Eh, it’s no worse than the recalls on my old Ranger. While I listed five things, two were related to two others (heater core and fan; radiator and coolant tube) and the radiator wasn’t a manufacturer defect - I hit a damn pothole (that’s another rant entirely). The trans is a bit worrisome, but it’s covered, and I’m not even sure it’s the transmission or just some loose plastic rattling. My biggest complaint about the car is that it sits so low that I tend to hit curbs when I park, leading to things breaking.
I like mine. I have a Kia Rio. No major problems with it, it gets me where I want to go, and I’ve taken it on long road trips from VA to Ohio.
I like my little car. We are considering trading it in on a PT Cruiser, but only because I’m not fond of driving such a light car in the winter - I slid around a lot this past winter. Other than that, it’s a good little car.
Ava
Hyundai actually owns Kia now.
Epimetheus, is the van you mentioned the Kia Optima? The Optima is “the first progeny of 1998’s Hyundai-Kia merger and shares its underpinnings with the Hyundai Sonata”, so that might be why it isn’t as shoddy as the other Kias.
Er… I saw “midsize sedan” on that page and read “minivan” instead. Never mind. 
Weak, very weak.
From the KIA website
From the Stae of California Attorney General’s website
So either CanvasShoes’ mom has either had this car for over 5 years / 60,000 miles it which case she owns it. Or somebody has not done their homework.
:dubious:
As I said, the thing broke SIX times, and each time she had to drive all the way into the big city to the dealership, taking miles off of her warranty, costing gas, wear and tear on the vehicle (when they obviously can’t take it that well), and the tires. Not to mention the inconvenience.
On good faith, after that much of a hassle, they should have allowed her to return it. They won’t even do anything about the miles she’s lost on the warranty.
Yeah, the dealer is within their legal rights, but ethically, morally and on good faith? It wouldn’t cost them a dime to take the car back. She’s paid almost nothing but interest, and they could sell it for far more than what she’s upside down on it for. Especiallly since she had agreed that she would (if they’d take it back) buy a used car from them.
That’s all she wanted, was to be rid of the car, too much of a hassle in her old age to continue to drive an hour to the city every time it breaks down. She wasn’t askin to sue them, just to be out from under a lemon.
And it IS a lemon. The same exact breakdown has happened six times.
She has had the car 18 months, it has 48,000 miles on it. She lives in TEXAS now, even though she bought the car in CA. She has to now follow Texas lemon laws, which state that even if the car has had the same three problems, it can only have 24k miles or less.
This from the official posting from the state of TX lemon law statutes. K?
No dea;er on earth is going to simply offer to replace you car for free. It needs to be requested or demanded
And I’m still confused about the chronology here:
She bought the car in CA
You “drove down” and together you discovered the problem. At what point did she leave CA?
In 50K miles she never once opened the window?
If she discovered the problem earlier, why didn’t she ask for the car to be replaced after the third fix?
And why didn’t YOU tell her to, sonce she apparently didn’t know about it any sooner than you.
How many miles/years were on the car by the third fix?
It wouldn’t cost them a dime to take the car back. She’s paid almost nothing but interest, and they could sell it for far more than what she’s upside down on it for. Especiallly since she had agreed that she would (if they’d take it back) buy a used car from them. This statement makes no sense. The only way it would cost them no money is if she GIVES it to them. They have to either refund her money or replace the car.
It seems to me that there are enough inconsistencies in your story that I’m not sure you have a soilid idea who knew what and when.
And you still haven’t said whether the problem is fixed or not.
Oh yeah, and Grandma’s put 50K miles on the thing in 18 months? That is very strange sounding. If sh’e putting on that much mileage, a drive into the big city isn’t much of a deal for her.
And BTW, there’s no dealer I ever heard of that will give you “credit” for the miles you put on coming and going to and from the dealer.
This story sounds very fishy to me, though maybe I’ll end up owing you an apology for that statement.
She didn’t even want them to replace it. She just wanted to give the damn thing back to them, have them release her from it and be done with it. She wasn’t asking for a DIME from them.
