I'm not sure why so many people are often overly negative about the Korean cars - I do agree they are of a cheaper grade than the equivalent Japanese model and resale values are often the worst aspect of owning Korean cars. They are generally reliable - more so than a US domestic model I'd suggest.
Kia actually built the Ford Aspire/Festiva which were considered to be a good cheap, reliable run-arounds if I am not mistaken? These were based on two earlier Mazda 121 designs.
So KIA started with Mazda based cars and Hyundai started with Mitsubishi based cars. (Actually Hyundai started with the UK Ford Cortina but thats probably before Hyundai ever came to the USA....)
Thats not too bad a beginning really!
Nowadays Kia uses Hyundai technology which has improved drastically over the past 20+ years.
I still don't think they are up to scratch with the Japanese competition but they are closing the gap.
I could not recommend buying a new Korean car - simply due to the resale values which negate any postive effect of the original sticker price.
I would always suggest buying a used Japanese model of the same level.
It might be that a used Korean car bought privately could be a real bargain, though but I have seen some sorely abused examples in the past.
This is not the fault of the manufacturer - simply that the moronic owners did not take ANY care of the vehicle whatsoever. :|