Kia Capped Price Manufacturer Service Review

Kia: the beginning

Korean automaker Kia has two seemingly competing characteristics: a budget reputation and a line of reliable, sharply designed vehicles.

The company started in 1944 making pushbikes, before producing Mazda-licensed trucks in the ’60s and cars by the ‘70s.

They started exporting their models in the mid-1980s and grew quickly in Europe, the US and Australia.

Their expansion, however, proved a little too rapid – mounting debts pre-empted a 1997 bankruptcy; a year later Hyundai bought a third of the company.

In 2006 Kia recruited Peter Schreyer, lead designer of the iconic Audi TT, to spearhead an aggressive modernisation of their range, a hire that has produced almost two decades of sporty, angular vehicles.

Servicing with Kia

Like most smaller automakers selling in Australia, Kia offers a generous servicing package to compensate for their weaker brand loyalty.

While Kia makes great cars, they need to offer buyers some tangible bottom-line benefits to build the sort of trust Australians have in brands such as Holden and Toyota.

Their answer is Kia Capped Price Servicing and a very tasty 7-year unlimited-kilometre warranty. 

Kia’s seven-year warranty started in 2014; so to put the timeline into perspective: Kia models bought back then are still covered under warranty today, with a couple of years of coverage still to go!

And with Kia Capped Price Servicing, you know upfront what you’ll pay for your first seven scheduled services at Kia workshops.

Owners can go online, type in their VIN and the confirmed price for their next service pops up, and they’ll know exactly what it’s going to cost - no bill shock.

Service intervals for most of Kia’s current range are every 12 months or 15,000 km or whichever comes first, which takes you through your first seven years of ownership or 105,000 km.

Their turbo models do need slightly more frequent servicing but their overall warranty offer is still competitive.

Pricewise, Kia’s per-service pricing can be found online via Kia’s website. You can select the model, year and engine/transmission type which will give you a price breakdown of every service interval. 

It is worth mentioning that in 2015, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission scolded Kia for its capped-price service offering.

The ACCC took issue with Kia quietly raising its capped servicing prices a few times while advertising that their listed capped prices were the “maximum” consumers would pay.

To their credit, Kia bent over backwards to comply with the ACCC’s investigation, offered refunds to affected owners and ensured all owners paid only the capped prices listed at their date of purchase. Good sports!

While servicing your Kia with a qualified third-party mechanic will not void your warranty, Kia does have a mechanism in place to keep you in their workshop.

They offer eight years of free roadside assistance every time you have a scheduled service completed by an authorised Kia dealer, which renews for another 12 months after each official Kia service up to a maximum of eight years.