I love, love, love dual power-sliding doors on minivans. With the push of a button on the headliner, door post, or key fob, they make a departure or an arrival an event to behold. They also provide a mini Apocalyse Now fantasy. You know the scene: Flying a Huey through the jungle with Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" blasting through the outboard speakers? Anyway, the 2006 Kia Sedona has those (not the speakers), but more: Power side doors, power-tilt/slide moonroof (natch), and power up-down lift gate, too. Cool eh? I discovered a problem, however.

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Soon after the odometer turned 25k, the Sedona's tire pressure monitor warned us of a flat right-rear tire. It was just our luck that the screw we picked up punctured the tire where the tread meets the sidewall. We needed to replace the tire altogether.

The Kia dealership closest to our Santa Monica office was 12.5 miles away. That being said, traveling 20 miles to Car Pros Kia in Carson didn't seem too much farther out of our way. We had positive experiences with them in the past, so we scheduled an appointment. We weren't disappointed.

Service on the Sedona consisted of an oil and filter change, tire rotation, fluid top-offs and the usual safety inspections. We were charged $143 for a new Michelin Energy LX4 tire with an additional $20 charge for mounting and balancing. Our total invoice came to $227.34 for the service and tire replacement.

Mike Schmidt, Vehicle Testing Assistant - 25,152 miles

I got busted. I took the Kia Sedona for the long weekend and then didn't even take it to the car wash on Tuesday. I know, I know. I contend that with that beige interior that thing will never look clean. But bossman Scott Oldham brought up the point that the nooks and crannies of the Kia's hideaway third row probably have never seen a vacuum before and therefore it's long overdue for a wash.

Well, after a run-in with the car wash guys and their vacuum cleaner, I provide the above picture to show that now the Kia is clean. Or at least as clean as it's going to be.

Production Editor Caroline Pardilla

This weekend, our long-term Kia Sedona lived the active single life with me as I drove it to a hip downtown bar to meet up with an old friend visiting from out of town, to a trailhead in the Angeles National Forest for a 9-mile hike, down over to Playa del rey along with my bike so I could cruise down to the Fiesta Hermosa street festival, to Long Beach for the requisite Memorial Day barbecue and then to West Hollywood for a Wii party.



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Minivans are awesome! Anyone who's not buying one because of image is lame.

In addition to hauling around cousins and a grandparent all weekend, the Sedona also proved useful in another way. My wife and I have been looking for a good patio set but refuse to pay $650 - $1000 for a new one. Thank goodness for Craigslist.

We picked up a 66x40 in. table and six non-colapsable chairs. The load didn't look pretty but it all fit - no second trip to The Valley for me. Love that Sedona.

I removed the second row seats and while the process is easy, the chairs are quite heavy - too heavy, I'm guessing, for the average Cub Scouts mom to handle on her own. Remember, I said average.

Brian Moody, Road Test Editor @ 24,595 miles.

If you don't have a load of Muppets to cart around everyday in a minivan, the Sedona is still a practical choice as it makes a great cargo van with its third row folded flat.

I needed a large vehicle this weekend to pick up a chair and I knew the Sedona would be able to handle the load. Last weekend, I tried to pick up this same chair but I was driving a compact SUV for a road test I am working on and the chair would not fit. The Sedona had room to spare. It swallowed up my chair with only the third row stowed. If I needed more space, the Sedona offers 142 cu.ft. of cargo capacity with both rows out of the way.

Some of the power-operated functions are starting to exhibit spotty reliability. Sometimes, the driver side sliding door doesn't want to close. The button inside that initiates the close only works sometimes. If you tug on the handle, it will kick in and start to close automatically. But this weekend it kept popping right back open again. I had to try closing it repeatedly before it decided to stay shut. Now, every time I open the side door, I'm afraid it's not going to close again.

On another note, the Sedona was pretty messy when I took possession on Friday. It looked like the cookie monster exploded in there. Crumbs everywhere. So I treated her to a car wash and a good vacuum.

