Should I seek compensation from my Kia dealership?
QUESTION
Hi John,
I was wondering if I could get your opinion on an issue I’ve had with Kia head office and the dealership.
I have a 2018 Kia Sorento turbo diesel. Its been a pretty good car but it had a problem over the past few months as detailed below:
Back in April the car went into limp-home mode going up certain hills. The problem would go away if I turned the car off and on again, which to me indicated a sensor or electrical issue. Took it to the dealership multiple times and they did the basic inspection and fault code check and found nothing.
Fortunately I had a video of the issue which prompted the dealership to inspect the car for a longer period of time. The problem went unresolved into June. It seemed that between the dealership and Kia Technical, they identified the problem, so they replaced the turbo and low pressure fuel pump!
Unsurprisingly, a few days later, the issue occurred again so I returned it to the dealer. July came round, and after another few days at the dealer they identified the problem as being the MAF sensor. So they replaced it. Once again, this did not fix the issue. I was really running out of patience at this point and was on the verge of rejecting the car and asking for a new one. After another few days at the dealer they replaced the boost sensor in early August. As of late August, it seems to have fixed the issue.
I can’t believe that even with the combined knowledge of the technicians at the dealership and “expertise” from Kia technical, it took 4 months to identify such a simple solution! Every time I went to the dealer, all they would do is plug in the OBD reader and if no code came up, there was “no problem”. In your experience, are all dealers this incompetent?
Considering I was out of pocket for this issue and it was a huge inconvenience over 4 months, would I be entitled to any compensation? Even if I were, I imagine it would be like trying to squeeze blood from a stone.
Overall it was a frustrating experience and has really made me re-consider buying another Kia again.
Cheers,
Vern
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ANSWER
Hello Vern,
I’m no defender of dealer or carmaker incompetence, but this is simply not that.
It took four months to resolve the issue (calendar time) but they had three major cracks at it, and apparently fixed the issue on the third try. So it’s been back to the dealer a few times and into the workshop in a serious way on three occasions.
Intermittent faults are the worst to identify. If there’s a busted end of a con-rod sticking out of the block: dead easy diagnosis. What they’ve basically done (at considerable expense) is (after dicking you around a few times, initially) they started replacing the components most likely to be causing the defect. That’s all they can do, not being clairvoyant.
Modern cars are complex things in terms of the feedback-type interactions that can cause ‘limp’ type defects. They don’t data-log endless operational parameters, and nobody at a dealership is a data scientist in any case. If there’s no obvious physical defect and no sensor currently throwing up a fault code, technicians are in the dark. That’s not incompetence. That’s a lack of information upon which to act.
In perspective, how “huge” was this inconvenience, compared with, say, being taken hostage by Somali pirates, or losing your business due to COVID lockdown? I get it was inconvenient, but it’s fixed now, apparently, and you appear to have received appropriate support. And, presumably they fixed it for free, so how ‘out of pocket’ are you on this? Because if it’s only a few hundred dollars, it’s probably not worth getting worked up over.
Probably not what you want to hear. Unfortunately I tend to prioritise what I actually think, over the desire to appease people. In an ideal world, things like this would never happen. Unfortunately, they do, and you got assistance. Thank your lucky stars it wasn’t a Mercedes.
Sincerely,
John Cadogan
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