2021 Kia Telluride

While at a red light after exiting the highway, the vehicle lost all power and functionality. The car was in drive, and the brake was pressed in. No buttons had been pressed to shut down the vehicle. I had no power and no ability to restart the vehicle. I placed the vehicle into park and attempted to turn on my hazard lights. Unfortunately, there was no response from the vehicle, and though I was interrupting traffic, I could not provide any visual indicators to oncoming traffic. After moving the vehicle into park, I was unable to move the car into neutral. After approximately five minutes, without the brake being pressed or any button is pressed, the vehicle turned on its own. I was able to move the car into drive and continue to function as expected. Prior to this, I had used the vehicle to drop off my kids at daycare (which required turning on the vehicle, driving, and turning off the vehicle). This event occurred roughly 40 minutes after a mix of highway and city driving. From a safety perspective, this was very concerning as I had no way to indicate to other drivers that my car was not driveable. Fortunately my children were no longer in the car. I was very concerned that not only the car lost all power and functionality, but was more concerned that the car started on its own. I was also concerned that if I had not moved the car to park and somehow it turned back on if left in drive what potential damage could have been done to me, another vehicle and potential injury 30K service and all recalls had been satisfied prior to this by an authorized Kia dealership.

My wife had placed our two children in the car in their car seats. She attempted to start the vehicle by pressing the brake and the starter button. Though all the dome lights and other normal electrical items were on at the time, as soon as she attempted to start the car, it instantly went dead. There was no power to anything, and all the interior dome lights did not work. No matter how often she attempted, she could not start the vehicle, even with accessory mode. It was almost as if the battery had been suddenly removed from the vehicle. At no point was the car moved outside of park. My wife removed our two kids from the vehicle, and shortly after, they were secured in our other vehicle; without my wife being in the Telluride, the car turned on itself. All interior lights were on, and the car was functional. She found that while the radio was on, the HVAC that had been on was now off. In addition, the fuel performance reset to zero. She turned off the vehicle, and we could not reproduce the issue. From a safety perspective, this was very unnerving as it involved our children in our car, but also that the car started on its own after five minutes. If we were not at home and the car could have been running in the garage without our involvement. All regular maintenance and satisfaction of recalls had been completed by a Kia-authorized dealership before this event.

While in drive, the battery discharge warning was displayed inconsistently, similar to what had occurred sporadically on January 21 and January 23. Without notice, multiple indicator lights started flashing, including low tire pressure, Safety features such as check forward collision assist system, and more. Power steering failed, and ultimately had to coast into a safe location. This resulted in a tow to the dealership, where after multiple days, the dealership found that the alternator failed and replaced it under warranty. This could have negatively impacted not only my safety but the safety of others as the vehicle safety features were not operational and I lost full functionality of the vehicle such as power steering loss. All regular maintenance and satisfaction of recalls had been completed by a Kia-authorized dealership before this event.

While driving, an error illuminated (inconsistently), signaling a battery discharge warning. This indicator was not consistent and would come and go at different times. The ambiguity of indicator lights and the inconsistency of how they were displayed raised concerns of safety of the vehicle and operations. All regular maintenance and satisfaction of recalls had been completed by a Kia-authorized dealership before this event.

The driver seatbelt screw came out from the wall at the base of the car. The seatbelt was no longer attached to the car. There was no previous damage or accidents to the seatbelt and the car has few miles on it. Kia towed it to the local dealership where they stated it “just came loose” and stated “it likely wasn’t fully tightened at the manufacturing plant.” They tightened it and said it was fine. They found no reason the bolt failed and gave no guarantee the bolt would not fail again. There was no warning or indication that the seatbelt was faulty prior to it coming out of place. It’s lucky it happened in a parked position and not in an accident. I’m deeply concerned the bolt or the where it connects to the car is indicative of a deeper issue such as faulty connective components.

The rear driver side tire blew out when the vehicle was going approximately 70 mph. I attached photos of the damage. The low tire pressure light turned on about 5 minutes before the tire blew out. I took my vehicle to NTB to replace the tire. They determined because of the tread depth that all four tires needed to be replaced. The tread depth was 4mm and all their new tires were 10mm (even though the vehicle only has 25,000 miles). They did replace all four tires and said the insides of all the tires were cracked and had "dry rot" and it was only a matter of time before all the tires did the same thing (blew out).

While driving in a parking garage and going down a ramp to the next level, all of the lights on my dashboard popped on and the brakes stopped working. The emergency brakes failed to work, and we crashed into a wall/air conditioning unit. Luckily, we were going slow since we were in a parking garage and did not hit another car, but if we were on a highway and/ my entire family were in the car, someone could have died not only in my car but in other cars. The vehicle has been inspected by the dealership, but only after 3 weeks, and I've had to call to get any sort of communication from Kia. They have been horrible with communication. They also have not offered guaranteed reimbursement for a rental car nor have they offered a loaner. Insurance has inspected the car from a collision perspective and gave a quote on the damages. There were warning lights on as we were going down the ramp when the brakes went out.

At around 40,000 miles my Telluride start to have issues shifting at low speeds and when cold. By the time I hit 50,000 miles it was happening all the time. It began sputtering almost everyone I accelerated causing it to hesitate on highways. After two trips to the dealership they said I need a whole new transmission. My car is only at 56,000 miles and is no longer considered driveable until it is replaced which of course, the part is on back order.