Managing Editor Donna DeRosa @ 24,020 miles

There comes a time in every young car writer's life when he must drive a minivan. At some point, I will have to write about them, so it's good to get acclimated. But I'm about as far away from the typical Sedona buyer as you could get -- a mid-20s male with no kids, no pets, or even hobbies that involve large leisure equipment like Fender bass amps or kayaks. Needless to say, my weekly Tuesday-night cruise through UCLA's Westwood Village to meet attractive young women wasn't as successful as usual. When I tried to show off the Sedona's nifty remote sliding doors to a pair of co-eds, they announced they forgot to make a call and started running toward a public phone with a blue light on top.  Seriously, who doesn't have a cell phone nowadays? *

Proving that the Sedona is not in fact a good vehicle for picking up women, I decided to find another way for my automotive odd coupling for the evening to pay off. Then I noticed what I like to call the Sedona's Spy Mirror. This adjustable convex mirror allows parents to keep an eye on their kids to make sure that little Timmy isn't punching little Sally. Or in this day and age, I should say little Aston isn't punching little Orion. Since I had no need to check on the status of five empty seats, I started to realize the spy mirror has another use -- as a blind spot mirror. As the photo shows (I don't plan on taking many of those), I could see cars in the Sedona's blind spot that wouldn't be visible in the other mirrors. With enough use, I might have started to use it more than the regular rearview mirror.

James Riswick, Associate Editor
* Who didn't actually do this...But if a young guy in a van drives up to you, running for a blue light phone seems like a wise idea

A drive from Ventura County to Sonoma County in our long-term Kia Sedona produced only a few whines between vineyard visits. For the most part this van accomplishes the mission of comfortable and capable family transportation. Our EX model has the rear entertainment DVD system with wireless headphones, which means the digital ritalin is always in ready-fire mode for quelling second-row disturbances. The wife, a former 2000 Honda Odyssey owner, was quick to note the Sedona's "floatier" ride and handling, and after four hours both of us noticed a posterior ache from the somewhat squishy seats. After long drives in the aforementioned Odyssey, plus a cross-country jaunt in a 2003 Honda Pilot, we were both somewhat disappointed in the four-hour limit on Sedona seat comfort.

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Here's something you don't see everyday. In fact, I've driven this Sedona several times over the past week and just noticed it. It's the side airbag warning sticker, and it tells you all the things you're not supposed to do because of the side airbags. I find myself in a conundrum on this location, because on one hand I hate the obligatory (and unnecessary) airbag warning stickers that litter the average new-car cabin. On the other hand, putting the sticker in the crevis between the driver's door and the dash hardly seems like an effective way to warn people.

Of course the warnings are as pointless as ever. "Do not use any accessory seat covers." "Do not install any accessories on the seat or near the side airbags." This one actually surprised me: "Do not use excessive force on the side of the seat." I want to know how "excessive force" is defined and how you use it on the side of the seat.

On second thought, no I don't.

Karl Brauer, Editor in Chief, Edmunds.com @ 22,830 miles

As the resident cyclist on staff I probably use our long-term Sedona's flexible cargo area more than anyone else. I appreciate the way its third-row seats flop into the floor with almost no effort and I often fold its second-row seats forward to make room for bikes. But this weekend I found its cargo area isn't optimal when it comes to carrying a ton of people, bikes and gear.

Renting a minivan to haul three people, three bikes and luggage over the weekend in Tennessee forced me to choose between a Dodge Caravan or the Kia. Naturally, I wanted the Kia -- familiarity is a good thing. But when the fine folks at Enterprise refused to keep one of the Sedona's second-row seats (we needed the space), I went for the Dodge and its Stow-N-Go seats which disappear into the floor with little effort. When both rows are folded flat they look like this:

Without anyplace to leave one of the second-row seats, this is the best the Sedona could offer:

If it weren't for the seating arrangement, however, the Dodge has no advantage over the Kia. Its engine and transmission aren't as capable or as flexible. Its ventilation and audio controls lack the Kia's intuitiveness and ease of use and its handling leaves much to be desired. But in the end, its primary function -- carrying a ton of cargo and doing it efficiently -- is better.

Josh Jacquot, Senior road test editor @ 22,234 miles