2007 Kia Rondo

Truck Trend art director Thomas Voehringer notes, "My youngest daughter likes the Rondo a lot." For perspective, he adds, "She also likes Pokemon." Voehringer himself assesses the Rondo's styling this way: "Kia touts that the Rondo has Cabinosity and Giddyupedness, but fails to declare it also has Fuglytude." While he doesn't care for the looks from the outside, he finds little to fault from behind the wheel. "There's plenty of giddyup here, with the front end lifting like Lone Ranger's Silver every time you give it the gas." Back in the saddle, Voehringer continues: "Once the Rondo settles down into commuting mode, it doesn't nag you with many problematic issues. It's actually quite comfortable to cruise in. Its blah visual persona makes it almost invisible to traffic on the freeway. I do wish the seats had a couple more inches of travel to accommodate my long legs." He sums up: "The Rondo seems to have all the negatives of a minivan with none of the positives."

"Huh?" wonders assistant art director Mike Royer, who disagrees with Voehringer's appraisal. "It has a lot of passenger room but takes up a fraction of the space-that ratio seems good to me, especially with high gas prices, not to mention the pain in the butt of trying to park a minivan in a tight space." Royer, a self-proclaimed fan of "bare-bones cars done well," appreciates the Kia for its "ample room, comfortable drive, good steering, and plenty of power," not to mention that it "passes my hockey-bag test with flying colors."

Royer concludes, "It's the kind of car you enjoy driving into the ground over a long period of time-a worker."