was supposed to be more powerful than the 2.9 that it replaced
Going back to your ebay link, when you view the bottom of the listing, referring to the other KIa Sedona listed, the £500 motor is the MkIII
Best of luck with your search