2024 Kia Sorento

The contact owns a 2024 Kia Sorento. The contact stated that during a routine oil change, the mechanic added an unknown oil additive to the vehicle. The contact stated that on several occasions while driving, the accelerator pedal was depressed, and the vehicle lost motive power and drove sluggishly. The vehicle was taken to a dealer for an oil change, and the mechanic observed metal shavings in the oil. The vehicle was taken to another dealer, but it had not yet been diagnosed. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 31,000.

Vehicle hesitation, transmission slippage at low speeds for up shifting and hard shifting. Pulled out of a parking lot onto a main road from stop and my vehicle would not upshift and sounded like I was in neutral and would not accelerate. I had a vehicle behind me that almost rear ended me, I pulled over and had to put the vehicle in park. Once restarted, it would shift again.

On March 19 I completed my 8,000 mile oil change and then drove to Florida. I had a warning light to change my oil since the company did not reset it. Unsure of the other warning lights. As I was driving in Florida on the interstate the car started having issues. It was making a noise, then started smoking and by the time I got off the exit and got out the front right of the car was in flames. I was transported to the ER with smoke inhalation. The car in still in Clermont, FL with no resolution. The car has been inspected by the insurance and a third party inspector. The last I was told the inspection report is with the Kia engineers. I am unaware at this point what the failure was that led to the fire. No response from Kia for over a month.

Kia has failed to provide proper protection for their radiator on their Sorento and Telluride models. There are many many many reports online of these radiators sustaining damage which should not have occurred, and Kia refuses to cover any of these repairs under any type of warranty. In my example, my brand new 2024 Sorento with 1,300 miles overheated and dumped all of its coolant due to what the Kia dealership claimed was a puncture in the radiator. The vehicle was never driven off road, and had never been hit by anything. If Kia has a guard in place to prevent this from happening, the guard is insufficient and should be a concern. Kia refused to cover this issue under their warranty.