Consumer Reports isn’t always on the money in terms of its reviews, but there’s an exception when it comes to a car’s owner satisfaction scores. Since the score is based on what owners have said about the car, there is not much disagreement regarding a car’s predicted owner satisfaction score. As far as the subcompact sedan segment goes, Consumer Reports predicts there’s one terrible option owners won’t like.

How Consumer Reports measures owner satisfaction 

Every year, Consumer Reports will send out a survey to car owners, which will determine the owner satisfaction rating of many cars. On top of that, the survey also asks owners questions about the different functions of their car, such as if it drives well, is comfortable, worth its price tag, and its design.

The survey also asks people if they would buy the car again. Folks who answered “definitely yes” are counted as satisfied owners. There are obviously a lot of cars on the market, and it isn’t easy to get data on every car. If there isn’t enough data available, then Consumer Reports will give a car a predicted owner satisfaction rating based on the scores of similar cars.

The 2022 Kia Rio subcompact sedan has a terrible predicted owner satisfaction score

In the subcompact sedan segment, Consumer Reports wrote that the 2022 Kia Rio is terrible and a car owners will hate. There aren’t many cars in the segment, but the Rio did worse than the best cars in the segment did. The Rio was at the bottom of the list compared to satisfying subcompacts like the Hyundai Venue and the Nissan Versa.

That said, Consumer Reports did not get enough survey data on the Rio. As a result, it’s not clear what owners thought about Kia’s driving experience, comfort features, value rating, or styling. However, Consumer Reports did test the car, and overall, the car critic gave the Rio a mixed review.

An overview of the 2022 Kia Rio subcompact sedan and its pros and cons

Like many other subcompact sedans, the Rio is a cheap and affordable car, and that comes with some obvious pros and cons. For example, it starts at about $16,500, which makes it reasonably affordable compared to more extensive options. However, Kia didn’t invest much money into the car’s comfort features. As a result, the Rio has several significant flaws, and they’re all related to comfort.

Consumer Reports described its ride quality as “stiff.” Drivers and passengers will feel a lot of the road when they’re driving around a Rio. When the road is uneven, the Rio felt “choppy.” Things don’t get better on highways. When drivers push the Rio to highway speeds, the cabin doesn’t do a great job at protecting folks from noise. The engine can get loud at highway speeds, and folks inside the Kia sedan will also be able to hear a lot of road noise.

Furthermore, the seats are comfortable for short trips, but they’ll become uncomfortable on long trips. There are two positives to this subcompact Kia, however. It comes with an 8-inch touch screen that’s easy to use. The Rio also comes with one engine option, a 1.6-liter four-cylinder that gets 120 hp. Thanks to this engine and the Kia’s small size, it has a great fuel economy of about 33 mpg combined.