NHTSA Complaint #11514865 — 2016 KIA OPTIMA

On 2/24 I was driving on Ben Hill Griffin Parkway, I was in the middle lane going thru an intersection, when suddenly while attempting to accelerate to go thru the light, all of my dash lights came on and the gas petal stopped working completely. I had cars in front, behind and on sides of me and I was unable to move out of the way. I attempted to restart the car to no avail. This could have been an incredibly deadly and dangerous situation and was extremely scary. With help I was able to move my car out of the way, call a tow truck and have it taken to the nearest Kia Dealership (Galeana Kia, 14483 Tamiami Trail, Ft. Myers) who advised they would evaluate the car and get back to me the next day. Tuesday I got word that my engine had seized and there was less than 1 qt of oil in it. I couldn't believe this as I just had an oil change 6 weeks prior. The service advisor, Jeff, said when an engine seizes they report it to Kia to see if they will replace but that Kia tech team advised they were declining replacing my engine as I didn't take my car to Kia for service and there weren't enough carfax reports to show proper care. This made no sense as I get my oil changed every 5k and use syntenic oil. I proceeded to send many oil change receipts only for them then tell me "it's owners responsibility to check oil between oil changes" and they aren't going to assist in any way. Sharing this story with others led me to learn that Kia is supposed to warranty these engines to 150k due to this being a known issue and multiple class action lawsuits about the engines burning oil and seizing while driving. I was in the middle of an intersection, that could have cost me my life! I called Kia Corp and they told me to work with dealership and they couldn't do anything for me. This after just replacing 4 window regulators where the regulator dies and your windows fall down (another safety hazard.) I appreciate you looking into and addressing this safety injustice for me.