Way-back machine: Compact Kia Rondo has three rows of seats

Review |

So suppose you have a family with lots of kids — or a couple of kids who bring their friends along. You need a car with seats, lots of them.

But suppose that, in these troubled times, you can't afford a full-grown minivan, which can sticker for $35,000 or more. In fact, things are so tight for you right now that under $20K sounds a lot more like it. Plus, you park in tiny city spaces, where the term "minivan" is a misnomer — those things are behemoths. As for a big SUV with a third row, you don't want an occasional need for seats to constantly cost you at the pump.

You want a nimble, frugal small car — with big-car people-hauling ability. Sounds like you want the impossible.

Actually, not the impossible, just the uncommon. Of all the models sold in the U.S., exactly two little vehicles fit those criteria. These are "microvans" — little wagons with a "way-back" third row of seats. One is the Mazda5. You may never have noticed the other one: the Kia Rondo.

The Mazda gets lots of positive buzz, including a Consumer Reports recommendation and rave reviews in these pages. But the Rondo is worth a look. It's competitive in many ways.

It's small — the same length as a Toyota Corolla. Yet it seats seven people in a 2-3-2 configuration (the Mazda seats six as 2-2-2).

Think clown car.

The Rondo's 162-horsepower four-cylinder pulls down EPA ratings of 20 mpg city, 27 highway, 22 overall with a four-speed automatic. (The Mazda's numbers with an auto are 21/27/23.)

And Kia offers an optional 182-horse V-6 (the Mazda has only the four) that rates 18 mpg city, 26 highway, 21 overall. That engine gets a five-speed automatic with gated shifter. The V-6 equipped test car got 20.3 mpg in strictly stop-and-go city driving.

The Rondo's exterior is anonymous and trapezoidal — it appears to have been popped out of a loaf pan. But the Mazda5 is slightly odd looking as well, particularly in its hindquarters, and these cars' squareness is how they can pack so much useable space within such a small exterior.

Inside the Kia, the materials are suprisingly nice for such a cheap ride. (Starting MSRP, stripped, is 17,395. A heavily optioned V-6 test vehicle stickered at $23,495 with heated leather seats, a sunroof and excellent sound system.)

Storage cubbies are provided throughout the cabin, even in the way-back. Driving visibility is great, and handling is competent. The front seating is upright, with cramped legroom. and it doesn't adjust much. A lot of drivers will struggle to find a comfortable driving position, and though a competent city car, it would surely be uncomfortable on long trips.

In the second row, legroom is copious. That row slides on a track, which allows space to be shared with the third row, where any adult passengers who ventured back there would face hardships that seem more North Korean than South. The way-back is for kids.

The second- and third-row seatbacks are split, offering a variety of passenger and cargo configurations.

The Rondo's advantages over the Mazda5:

• It's extremely quiet inside for a wagon body style. The Mazda has road noise.

• It can seat that extra passenger.

• You can spring for the V-6.

• Its optional Infinity 315-watt sound system is killer.

• It has a 10-year, 100,000-mile warranty, twice that of the Mazda5.

• When comparably equipped, it's less expensive.

The Mazda's advantages over the Rondo:

• Its interior is stylish and comfortable.

• You can get a navigation system.

• It has sliding doors for easier entry.

• And though it seats one fewer passenger in the second row, a little aisle between the second-row buckets provides easier access to the third row (and a little poke-through legroom for those in back).

• The Mazda's final advantage: It's not a Kia.

Let's talk about that for a moment. It's true that Kias don't have the resale value of many other makes (though if you don't plan on reselling, no problem.) And it's true that in their early years Korean cars were the butts of jokes. (Here's one from '91: How do we know the LAPD lied about Rodney King? Answer: They said he led them on a high-speed chase — in a Hyundai!)

But these cars have rapidly improved in recent years. A telling detail is the Kia Rondo's crash-test scores: It earned five stars (the highest rating) in government frontal crash tests, five stars in driver side impact, and four stars for passenger side impact and rollover risk — respectable scores all around. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety hasn't yet rated the Rondo, but other Kia models have recently done well in the IIHS' stringent offset frontal crash test.

However, FYI that Kia as a brand still ranks weakly in the J.D. Power and Associates reliability ratings. Though at least it has that long warranty.

The only sign of a quality quirk in the test-driven Rondo was the control for the windshield wiper. The intermittent setting was wired backwards, with the fast marking yielding a slow wiper speed and vice versa. Otherwise, the car seemed typical of its price point.

If you want to put a lot of butts in a lot of seats, for not a lot of bucks, your list of possibilities is short. So test-drive both the Mazda5 and the Rondo and see what you think. Kia's well-chosen slogan, after all, is "The Power to Surprise."