[Driven1]

We're going to put a thousand bucks down at two separate dealerships to see which one gets their factory order "picked up" first. We'll then cancel the other order. We're doing this with full disclosure to both dealers of what we are doing. We should be doing this within the next few hours, or by tomorrow at the latest. It's fun times to be buying a new car!

That’s a great situation for you. I’m glad you were careful making it clear to get your deposit back from one of the dealers. A dealer told me I can get a deposit back until the vehicle is scheduled as mine as it would be coming from the factory. The dealer said once it begins production it’s mine. No deposit being returned. I didn’t do that because could have been 6 months or who knows when with the chip shortage. Enjoy your new Seltos. 2022 SX?

 

[Old Car Nut]

That’s a great situation for you. I’m glad you were careful making it clear to get your deposit back from one of the dealers. A dealer told me I can get a deposit back until the vehicle is scheduled as mine as it would be coming from the factory. The dealer said once it begins production it’s mine. No deposit being returned. I didn’t do that because could have been 6 months or who knows when with the chip shortage. Enjoy your new Seltos. 2022 SX?

Yes, 22 SX, Neptune Blue with black interior and a sunroof. Only problem is that we got a total loss settlement on our Rav4 that is grossly under what would be required to purchase a comparable vehicle. The comparables used in the assessment were all with the 4 cylinder engine and 4 speed transmission, so not representative of our v6 with the five-speed.

We might be in for a tough battle over what a "comparable" vehicle is. This is one of those things where I'm almost determined to lawyer up and make them pay more, even if the attorneys take most of the additional settlement payment. Just on principle. It is ridiculous that the other party was determined to be 100% at fault, yet we are going to be out several thousand dollars to get back into a comparable vehicle.

 

[Old Car Nut]

Order placed! Now for the waiting.....

 

[Old Car Nut]

A further question. If you order a sunroof, do you lose the roof side rails?

 

[Hamster-GT]

What I do notice is a bit of understeer near the limit. I would do a larger rear sway bar and keeping the front oem since the AWD is front wheel drive based. The front camber is not adjustable, but would add a set of front adjustable camber bolts. That did wonders on my Forte GT. I would do the same, but my wife drives this car. Oh yeah, a nice agressive street alignment would be another thing I would do.

 

[Pourquoi805]

A further question. If you order a sunroof, do you lose the roof side rails?

The only item that was unavailable with the sunroof is the two-tone paint. I have sunroof, roof rails, and cross bars.
Picture below was before I installed the cross bars.

 

[Old Car Nut]

What I do notice is a bit of understeer near the limit. I would do a larger rear sway bar and keeping the front oem since the AWD is front wheel drive based. The front camber is not adjustable, but would add a set of front adjustable camber bolts. That did wonders on my Forte GT. I would do the same, but my wife drives this car. Oh yeah, a nice agressive street alignment would be another thing I would do.

Front camber not adjustable is a bummer. I would typically use alignment to help reduce understeer as a first step and tire pressures as a second step before resorting to higher rate roll bars. I believe the recommended tire pressures are higher in the front than on the rear so I'd start by evening them out all around, which should give just a bit more roll stiffness at the back.

We have a Smart electric car that is also saddled without cambrr adjustment up front. I had my alignment shop loosen all of the bolts and use the tolerances to get me the most negative camber possible and ended up around -0.7 degrees on both sides, which combined with needed 20 mm spacers to get the front track close to the width of the rear track, reduced steady state understeer by a good 50% and increased front grip by at least 10%.

Fortunately, my wife likes cars that have nearly neutral handling balance since they initiate turns easily and willingly. As long as they stay on the understeering side of neutral, she's happy to have me fiddle with the suspension.

 

[Bearhunter]

We're going to put a thousand bucks down at two separate dealerships to see which one gets their factory order "picked up" first. We'll then cancel the other order. We're doing this with full disclosure to both dealers of what we are doing. We should be doing this within the next few hours, or by tomorrow at the latest. It's fun times to be buying a new car!

Does Kia give you a order number to track your build? I'm looking to place a order for a sx next week and told 3-5 months to build. I'd hate to keep calling dealer every month for update. Be nice to get direct info on progress Instead of hearing nothing and getting a call in 5 months saying "car here come and pick up" kinda like I idea when to expect it.

 

[Bearhunter]

The only item that was unavailable with the sunroof is the two-tone paint. I have sunroof, roof rails, and cross bars.
Picture below was before I installed the cross bars.
View attachment 1192

I just built a sx with 2 tone white/ black and it accepted the sunroof option! I took a screen pic of order showing its added! What's Kia reasoning to not put sunroof In a 2 tone?

 

[Old Car Nut]

Does Kia give you a order number to track your build? I'm looking to place a order for a sx next week and told 3-5 months to build. I'd hate to keep calling dealer every month for update. Be nice to get direct info on progress Instead of hearing nothing and getting a call in 5 months saying "car here come and pick up" kinda like I idea when to expect it.

I did not get an order number. I believe the order number is created when the factory accepts your request and puts that build in their queue for actual manufacturing. Until then, it's just a request to build a specific car and doesn't have an order number. I didn't get an order number, but was told a 2-3 week period to build and another 2-3 weeks to ship it here, and that's on top of the time the order will sit in the queue waiting for the factory to pick it up.

I was confused earlier about the sunroof and rails. I remembered seeing some Seltos with a roof and no rails and kind of assumed that Kia wouldn't want something roof mounted to possibly fall and crack the sunroof.

What color interior did you order? I'm reconsidering the grey interior - both my wife and I want a lighter colored interior but are worried that the grey of the seats doesn't match the grey of the headliners and the pillars, being just different enough in hue that you'd look at it and go "Huh..." It several pictures we've seen, the seats look kind of a creamy beige color and the headliner is a light grey.