I didn’t drive down, I came down to meet her from Alaska. I flew down, driving takes about 4 days just from Anchorage to the border. She had already moved to Texas, and I came straight to TX
She’d never had a passenger in the car. And as I said, the window worked in intervals, just for a little bit, and the car just NOW reached 48k, thanks in part to driving to dallas several times to get it fixed.
She didn’t discover it “earlier” as I’ve said, repeatedly, we discovered it after I’d moved here and the window was getting used on a more regular basis. And believe ME, we DID try to get them to fix it for good. They kept swearing, each time, that it really WAS fixed for good. And she did ask to get out from under the car after the third fix. The part of the texas lemon law about the car has to have 24k or less was already in effect.
It wouldn’t cost them a dime to take the car back. She’s paid almost nothing but interest, and they could sell it for far more than what she’s upside down on it for. Especiallly since she had agreed that she would (if they’d take it back) buy a used car from them.
That is EXACTLY what she wanted to do. Give it to them, and be released from the remainder of the loan (of which she’s already paid a HUGE amount of interest, like 5000 and only 500 to principle, they could definitely sell it for what she owes). She’s THAT sick of the hassles. She’d rather go out and get an old used Buick or something.
There aren’t any inconsistancies. In the heat of being so angry, I didn’t provide enough in the OP, but upon your questioning to have it filled in, I did. You are just trying your best to make more of it than there is. And I DID say what they were doing, they’ve currently got it in the shop replacing the door. I said that three or so posts ago.
Jeez, you’re certainly snotty for not apparant reason. Grandma?? What is the purpose of that sort of snottiness? She moved from California to Texas, she lived out in the country in CA, driving into the city for little jobs and the senior center stuff, and does the same here in Tx.
Besides, what difference does it make how long she took to put how many miles on her car? The warranty is for a certain amount of miles, or time. If she is using the miles up for her own purposes, that’s a WHOLE other thing than them being used up becaues of some mechanic’s stupidity in not finding the problem.
At any rate, she wasn’t asking for credit for coming and going to the dealership. If she has a 60k warranty, and the mechanic’s stupidity cause her to have to return to the dealership SIX times for the SAME problem that they couldn’t figure out. The miles added up, therefore giving her fewer miles on her warranty than she would have had left had they NOT taken so long to figure it out.
How is this being “fishy”??? And again, she’s not looking for any financial gain from them, she just wants to be rid of the car.
It’s beginning to sound as if you are a car salesman, or dealership franchisee.
I apologize for referring to your mom as “Grandma”. I mixed references between yours and another thread that dealt with the OPs grandmother.
Fishy is fishy, as in parts of a story just don’t seem right. Like somebody who’s retired putting 50 K miles on a car in 18 months. When one part doesn;t seem right, I question everything. It’s a bad habit of mone, and I said I might end up owing you an apology for it.
Okay, now I’m confused, what is so fishy about a person putting 48k on a vehicle in well, actually when we first started dealing with the problems it was 18 months, that was 5 months ago, and fewer miles, so it IS actually more now, thanks to all the trips to Dallas. My mistake, it actually wasn’t at 18 months.
Retired doesn’t mean dead you know, nor does tiny, little, sweet, or older person. My mom’s got an older sister in San Antone, she drove from California, she lives 11 miles out in the country from the little tiny town near where she does live.
She may be older, and retired, but she’s very vibrant and active. She goes to see her sister (4 some odd hours each way, not sure of the mileage, we Alaskans do things in “how long does it take” :D), she drives into town to the gym, and the senior center, and occasionally for partime jobs.
I don’t get what’s so “fishy” about putting a lot of miles on a car, ESPECIAlLLY for a retired person who’s got a lot of time on their hands. I could easily count up 3000 a month, and I worked, and frequently used my car as a work rig on projects. I taught several PE and dance classes, and also worked a fulltime job. I used to use the trip counter, and would end up with a few thousand a month.
I’m not trying to be nasty in return here, I’m just truly perplexed. Is it some sort of rule in the states that you can only put some many miles on a month or something?
