It is my car for my daughter's use.

While driving to a baseball game, on Tuesday, August 20, 2019, via an express, high speed tollway, the car broke down, and much black smoke was coming from the engine compartment. The car was unable to run. The vehicle was towed off the expressway, then again, towed to my town of residence.

After inquiring with the dealer from which the car was purchased, he said that NOTHING COULD BE DONE, that the cost of repairs would have to be personally met. Financially I could NOT afford the dealer's cost, inasmuch as the vehicle loan IS still being paid. (We have been without the use of the vehicle since the accident.)

So, I have been inconvenienced physically by not having the vehicle, financially because I'm paying the insurance and the registration fees, and psychologically because I have to continue to deal with the problem personally, and seemingly without any recourse.

Several attempts to see if there were any recalls on this engine, by inquiring of the dealer, as well as with other service garages, have been fruitless. In January 2021, I see the recall information on the internet, and am once again making attempts to get some resolution to this problem, so we can have the use of this vehicle again.

I will start off by saying this car is my wife's. I'm an automotive technician by trade, so this car is always serviced by me. Car was bought off from the first owner June 2019 with 62,000 miles. Car was point to point inspected prior to purchase. Everything was flawless. Engine clean, oil clean etc. Under me, the car had full service including but not limited to, coolant flush, brake fluid flush, trans fluid drain and fill, brakes. Oil changes were done with Mobile1 Extended Performance and OE Kia oil filter every 5,000 miles.

Fast forward to December 5th 2020. I'm driving the vehicle with my wife, going up a slight incline switching from 3rd gear to 4th the car simply shuts off. Coast it to a gas station up ahead, try to restart the car and it just clicks the starter. I did all diagnostic I could do there and then and tried jumping with a booster pack and nothing. I had it towed to my small shop to diagnose it and came to the conclusion it has seized the engine.

I had an ex-employer of mines (with 45 years experience as a technician) take a look at it too, and as well concluded the same of seizure of the engine. Engine in spotless condition. Started researching and I find out these 2.4L are failing a lot, and that there was a lawsuit and recall but to me and my wife's dismay DIDN'T have the Forte included. Kia's 10yr 100k warranty was useless to use since we were 2nd owners warranty was cut down to 60k miles. It is disheartening and infuriating that the recall didn't include Forte with the same exact engine failure. We now have to cost a new motor out of pocket on a car that didn't even reach 80k miles with perfect maintenance.

This is unacceptable for consumers.

This is a really terrible story, as I'm sure most are that make it to this site. My 18 yr old son's 2012 KIA Forte was purchased from a "reputable" KIA used car dealer. At the time of purchase, the vehicle had 42,000 miles on it. As a precaution, he purchased the "Extended warranty" anticipating the worse, but hoping the worse would never occur in the time he owned the vehicle. Well, the worse occurred earlier this month, and the support from the Dealer, was far worse.

The problem, as my son is driving his 2012 KIA Forte, thankfully at low speeds, he hears "Rattling and Clanking" sounds coming from the engine. Suddenly, all of the interior lights and dashboard lights light up and the car comes to a stop. He has the car towed to a family mechanic of 20 years and the mechanic explains to him that the engine is on the verge of seizing, but noticed visible erosion in the engine bearing mounts etc. He suggests reaching out to the dealer as he is aware of many KIA engine failures in the recent past.

Well, hang on, here's where is gets interesting. We have the car towed from the mechanic to a NEW CAR KIA dealership since he purchased the extended warranty and hey, should be covered right??? The dealer's service department evaluates the vehicle and determines there is no engine problem, HOWEVER, the car failed as a "result of a bad starter"....WHAT??????? Thinking at this point, that the dealer is trying to pull a fast one on my now 21 yr old son, I give them a call.

The service manager proceeds to tell me the same thing, at which point, I blow a gasket and ask him to take the car out to "LISTEN" to sounds coming from the engine, to which they reply, "They can not because the front two tire treads are low, and proceeds to recommend replacing all 4 tires and the "starter" for $1,000.00. Refusing, I invoke the warranty purchase, and we learn that the extended warranty that he purchased was only good UPTO 75,000 miles and the 10 year, 100,000 power train warranty is only applicable to the FIRST owner and does not transfer to a second owner.

Extremely frustrated by this point, we begin to research KIA engine failures online, and find a litany of engine failures for other KIA models, except the Forte Koup. My initial thought was that many KIA cars share the same engine, and this too was confirmed by, not only our family mechanic, but a second independent mechanic as well. I take this new information BACK TO THE DEALER to only now have them confirm what we were stating all along, that my son's car engine did fail, but because it is not covered under warranty, they could replace it for nearly $5,000!!!! Oh and that starter problem, no longer a problem!!!

I refuse to pay for the engine repair, demanding at this point, that something be done because we did our part in maintaining the vehicle...we've got the maintenance receipts to prove it. The dealer then provides me with KIA corporates telephone number - 888 333 4542, which we proceed to call to learn that we've won a family vacation...WTF????!!!! When I declined the family vacation offer, the phone cuts out. I call back and the 888 number can no longer accept my call from "my area code". Is this really happening??

We then call from another telephone number and get through to KIA, rehash our story and are told there is nothing that can be done and quickly hung up on. I've purchased many cars in my life and NEVER experienced such POOR MANAGEMENT of a situation. This has been a horrible experience for my son and our family and am taking to sharing our experience on this site. An experience we hope NO ONE will have to ever go through.

As for the vacation "I randomly won for calling the 888 #" , do us a favor KIA, take that money and apply it to my son's engine that YOU SHOULD repair. If there is a known problem in that engine FIX IT! This experience has left a very BAD TASTE in our mouths and should make anyone RUN in the opposite direction of KIA when considering their next car purchase.

I'm based in South Africa and after reading all the complaints listed with the exact same issues I have experienced with the engine on my 2012 Koup just seizing on the highway with out any warning light what so ever and it has only done 92 000km.

I'm not sure if there has been any other similar complains from frustrated Kia owners in South Africa.

this is a major let down for me as I thoroughly enjoyed my Kia Koup but after this never again will buy another Kia. Kia Dealers here in South Africa are saying they have had no complaints on any 2011-2013 Kia engines.