On Feb. 6, 2014 while driving back from dropping my children off at school and doing approx. 30 mph, I started to smell smoke in my 7 month old 2014 Kia Soul. There had never been any problems with it and I had taken it to the dealership for scheduled maintenance. I actually didn't think it was my car because it was so new. I thought it was a car that passed me.
Then all of a sudden it felt like my car wasn't going anywhere. I looked down and the entire dash was lit up. It tried to steer the car off the road and it completely locked up. Then heavy black smoke started pouring out of the air vents. I quickly undid my seat belt and opened the driver's side door to get out, but flames were shooting into the car and I couldn't get out. I jump over to the passenger side and got out there and then I went to get my disabled daughter out of the back seat, but the locks kept engaging. A passerby stopped to help and he pulled on the door while I kept hitting the unlock button. Finally, the door opened and I got my daughter out. She did not understand what was going on and did not know to get herself out.
The passerby put us in his truck and we drove a safe distance from my vehicle. I called 911 and within the 15 minutes that it took the fire dept. to respond (we were in a rural area), then entire car burned to the ground, leaving just the frame. It was all very frightening and Kia has done absolutely nothing. They say they are looking into it, but every time I call to get an update, they say they still haven't gotten an engineer out to look at it. They have offered no compensation. My daughter could have died if it had not been for the guy who stopped to help, but I also can't get any legal help because we weren't injured or killed in the accident.
People should know that Kia cars are not safe. I would never have dreamed that something like this would happen with a new car.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
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On Feb. 6, 2014 while driving back from dropping my children off at school and doing approx. 30 mph, I started to smell smoke in my 7 month old 2014 Kia Soul. There had never been any problems with it and I had taken it to the dealership for scheduled maintenance. I actually didn't think it was my car because it was so new. I thought it was a car that passed me.
Then all of a sudden it felt like my car wasn't going anywhere. I looked down and the entire dash was lit up. It tried to steer the car off the road and it completely locked up. Then heavy black smoke started pouring out of the air vents. I quickly undid my seat belt and opened the driver's side door to get out, but flames were shooting into the car and I couldn't get out. I jump over to the passenger side and got out there and then I went to get my disabled daughter out of the back seat, but the locks kept engaging. A passerby stopped to help and he pulled on the door while I kept hitting the unlock button. Finally, the door opened and I got my daughter out. She did not understand what was going on and did not know to get herself out.
The passerby put us in his truck and we drove a safe distance from my vehicle. I called 911 and within the 15 minutes that it took the fire dept. to respond (we were in a rural area), then entire car burned to the ground, leaving just the frame. It was all very frightening and Kia has done absolutely nothing. They say they are looking into it, but every time I call to get an update, they say they still haven't gotten an engineer out to look at it. They have offered no compensation. My daughter could have died if it had not been for the guy who stopped to help, but I also can't get any legal help because we weren't injured or killed in the accident.
People should know that Kia cars are not safe. I would never have dreamed that something like this would happen with a new car.
- Sharon L., GLENFORD, OH, US