2025 Kia K4: The $25K Car With Mercedes BillsMotorTrendInflation and astronomic fuel prices have all but the wealthiest Americans feeling the financial squeeze, which is why we added a Kia K4 to our long-term fleet—not one of the high-end models the automakers prefer we drive, but the sub-$25,000, one-up-from-the-base-model K4 LXS. We wanted to see what budget motoring looked like in 2026.At the moment, it's not looking very good, because we just paid $275 for a service that amounts to little more than an oil change and a tire rotation.I don't mean this story to be a mere dealership rant; I've given you one of those already. It's a reminder that if you're buying an inexpensive car to save money, you must remember that purchase price is only part of the equation.Does Kia Even Know When the K4 Needs Service?Our service adventure started with a bit of confusion (because, really, what better way is there to start?). The K4 owner's manual lists a service interval of 8,000 miles or 12 months but also says, "Your vehicle may be equipped with the Oil Life Management System that predicts engine oil life based on the driver's driving history and alerts the driver to change the oil."AdvertisementAdvertisementWait a minute. May be equipped? You'd think if anyone knew for sure which K4s have the OLMS system and which don't, it'd be, y'know, the folks at Kia. You might even think such information would trickle down to whoever writes the owner's manual. (I imagine they have an office in the basement and don't get many visitors.)MotorTrend - MotorTrendI interpreted this section to mean that some K4s have the Oil Life Management System and some don't, and I figured our K4, being a lowly LXS model with the base 2.0-liter engine, would be a don't. After all, the engine doesn't have direct injection or a turbo. Its sensibilities, like mine, are firmly rooted in the early 1990s.You can imagine my surprise when I got a note from long-term-fleet wrangler Christian Seabaugh, who just happened to be driving the K4 when its odometer was in the 6,200-mile range."A message just popped up on the dash," he said. "Your car is asking for service." Around the same time, I got an email from the Kia app saying my 8,000-mile service was due soon. (I love the Kia app. Remember, any time you read about our Kia K4 follies, the app is blameless.)MotorTrend - MotorTrendWait, I thought to myself. Is the car asking for an 8,000-mile service because that's 1,750 miles away and it wants to give me a few weeks to plan? (How thoughtful.) Or is the car saying it needs service now, before 8,000 miles? (Speaking of the 1990s, this seems like it would be a great plot for a Seinfeld episode.)AdvertisementAdvertisementI emailed our PR contact at Kia, and he had to check with the engineers. Turns out the K4—our K4, at least—does have the OLMS; that service recommendations generally come between 5,000 and 8,000 miles; and that, yes, we should schedule the car for service as soon as possible.I think it's worth pointing out, if I haven't already driven the point home, that this ambiguity confused several car-savvy people, including at least one who works for Kia, and the K4's broader appeal is to not-car-savvy people. Kia really should clarify the owner's manual to indicate which K4s have OLMS and which, if any, don't. Maybe Kia is confused, too.MotorTrend - MotorTrendReturning to the Scene of the CrimeHaving established that our K4 did, indeed, need service, I scheduled an appointment at Van Nuys Kia. I imagine that anyone following our cheap-car saga, including our last tragicomic experience at this dealership, is now grabbing fistfuls of their own hair and screaming "Why, Gold, why?? What the hell is wrong with you?!"Yes, well. I had considered seeking out another Kia dealership, but we've had poor luck with most of those that we've tried. One California dealer charged us $179 for the first service of our EV6, a car that doesn't even need oil changes. This service consisted of rotating the tires and giving the car a once-over (that's not to mention the $51 "EV service port cleaning they slipped in); the same service on our Ford F-150 Lightning cost $20. A Michigan dealer told us our 2022 EV9's first service required a four-wheel alignment—not true—then charged us $335 and botched the alignment. A third Kia dealer charged $233 for an oil change, tire rotation, and new cabin filter on our 2023 Sorento PHEV—then swindled us for another $487 on unrequired add-ons.AdvertisementAdvertisementNot that it's all bad with all Kia dealerships. A dealer in Southern California charged $62 and $78, respectively, for the first and second services of our 2021 Seltos turbo. Alas, the staffer who drove that car has moved on to greener pastures—another job, I mean; he's not dead, at least so far as I know—and no one else remembers what dealership he used.Back to my Kia K4, which had also developed a bubble