NHTSA Complaint #11566291 — 2016 KIA SORENTO

On 12/15/23 my wife was driving her father to a dental appointment and when trying to pass a slower moving vehicle on a rural stretch of our highway system. The car died after she accelerated to pass the slower vehicle. She was in the oncoming lane of traffic when she lost engine power, power steering, power brakes and electronics. The car she was passing slowed down to allow her to get over, as a semi truck had now appeared on the horizon. Without any power, she could not complete the pass and had to force the car back into the correct lane where the car came to a stop partially in the roadway. Two vehicles behind her witnessed the issue and could tell she was having vehicle problems and helped push her, her dad, and the car to the side of the road into an orchard for safety. There were no warning symptoms, no loud sounds, nothing, just the control panel flashing intermediately after the car died. The car was towed to a local shop that thought it was possibly an electrical issue and replaced the battery (as that somehow died during the incident) but they soon identified the motor had seized and we should have it taken to a Kia dealership for a known issue with the 2.4L engines. The Kia dealership advised that a "Product Improvement Campaign", not a Safety Recall, had not been performed on the vehicle and that Kia had a class action lawsuit for this exact issue. Kia claims that postal notifications were sent to the previous owner, but had our information on file and registered as an owner through the Kia Owner web portal. Kia is refusing to cover the repair costs because the original owner never had the work completed, and as a second owner, we were never notified of the Knock Sensor Software Update that needed to ensure the car would go into limp mode before a total engine seizure. We never took the Kia to an actual dealer, as we had all maintenance done at various oil change locations, and an independent auto repair shop do the milestone services as recommended.