2022 KIA NIRO Complaints

Car keeps notifying me of an issue with my left break lights, it has been inspected twice to which both times, Kia services said it just needed a new light but yet this problem keeps happening. Nothing pops up on diagnostics and there are no recalls, this is a brand new car less than a year with no history of accidents. It’s a safety issue now because it could be a wiring issue.

The chrome colored plastic strip that runs along the dash reflects the sun into your eyes and is blinding. Sometimes I have to drive with my hand blocking the beams of light because it’s that blinding. This happens mostly in the summer but has happened in other seasons. I was going to paint it or put stickers on it to block it although my car is a rental and don’t want to void anything so I drive with my hand blocking the reflection.

Vehicle enters power limited (turtle) mode randomly. While driving under normal conditions, with ample battery charge and range, the “turtle mode” warning indicator chimes. Sometimes it is brief and no noticeable power loss is experienced. However, often power will be lost and the vehicle must limp off the road to restart if it doesn’t resume on its own. This problem arises at varying speeds and ambient conditions. Our safety is at risk because you never know when it will happen. Losing power on the highway and making an emergency stop is clearly a safety hazard. The dealership has not been able to replicate this problem.

The vehicle has failed to start on 3 occasions and needed to be jumped. When towed to the dealership they’ve been unable to find any issues.

The car has chrome trim on the dashboard that can cause blinding reflections and which also reflects in the side windows making it hard to see the side mirrors. This is a design flaw (not strictly a failure or malfunction) and the vehicle is available for inspection. The risk is that it impedes the driver's vision and the ability to use the mirrors and sometimes to read the display. Impeding the driver's vision can result in a crash. This problem has been reported by many owners on various forums, but I have not had it corroborated.

When driving with ACC engaged in traffic at a speed below the target speed the vehicle will sometimes speed up. This seems to happen when the ACC radar loses the return from the vehicle ahead -- for example when when a ahead vehicle changes lanes in stop-and-go traffic, I think this may happen if the side of the vehicle merging into the lane is relatively "clean" and most of the radar energy is reflected away. When this happens the car will start accelerating to the target speed, in rush hour traffic the spacing between vehicles can be quite tight and there is little time to respond to the sudden acceleration. This has also happened at an approach to a roundabout where there is a sharp turn before entering the roundabout. The vehicle is available for inspection. The problem has happened several times and I'm often able to predict when it will happen, but it has not been independently reproduced. The vehicle has not been inspected by the manufacturer (the problem was reported to the dealer who sold the car, they brushed it off and could not provide a means of reporting it to the manufacturer). There were no warnings or indication of an equipment failure.

The contact owned a 2022 Kia Niro. The contact stated that while his wife was driving in a parking lot at approximately 5 MPH, she drove over a curb to avoid a vehicle that was reversing. The vehicle crashed into the roadway aggressively after coming down from the curb and the contact's wife inadvertently depressed the accelerator pedal. The vehicle accelerated to approximately 40 MPH in a straight line and then crashed into four parked vehicles in a chain reaction, crashing into the rear end of the first parked vehicle. The contact stated that his wife was not aware of any warning lights being illuminated. The vehicle came to a stop on its own due to the crash's impact. The damage to the contact's vehicle was a crushed grill, hood, and fenders, all the way to the windshield. The contact's wife suffered a fracture to her C2 vertebrae on her neck, a fracture to her right foot, a small laceration to her left knee. The contact suffered bruises to her chest and shoulders from the seat belt. The contact's wife was transported to the ER by ambulance. The driver's side front air and side air bags had been deployed. The contact stated that the police were on the scene and filed a report. The contact said that the vehicle had been towed to an impound lot. The vehicle had not been diagnosed by a dealer or independent mechanic. The contact stated that the insurance provider requested that the vehicle be released to them. The contact stated that the vehicle was equipped with front collision avoidance technology which had apparently failed to stop the vehicle. The manufacturer had not been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 1,500.

The dash chrome trim running across the dashboard reflects the sun and blinds the driver. It is so reflective it makes driving almost impossible. This needs to be addressed by Kia as it blinds the driver bad enough that it's only a matter of time till this will cause an accident that will cause harm or death of the cars occupants.

The car is equipped with an excessively loud and obnoxious backup alert that deploys whenever the car is shifted into reverse gear, whether or not the vehicle is moving. The dealer tells me this is a "safety" feature and that therefore the alert cannot be disconnected and the volume cannot be adjusted. My complaint is that this feature is not only not necessary, especially for a PHEV, but also in fact is itself a safety hazard. It is so loud and distracting it prevents the driver and those around the car from paying full attention to other circumstances. Is NHTSA requiring this or is this Kia's invention? I don't hear it from other EVs, let alone PHEVs.

On four separate occasion I shifted it the car into park and a car computer did not register it in the correct mode. Video of lst event upload to Google photos https://photos.app.goo.gl/Ty4AYfnUiF9EX6oE6