on the dashboard that I wanted to get fixed under warranty. You can see it in the interior photos from our recent compact-sedan comparison, just above the buttons atop the center vents, to the right. The Van Nuys dealer is closest to my house, where I happened to have another vehicle I needed to test. Van Nuys Kia was the path of least resistance, and I'm lazy.MotorTrend - MotorTrendThe $275 "Minor" ServiceSo back I went, choosing a different service writer than Al the Lesser (he of the "This is very bad" from my previous encounter). When I announced I was there for service, the new writer whipped out a preprinted menu and indicated the "minor" service: oil change, tire rotation, top off all fluids, set tire pressure (California law requires all dealers and shops to do that), and my favorite two items: "Install windshield washer solvent" and "Install fuel treatment". Both of these things involve opening a bottle and pouring it into a designated opening, which, I think, is really stretching the definition of "install." Also, shouldn't window washer solvent be included in "top off fluids"?Before visiting the dealership, I had fortified myself by reading the owner's manual to see what Kia actually recommended for this service. Most of the menu was kosher, but I was suspicious about the fuel treatment, since that's a common high-profit dealership add-on. The K4's manual does indeed recommend fuel additive at the 8,000-mile service, but only "if TOP TIER Detergent Gasoline is not available" (Kia's dramatic capitalization, not mine).AdvertisementAdvertisementTop-tier gasoline, it turns out, really is A Thing (my dramatic capitalization), and nearly all name-brand gas stations use it in all grades of their fuel, including the cheap 87-octane the K4 burns. I generally stick to mainstream gasoline brands, primarily because some of the discount places don't take our fleet fueling card*. Anyway, I probably could have argued against the fuel additive, but I didn't have the energy, and I figured it couldn't hurt; with all the trouble our K4 has attracted, its next owner is going to need all the help he or she can get.* Few things annoy me more than going through the whole pre-fueling rigamarole, including writing all the mileage numbers in our fuel log, only to swipe the card and discover the station doesn't take your card. Also, the machine never tells you it doesn't take your card. Instead, it tells you to go inside to see the cashier, where you wait in line behind someone who picks out their scratch-off lottery cards with the same care and selectivity most people reserve for buying eyeglasses, and another fellow who wants to pay for his $25.00 worth of premium unleaded using the contents of his penny jar, before you can finally get the attention of the clerk, who tells you that the machine doesn't take your card.MotorTrend - MotorTrendLet's be fair: I let my defenses down and spent money I didn't have to. The receipt itemizes the costs that add up to that $254.95, with the fuel additive listed at $27.38. (You can buy the same stuff at your local parts store for around $6.) Sadly, they don't break out labor, and we know they didn't merely pour this stuff into the gas tank—they installed it. Nevertheless, that's thirty bucks I probably could have saved. (Unless you work in the Hearst finance department, in which case that $27.38 was totally necessary and a justifiable work-related expense.)Also, I was a little too stunned to ask about the fuel additive after I saw the menu price: $254.95 for parts and labor. It wasn't until I picked up the K4 that I saw the grand total, including $11.19 for sales tax and a 3 percent credit card fee (seriously?), for a grand total of $274.12.AdvertisementAdvertisementI looked back through the records of our recent long-termers to find a parallel and could not. The 7,500-mile service on our 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid, also an oil change and tire rotation, cost $118.83. On our $27,000 2023 Toyota Corolla Cross, the first service was performed free, as part of the included maintenance package. The closest parallel I could find was our unlucky 2025 Mercedes E450 wagon. The dealer charged $459.02 for an oil change, tire rotation, and a new set of wiper blades. (Those are some expensive wipers!) That's likely even more of a rip-off, but we really should not be discussing Kia and Mercedes service costs in the same conversation.I'm guessing the service writer knew what a snow job he was giving us, because he didn't bother trying to upsell me. According to the proffered menu, the posterior lovemaking to which I was subjected was known as the "minor" service—and it was the cheap one.William Walker - MotorTrendMore Ways to Waste MoneyThe dealership also offers an "intermediate" service for $289.95. The extra $35 is to "install crankcase treatment." Since we know what the dealer means by install, this