NHTSA Complaint #11607359 — 2014 KIA OPTIMA

My engine locked up while driving down the interstate. I was almost hit twice because I was in the middle lane trying to get over and it was slowly giving out. I was able to barely make it to the side of the road and cut my car completely off. Once the car was off it would not crank back up. I had it towed to a local shop. He called me the next day to inform me my engine locked up but that I had a recall on my engine for this exact issue but I would have to take it to the local Kia. BEFORE I even had it towed there I called and spoke with Kia about my recalls. They stated they were still covered and I had an extended warranty on the engine recall. Kia gets the car.. a week later they call me to tell me it is NOT the engine and only the starter! YAY! Right? Wrong, another week passes and they now call to tell me they replaced the starter and now it is my engine that is the concern, it is completely locked up and the recall will not cover it. I called the local shop back and talked to the guy there that said it should 100% be covered and he did not see an issue with my starter when he looked at it 2 days before it was towed to Kia from his shop. I would not have put a starter on the car if they would have told me there could still be an issue with the engine. They actually stated it was not the engine in the call that I approved the starter to be replaced in. Now they are wanting to charger me for the engine and the starter which was put on my car under false pretenses. They have fully taking advantage of me and that I do not know much about cars but lucky I had someone else look at it that does know a lot about cars before taking it to Kia. Otherwise I wouldn't have known they were trying to scam me. It is awful!