KIA Complaints

The Seltos started losing power driving on interstate, started smoking and then lost all power and would not start. We had the car towed to Brakes plus where we had an oil change as of recent, they confirmed it was piston ring failure and the engine was done for. The car has just over 28,000 miles on it. Kia dealership and warranty is avoiding to state that it was indeed the piston rings failing. They simply said it needs a new engine and are demanding maintenance records and receipts. My veteran father has performed most of my oil changes, he was a military mechanic and ASE certified mechanic for over 20 years. Since I didn’t personally purchase the oil used, I don’t have the hard copy receipts they are demanding. Kia refuses to acknowledge that the engine failure is that of the same issue with many other 2021 Seltos that had piston ring issues during manufacturing.

The following has happened 4-5 times now on our Kia Carnival 2025 SXP Hybrid: After turning on the car, the car can be driven but does not allow the driver to increase the speed beyond ~30 miles per hour. No warning indicators or messages are displayed when this occurs. Turning the vehicle off and then on again temporarily resolves the issue. One of the times it occurred, I went straight from a 25 mph city street onto a highway onramp that didn't have a safe place to pull off. When I got on the onramp, I discovered that the issue was happening as I was unable to accelerate beyond 30mph. The highway had a speed limit of 65mph and a minimum speed limit of 55mph. Joining the highway at 30mph was both illegal and unsafe and could have absolutely caused a fatal crash. ---- To troubleshoot this issue, we took it into the dealership and they didn't find any errors recorded or anything abnormal in diagnostics. They told us it was probably just a malfunctioning of the "Auto Highway Speed Change" setting that is intended to slow you down around curves when using cruise control on the highway. We told them that didn't make sense because it happened to us on city streets where that setting isn't even in play, but they insisted it was still the culprit and didn't investigate further. It happened again to us today with AHSC disabled, so clearly the AHSC setting doesn't explain things(and would be an issue that needs fixing even if it did).

On [XXX] we were driving the Kia at slow speed due to snow on the road when a warning light came on which we think said hybrid vehicle failure pull over. The car stopped and the traffic lane with the engine off. The car would not start and we were exposed to traffic. Fortunately, we were on a country road at the time about a mile from our house and we were not struck by following vehicle when the car shut off and stopped in the traffic lane. If we had been on a beltway with 60 or 65 mph traffic obviously the result would’ve been quite different. Because I felt the vehicle was not safe to drive. I had it towed to the Kia dealer in Salisbury Pocahontas Kia, who have not been able to duplicate the problem and have also not been able to tell us what was wrong with the Kia to cause this problem in the first place. Unless there is a clear reason why this happened And it can be fixed then we have no reason to believe this would not happen again and endanger our safety. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

The window trim on all four of my windows has come or is coming apart. There is a hazard to having these items fly off my car. I went into Kia reported the issue and they stated the parts are in back order. The existing trim has been taped down as this can impact other vehicles on the road. I am supposed to get a call with the parts like many others on this forum and have heard nothing back. FYI it’s not just the plastic of the trim that has come loose but the whole trim panel under the windows.

Had the engine replaced before and it blew up again and the Kia dealer said the ignition wasn’t recalled after they said it was a fire hazzard

I was driving my Car when it stalled the police helped me to get my car towed to my home I then had it towed to Gilbert Az Kia Dealership where it is now and waiting for Kia to approve Engine Replacement

Re: NHTSA Recall No. 19V120 / KIA Recall No. SC176 I just filed a report a few minutes ago and neglected to add the attachment referenced therein.

The front passenger side locking latch is getting stuck when trying to unlock with the key fob. It has to be opened manually from the inside for the door to unlock.

Re: NHTSA Recall 19V120 / KIA Safety Recall SC176. On 1/15/2024, I took my KIA to Premier KIA of Carlsbad. They said the engine needed to be replaced under the above safety recall campaign. I have attached the final invoice, showing the safety recall work was completed on 5/31/2024. I provided multiple copies of that invoice (and my rental car receipts) to KIA Customer Care since 6/4/24. The primary KIA Customer Care agent has been Casey M. Casey directed me to contact "the KIA team" handling my repair costs, a class-action law firm in Oregon. Counsel there was displeased at the attempted hand-off as my car clearly did not qualify. It took over two months to get the case out of that loop. It went back to Casey. Over one year later and tenacious follow up, two unresolved matters remain stuck. Everything is documented. 1. My VIN shows up as "Safety Recall Work Incomplete," which will be on my DMV registration, CarFax, etc. I still get notices of incomplete work from KIA. I have asked how to correct this. Casey says the dealership "knows the channels" and to ask them. I've reached out to Premier, been shuffled around, and left VMs as recently as today. Q: Can the NHSTA use the attached invoice as proof to remove the incomplete status from my VIN? What is needed and from whom? 2. Can the NHSTA help here? Premier said to rent a car (no loaners) as KIA covers recall-work rental costs. Premier had my car for 138 days. I rented a car for 127 of the days at a total cost of $7065. I had no option but use my credit card with compound daily interest that accrued for almost a year. Casey and I previously reviewed rental receipts correcting his 123 day count to 127. Enterprise overlapped days due to in/out times; we subtracted those. I sent email confirmation of our call and 127 day total. Finally, on 1/9/25, KIA issued payment of $5166 for 123 days at $42/day. I emailed and called Casey. He replied $5166 is the max and provided the same incorrect breakdown of 123 days.

My vehicle has 74,000 miles on it. While driving on the highway at 70 mph, the RPMs began fluctuating erratically, jumping from 2,000 to 3,000 and then from 2,000 to 5,000 before the car completely slipped into neutral. I was stranded in the middle of nowhere. Took it to the dealership and since it's out of warranty they quoted me 3500 American dollars to replace the transmission. Don't buy a Kia.