Pretty devastated right now. My life has just been flipped upside down. Bought my 2016 Kia Rondo brand new. My wife and I loved it and babied the car which our 2 children also became attached to since they were born. It was a very functional car for us that we took care of.

Last week while driving with my kids, the engine seized on us. We had zero issues with the car prior. My wife and I were dumbfounded. I recently found out many Kia models had a similar issue and were eligible for a recall but the Rondo was only eligible up to the year 2015 while ours was a 2016. My mechanic was also in disbelief that the engine in my Kia wasn't included in the same recall after I described what happened. He told me to re-verify it with Kia before I gave him the go ahead to do work (it's still there after a week. More on that later).

The Kia dealership in Milton says it would cost me a minimum of $9,000 to install a new in parts alone which didn't include the cost of labour! They told me straight up that it would be better if I don't do the repair and bought a new car instead!!!! THE NERVE!!! Why would we get a new car just so we can take care of it and risk a random engine seizure while driving for no reason and be out tens of thousands of dollars?

My life is upside down. We need this car for work and to take our kids to school. We worked hard to pay it off and to take care of it. Kia was very friendly to us when we were giving them our money when we bought it. We felt we would be well taken care of by the smiling staff should problems arise. We never any car issues in the past with our car. The engine seized while driving. How is this not the exact same issue as with many other models?!?! The car was only 6 years old and is just under 180k on it.

My mechanic said he would be able to install a certified used engine that had about 90km on it for about 9k. But do I really want to blow 9k that I don't readily have for a used engine that I'm now aware can cease at any given moment. Or do I want to give Kia what would likely end being 13k-15k after labour and taxes for a new engine when my make, model, year and km only sells for about 10k-12k??? Neither, I'll likely have to find a mechanic willing to buy my car for peanuts. Thanks Kia. The recall should have covered the 2016 Kia Rondo model.

I purchased this car in March 2016 from Kia Red Deer in Alberta, only 45 kms on it. The first week I had it the electrical went out in my dash, could not see any signal lights, headlights, etc. and my transmission locked in Park, would not release. Kia Red Deer had my car for a month, trying to find the problem. Within that month I asked Kia Canada to replace the car and they refused.

In May I was finally given my car back, with Kia Red Deer saying they had no idea why it was doing that as it was sporadic and when they test drove it the car was fine. So, no resolution. The problem didn't occur again until I drove to BC at the end of that month and was stranded, in Jasper, AB, with no signal lights or hazard lights showing on dash and my car locked in Park again. No cell signal in the mountains. My boyfriend managed to get the car into gear manually and we drove it to Kia Red Deer where they, once again, worked on it to find the source of the electrical failure.

They had to take all electrical apart and redo it again. I took the car to East Lake Kia in Calgary where they took my remote starter out thinking that might be where the shortage was. It wasn't. I was commuting for work from Calgary to Red Deer (3 hours/day) so put many kilometers on this car, my warranty was 5 years or 100,000 kms.

In the past few months East Lake Kia has replaced my radiator fan (car was overheating), driver's seat mechanism (the seat was fine, the base was not), emission detector system was replaced (it was malfunctioning - engine light kept coming on), and now, two days ago, I was driving and 'out of the blue' my engine started 'knocking' very loud and the engine light came on, and it seized! I have 113,000 kms on that car! I have had regular oil changes. Kia told me I didn't have to go to them to have oil changes done, as long as I had proof I was doing them regularly I could go elsewhere so I did.

So, now I have a car that I cannot drive, will cost $8-10K for a new engine, and it's only a year old! Kia Canada refused to help because 'Rondo' is not on their 'Engine Failure Recall List' and because I didn't buy the extended warranty (who knew it would die in a year!!).

I've seen MANY reports of other Kia models that have the exact same problems my Rondo had. They are all covered. BCTV news from British Columbia Canada reported US customers of KIA getting extended warranties and costs covered for these problems. KIA Canada followed suit to 'save their butts' (is how it looks). However, because I don't drive an Optima, Soul, or Sorrento I'm SOL! Nice work KIA. You're NEVER getting my money again and I'm making sure EVERYONE I encounter in person and on social media knows NEVER to buy one of your crappy cars. Lesson learned for me. Bad Customer Service on your part.