2018 Kia Forte

Unknown. Fire was located under in the engine compartment area and fire was visible from below the engine under the car. When it happened I was driving on the freeway when noticed my car seemed to be struggling stay at the current speend and to loose speed then a it suddenly l no longer would accerlatoed so I pulled over to call 911 a passing vehicle stopped and informed me there was flames under my car. I safetly exited and called for emergency services. The Safety risk of major bodily harm by fire to myself or risk of harm to the environment around me a risk. The check engine light had come on before the fire. Reached out to manufacturer for a fire investigation and was instructed to take car to dealership to for service department to inspect. Was told a ETA of 2 weeks before they will check out my car.

The contact owns a 2018 Kia Forte. The contact stated that while driving approximately 35 MPH, the vehicle inadvertently stalled and failed to restart. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic, where it was diagnosed that the positive(+) battery terminal was faulty and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The local dealer was notified of the failure, but no assistance was offered. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 120,000.

2018 Kia Forte, purchased certified used June 2022, will randomly go into ECO or Sport mode on startup or while the vehicle is in motion. Vehicle is not equipped with Drive Mode control buttons, indicating that ECO/Sport modes are not supposed to be active feature. While I vaguely remember the mode change occurring during previous two years of my ownership, the first noticeable incident in 2024 was of the vehicle going into ECO mode (green indicator light) happen upon startup the morning of 5/26/24. This was noticeable due to the fact that the ECO mode slow down caused me to nearly be rear-ended by a semi while merging onto the freeway. The vehicle remained stuck in ECO mode for several weeks. On the morning of 6/10/24, while driving, vehicle began to sputter/hesitate and ECO light blinked on/off then switched to Sport (yellow indicator light) mode and vehicle surged forward. Vehicle then switched back to ECO mode and it remained in this mode until the morning of 6/13/24, at which point it went into Sport mode upon startup. It went back into Normal mode (no indicator light) upon startup the evening of 6/13/24. Vehicle was inspective by selling dealership 6/15/24 and they could not duplicate the issue nor pull trouble codes. Remained in Normal mode until the evening of 7/15/24, at which point it switched back to ECO mode. Dealership has been notified. It should be known that ECO mode slows down the vehicle response to conserve fuel, Sport mode speeds it up. While these features can be useful when wanted and properly installed with the appropriate controls, the randomness in which these features engage make them a safety hazard, especially considering the control buttons are not installed. Based on NHTSA VIN information the trim package of my vehicle, LX (which KIA America has yet to confirm even though I have made multiple inquiries), Drive mode is an optional feature which was not activated by the original/first owner.

There was a recall for my car for the software update as there is no immobilizer. I had this done on May 30th 23. This was to correct the problem to prevent others from stealing my car by just using the USB cable. Unfortunately the update didn't work and my car was stolen on 6/17/23. It was recovered on 6/21/23. As you can see from the pictures the window was broken and the ignition was torn apart. We are not sure what other damage was done until the insurance looks at it in the next few days. With this recall not fixing the problem, insurance companies are raising our rates as the car is easy to steal again. The dealer said that they will do the same work as the recall but it doesn't fix the issue. This is not safe. A police report was taken when they found the car but we are still waiting for one when the initial report was made.

I initially submitted a complaint on Nov 6 with my 2018 kia about engine failure /possibly, my car was towed to Darcars kia Urbana pike in frederick md, I had just made an appointment with them b4 my car broke down to get the trunk & air bag recalls taken care of 11/09 my car sat there until yesterday, they never took care of the recalls? REGARDLESS my engine /break down shouldn't they have fixed those issues? And I was told they would run diagnostic test on my car to figure out what happened, I never received anything other than them wanting me to pay 7,000 to fix my car ,or they would give me 500.if I wanted to sell they told my insurance agent I had engine failure from normal wear and tear? I didn't know they only expect their kias to run 100,000k also got a bill with absolutely no explanation of why I was charged,they clearly are playing a game- I called kia America who left me on hold over 2 hrs until I hung up,also emailed them about my recalls not being taken care of - they said it's not their problem, I'm assuming I should get a lawyer now