2012 Kia Rio Hatchback Finally Hits Dealers

There’s nothing quite as exciting as when a release date finally rolls around. It’s not odd to hear about teenagers staking out in front of Best Buys late at night to make sure they get their hands on a new video game or album at midnight of the day it comes out, and adults can be equally excited about the release of things like iPads and new iPhones. PR departments are great about building excitement for a new product, and when the day finally comes that said product is available to purchase and own, we all get pretty pumped.

This month, we’re all pretty pumped about the official debut of the 2012 Kia Rio five-door hatch, which finally made its way to its first dealership in Texas earlier this month. On October 11th, the first batches of the hatches were shipped out, and just like teenagers waiting for Gears of War XII or adults pining for the iPhone 13XS, this vehicle had its fair share of anticipation. Early reviews on the vehicle have been overwhelmingly positive, which is more or less what we expected. Still, it’s nice to hear.

One of the things Ford customers have been most excited about with the ’12 Rio is, quite frankly, the pricing. Any Waukegan new car dealer would sell the base car for $13,600 for the manual transmission or $14,700 for the automatic. That’s extremely affordable for the value customers get, but then again Kia always has been one of the more cost-effective brands on the market. Almost as beautiful as the base price is the max price—for a fully-loaded Rio hatchback, the most you’ll pay is $17,700.

The Rio comes equipped with a 1.6-liter GDI four-banger that pumps out 138 hp and manages 30/40 mpg city/highway. It’s also the only vehicle in the class that shuts down at stops¸ which is a big reason why it’s so fuel efficient. In all, what we’re looking at is a pretty simple, very affordable vehicle that Kia is very proud of. They (and we) hope that people got what they’d hoped for when they waited for this thing to hit the market. Now, of course, it’s on to the next big release date, and with Christmas coming in a couple of months, we’re sure there will be no shortage of those.