Originally posted by Ispriluc ...but seems to suffer from a few issues: front focus in tungsten, mirror flip and e-dial. Properly adjusting the white balance seems to eliminate the FF, but using only rechargeable batteries and opening the camera to clean the excess of lubricant, in order to fix the other two issues, is too much for me.
Here's a quick run-down of the issues you list:
The ff issue under tungsten light seems to happen for some people. Some of those have had luck with getting Pentax to recalibrate the camera. Others have worked around it by setting a manual white balance or using one of the other presets. Still others work around it entirely by shooting in Live View under tungsten light. It is not a severe issue, unless what you like to do much of the time involves shooting faster than f/2 under incandescent lighting. In other words, it's only apparent at large apertures. My own experience is that I can't reproduce the issue, but I don't shoot under tungsten very often. The times I have, no problems.
There is a long thread in this forum about the e-dial issues, and I suggest you take a look at it. This one is so simple to fix, it's a non issue. A small squirt of contact cleaner on the dial, followed by working it one way and then the other for a couple minutes, and it works as intended. The whole issue was caused by a bit too much non-conductive grease on the dial mechanisms. It's probably not happening in more recently assembled copies. I still haven't come across the issue yet myself.
You're likely confusing the mirror flop issue with the K-5. There have only been one, maybe two people who thought it was happening with their K-r, and it's not an established issue of the K-r. There is a similar sounding issue regarding use of some m42 lenses that have shiny metal mounts, and using the green button to meter. This is peculiar, but not specific to the K-r, and easily worked around by putting a ring of paper or other thin non-conductive material between the lens mount and body.
I bought my K-r back in June, knew about the possibility of the ff issue, and knew how to fix the e-dial should it act up, before I bought it. I decided I don't shoot enough indoors to worry about it, and I was right. You'll have to make your own call about the ff issue, but at least I can put the other two to rest for you, that should simplify things. The vast majority of people posting about their new K-r here has been very positive, and I'd agree, it's a great camera at that price point.