Car had been fine. No evidence of any problem until... while my wife was less than a half mile from home on her commute to work, smoke started coming from under the hood. She pulled over; by then it was clouds of black smoke. A passing trucker stopped with a fire extinguisher, but the damage was so great the insurance totaled the car. On research I found that Kia had been having problems with earlier models such that a gas line leak sprayed gasoline over the top of the engine. On contact with hot exhaust pipes ignition occurred. There was no body of reported gas leak engine fires with the 2005 model, so Kia did nothing, even though the vehicle was still under warranty. I cannot prove it, but I suspect this vehicle had the same problem as earlier models.
Kia should have covered this loss, but they did not. My insurance company paid a fair settlement.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
Car had been fine. No evidence of any problem until... while my wife was less than a half mile from home on her commute to work, smoke started coming from under the hood. She pulled over; by then it was clouds of black smoke. A passing trucker stopped with a fire extinguisher, but the damage was so great the insurance totaled the car. On research I found that Kia had been having problems with earlier models such that a gas line leak sprayed gasoline over the top of the engine. On contact with hot exhaust pipes ignition occurred. There was no body of reported gas leak engine fires with the 2005 model, so Kia did nothing, even though the vehicle was still under warranty. I cannot prove it, but I suspect this vehicle had the same problem as earlier models.
Kia should have covered this loss, but they did not. My insurance company paid a fair settlement.
- rdavs, Sheboygan, WI, US