likely means pouring a bottle of something or other into the crankcase with the new oil. The "major" service, listed at $339.95, adds an "engine sludge protection service," which usually means adding a chemical to the old oil and running the engine for a few minutes before doing the oil change. Note that neither service is recommended by Kia, ever, for the life of the car. Also, in the exceedingly unlikely event your engine has sludge buildup by 8,000 miles, you have bigger problems than a greedy dealer.In case you were wondering, a bottle of oil conditioner (the stuff you dump in after the oil change) costs about eight bucks, and "installation" consists of unscrewing the cap and upending the bottle. A name-brand bottle of engine flush, the stuff used for that sludge-protection service, costs about $10 and adds a similar amount of "installation" labor to an ordinary oil change. Both of these services recalled something a crusty old mechanic told 18-year-old me: "Ain't nothin' comes in a bottle gonna fix a motor."AdvertisementAdvertisementAt least the service was done in a day … the maintenance service, that is. Fixing the bubble on the dashboard took the dealership another week. It's a warranty repair, and I would have been entitled to a loaner car, but you remember what a headache that was last time. Congratulations, Van Nuys Kia; I have been successfully cowed out of asking for that to which I am entitled because you've made it just too much trouble.William Walker - MotorTrendHow to Avoid Paying $275 For an Oil ChangeSo I got reamed by the dealership. What could I have done to avoid this situation?First step would have been to call around and ask for prices at other dealerships. But then I'd have to factor in the added cost of getting there. There's no service loaner for routine maintenance, and while most dealers will provide a shuttle or a taxi home, you still have to get yourself back. [Or you could sit and wait with everyone else in the waiting room—Ed.] In my case, the next closest dealership is 11 miles from my house, well outside shuttle radius, and the one I suspect serviced the Seltos is 31 miles away. That said, if I found a dealership that wasn't trying to rob me blind, I could probably Uber home from Nevada and still keep the total bill under $274.Having the car serviced at an independent mechanic is always an option. Legally, you can service your car wherever you please, but you must keep records. If your car were to experience a major failure down the road but within the powertrain warranty (10 years or 100,000 miles for the K4), Kia could use third-party service as an excuse to deny the claim. Same if you do your own service, which, by the way, is not terribly difficult if you know how to upend a bottle.AdvertisementAdvertisementThroughout my career, I've referred to dealership service as cheap insurance to protect your warranty, but on our K4, it's anything but cheap—but it's also good protection.William Walker - MotorTrendYou'll Never Guess How Much They Want for the 16,000-Mile ServiceWhat will I do next time the K4 needs service, assuming we still have the car when it comes due? Well, I think we all know where I won't be going. I got a glance at the service menu for the next (16,000-mile-or-thereabouts) service. According to the owner's manual, it's the same as the service I just got, plus changing the cabin air filter and eyeballing the fuel system hoses and CV boots.Ready for the dealership's interpretation? The "minor" service is $474.95. The "intermediate" service, which adds the above crankcase treatment and an "A/C fresh sanitation service" (spraying some sweet-smelling stuff into the vents, I imagine), goes for $559.95. The "major" service includes the baloney crankcase sludge treatment (which no car should need at 16,000 miles) and a "throttle body service." This is an easy DIY job, and a $4 can of throttle-body cleaner will last you until the moon falls out of the sky. For this, the dealer wants $799.95 … plus tax and a 3 percent credit card fee. And, you guessed it, none of these extra services are recommended nor required by Kia.Yep, you'd better believe that when the K4 next needs service, I'll be calling around.AdvertisementAdvertisementMeanwhile, the K4 does need a new set of wiper blades, as the originals are already streaking (blame the hot California sun, not Kia). According to the Kia parts site, if I bought 'em at the dealership, I'd pay $27.50 for the left blade and $16.50 for the right. My local auto parts store will sell me blades for about the same price. Guess where I'll be getting 'em.More on Our Long-Term 2025 Kia K4 LXS Sedan:Introduction: What Ever Happened to Cheap Sedans?Update 1: What Are We Missing in the Cheap(er) Trim?Update 2: K4 vs. Kicks—Should We Have Opted for a $25,000 SUV?Update 3: That Time All the Warning Lights Came on at OnceUpdate 4: Cheap Cars Have Never Been Cheaper