Hello again,

Early on when I was looking through the forum before I purchased my K900 I noticed a post from somebody who lived in Hutto here in Central Texas.

I wasn't able to relocate that post.

I only live a few miles away from that city so I'd like to contact him.

Any idea what the Hutto member's ID is?

Thanks for any help.

Bruce

Hello Bruce,

I'm the forum member who lives in Hutto, Texas. I did own a beautiful 2016 K900 VIP Plus, but traded it in January. However, I most willing to speak about my experience with the K900. My car had every option available, in Mineral Silver with black nappa leather interior. I loved the K900, but it had issues which forced my hand. I sure miss the cosseted quiet and comfort of those seats, and the incredible level of luxury features. My main problem revolved around battery issues, mainly dead battery with no warning. I actually replaced the battery myself and it was pure **** to get in and out - I am not sure of exact weight but it had to be 75 pounds and wrangling it in and out of the trunk was a nightmare, not to mention just trying to get in the car with a dead battery! I replaced the battery in September 2018 and had relief for awhile, but the problem returned. The last issue was water condensation in the trunk (about an inch of water was standing in the spare tire well!), which the dealer was unable to duplicate via leak testing. Black mold started to form on the cover just above the spare tire, and that was the final decision maker for me.

Tom

Tom,

I'm sorry to hear that you had such problems with your K900.

I was looking forward to us getting together with our two K900s because they are so rare.

I had my eye on a 2016 V-8 luxury with VIP plus, white with Tuscan interior in Arizona. It was gorgeous but it was going to be 10,000 more than I paid for the car I have and I just couldn't justify the difference.

I really like the Tuscan interior and the quilting.

So what did you replace it with? (Yes, I know I'm not supposed to end in a preposition)

Bruce

Hey Bruce,

I hope that you have many years of trouble free ownership. When I bought my car from a local BMW dealership, I had been waiting months to find a K900 with the options I wanted. Sounds like you got a better deal than I did for my car - I paid 32.5k for my vehicle with 18,241 miles in Dec 2017. Kia K900 US car sales figures were only 834 in 2016 - that is rare indeed. I believe the previous owner, who leased the vehicle, was pretty unconcerned about any minor things that went wrong with it and did nothing to correct things when damaged. For example, the front camera lens was chipped, and grill slightly damaged; two of the chrome wheels had been curbed; cat scratches were on the hood; numerous paint chips were on the front of the vehicle - all not repaired. The tires had just been replaced with very expensive Michelin Pilot Sport tires, obviously an attempt to correct the weird steering wheel oscillation (look this up online, it is a known fault) that sometimes occurred between 55-65 mph - I found if the tires were correctly inflated that this was minimized/eliminated. However, the interior was faultless and beautiful. When you spend this kind of money on this class of vehicle, these are disappointing things to discover. But bear in mind that I purchased this car in the rain, which concealed nearly all of these mainly exterior faults from me. Never ever buy a car in the rain.

When I traded the K900 in, the dealer complained that the front camera lens was chipped (I thought it was rain/water on the lens when I was testing the car out, and I told the dealer about this PRIOR to the trade BTW). Kia told me it cost them $1200 to fix that before being able to sell it! I believe you said you purchased your car as a certified vehicle? That is important because you should get full warranty for bumper to bumper and power train through 2021/2026 (5 yr/60,000 mi basic, 10 yr/100,000 mi) as if you purchased it new. Mine only had the remainder of the 5 year 60k basic warranty. Keep an eye out for proper headlight operation, as each of those headlight assemblies are $5,000 list price (insane, isn't it?). You mentioned a clunking noise coming from somewhere in the headliner area? I did not experience this, although that fabric sun shield could sometimes flap around if I had the windows open. I wonder if it was possible a child could have pushed something into that opening that fell inside? When you have the chance, be sure to check to the area below the trunk in the spare tire well area for moisture condensation. I only discovered this when I had battery issues and had to test a recently replaced battery - about an inch of water, no telling how long it had been there. Black mold found on the underside of the spare tire cover is nothing to mess around with.

I wanted to mention another reason I decided to trade my car in - rising insurance costs. I have never owned a vehicle that had insurance go up as it aged. I am a driver with no ticket or accidents and drive the car 2k miles a year. AAA told me that this was a very expensive car to repair and that was the reason it kept going up in $200 increments at insurance renewal. Estimates for the average vehicle for front corner damage in an accident is $8,000; for the K900 the same damage costs $30,000, effectively totaling the car. Yikes! to be fair though, Audi, Mercedes and BMW are all in the same boat. I guess the main idea is to avoid accidents at all costs, if possible. Cost for insuring the K900 alone was the same for both my new and older vehicle currently! Crazy!

I traded for a 2019 Kia Sportage Turbo SX, Pacific Blue with gray leather. It has most of the safety equipment that the K900 had, but not the adaptive cruise control, HUD (I really miss this), and the really helpful surround view camera system - hope your car has this! And of course it does not have the magnificent Lexicon stereo system with the control knob that I found extremely useful - the Sportage does not have this either .

BTW, have you installed the Kia UVO Luxe App for the K900 on your phone? It doesn't do a lot but you can monitor your car and start it remotely, turn on climate control, set up service etc, etc... I enjoyed it!

Best wishes, Tom

Tom,

Thank you for the detailed reply. I actually believe this car is going to be just great. I drove about a dozen K 900s in the last two years. Three were 2016, of those two were V sixes and of course one of those I bought.

Actually I drove one 2015 that had just been beaten to S**t!! It went down the freeway like a porpoise jumping up and down. Obviously all the dampers were shot. It had a crack in the windshield and some other problems. It was at the Kia dealership south of the river. They were willing to fix everything and give it to me for almost free. There was no way I would take that car. Who knows what else was wrong?

At least currently the insurance is quite affordable. Actually only a small increase over the Volkswagen Tiguan I had been driving that of family member that needed me take over their lease.

So far at over 45,000 miles the headlights are working great. They might not quite be five thousand each because these are the on the V6. It doesn't have LED. It has HID. Good serviceable used replacements can be found on eBay for well under thousand dollars.

I've been in round rock for over four years and I have seen one or two other K900s on the road.

We just got back from about a 2000 mile round trip to Tucson Arizona. Average speed 75 to 85 mph. Average mpg 30.

One longer stretch we got 32.

Sounds like you got a very nice Sportage. I never thought the HUD would be so enjoyable. But it sure is. I think the UVO lux remote is pretty much useless unless I want to get the car started and the air going before I get out there in it.

Even with the 2016 apple carplay is still not available. It really doesn't matter to me because it does have Siri eyes-free which reads and composes text messages by voice. It uses Google map which is what I use anyway.

I found the integrated Pandora better sounding and much preferable to the siriusXM. Once the three month trial is over, it got reinstituted with CPO, I will not continue with the Xmmmmmmm.

Bruce