NHTSA Complaint #11427280 — 2017 KIA SOUL

On Tuesday July 27 2021, we noticed that the oil light was flickering at idle on our 2017 Kia Soul. We called a dealership and they recommended that we have the car towed to their service department. We received confirmation that the car arrived at the dealership at 1.32 pm on Tuesday July 27 2021. We’d like to note that our 2017 Kia Soul had approximately 20,000 miles on it at this time. The dealership ran diagnostics on car and found nothing wrong. They also drove the car and said that they saw no indication of a problem (no flickering oil light). They said that the oil looked dark and thin. We had checked the oil the day before and it looked yellow to gold in color. We were not shown any evidence that the oil was dark, only the word of the service department. We had the car serviced and then picked it up from the dealership. 10 minutes or so after picking the car up from the dealership, on Colorado Highway 58 heading west, just outside Golden, CO, there was a loud knocking noise and the check engine and oil pressure lights starting blinking. Seconds later, the car lost power, and then stalled. My husband was able to steer it to side of the highway, where we waited more than three hours for roadside assistance from Kia before having to leave the car to get somewhere safe. The outside temperatures were 90 degrees of more and our child, who was with us, is very sensitive to high temperatures. We are waiting to hear from the dealership (Kia towing somehow managed to cancel the tow order and left the car on the side of the road all night) and do not yet know the exact nature of the engine failure but the car is undriveable. The fact that the engine stalled and died on the highway, traveling at a speed of 55 mph, is incredibly dangerous and put my husband at extreme risk for an accident or the infamous Kia engine fire. All of this happened just minutes after picking up a car that we were told had no issues.