OH, and I don’t mind at ALL the “I am not getting the whole picture” questioning, just the 'fishy" sounds like you believe the person is being untruthful. I am likely guilty of not putting it down clearly enough. Or lining out the order well enough, but I am certainly not being dishonest.
Just irritated, and venting without stopping to make certain it was all spelled out perfectly. Not the best way to rant, I agree, but I am not being “fishy” here.
Well, most people only put on 12-15k miles a year. 33k miles in one year (= 50k miles in 1.5 years) is a lot.
So the car has 48K on it now. Just when does your mom own the fucking car?
Jesus Christ on a crutch, man. The lemon law was written for people who got a lemon from the factory. After 48K it is pretty safe to say that this is not a factory defect. You can argue that you are dealing with mechanics that don’t know their ass from 3rd base, and I would agree, but arguing that this sucker is a lemon is a weak rant at best.
As far as the move to Texas goes, I went off the info in the OP 'K? :wally
Oh and your it would not cost them anything to take the car back is pure BS.
First off if they take the car back, the tittle will be branded (most states not sure about TX) a car with a branded tittle is worth much less than a similar car with a clear tittle.
::: Checks blue book for a KIA with a branded tittle and high miles:::
Here it is, your mom’s car is worth $1.75.
Even without a branded tittle, you can’t do simple math and complain that KIA is screwing your mom.
::: Pulls some numbers from my ass for illustration purposes:::
Let’s say your mom’s car is worth $6,000. She owes $7,000 As you said in your post she is upside down. Now let me see if I get this right
So let’s do the math shall we?
Your mom returns KIA forgives loan (Note: it would have to be KIA since the repairing dealer was not the selling dealer) KIa is out (7,000)
Dealer does smog, safety, and minal recon (1,000)
Dealer sells car to someone 6,000
Comission to salesman ( 300) (guess)
Total (2,300)
If the dealer wholesaled the car the numbers would only get worse.
Since a dime != $2,300 dollars I guess you are right 
If your mom is upside down the KIA would be upside down. What part of this isn’t clear? :wally
To answer your question
Ethically yes, they are honoring the warranty aren’t they?
Morally? Yes same answer
Good faith? They have offered to replace the entire door. In all my years in the business I have never seen a car company replace a door. Parts in a door sure, but the entire door? Never. Sounds to me like they are trying to work with you.
Oh yeah and one more thing if your dear sweet retired mom drives 33,000 miles a year, a trip to the dealership is a drop in the bucket.
For your general fund of info, retired people generally as a group put a lot less miles on their car than the avergage person. From personal experience retire people usually put less than 7,500 miles, so 33K a year is way over the top for an retired person.
If I were in your shoes, I would take KIA up on their offer to replace the door. When the car is ready I would go to the dealership and run the window up and down about 25 times in a row with the service manager in attendence. If the window fails, don’t take the car. If the window passes, you are good to go.
Oh yeah one more thing, here have a nice steaming cup of STFU
I’ve been back and forth from Virginia to Ohio and vice versa - a 700 mile trip each way - at least ten times last year, and several times from Ohio to VA this year - same distance. My car is eighteen months old and has about 15,000 miles on it. I’m flabbergasted how ANYONE can out 48K miles on a car in the same period of time. I drive a LOT and love to go out of town, etc - and putting 48K miles in 18 months is a strange thing to me.
I’m sorry your mother got a lemon, but I have to disagree with your statement that ALL Kias are lemons - three of us in this thread have said otherwise. I love my little car and aside from a flat tire (due to glass in the driveway) and one noise in my car that freaked me out (but was fixed, under warranty, within 24 hours by the local Kia dealership), I haven’t had much issue with it. And I have to agree with Rick - after 48K miles, it’s PAST the Lemon Law period - I’m sorry, but I think a true lemon would have crashed and burned within 10,000 miles.
Ava
Some people have different ideas about what a lemon is. If she has had the same problems many times during the 48k miles, then the car is a lemon to me. If the problems all cropped up at around the end of the time period, then it’s wear. Premature wear admittedly, but what do you expect for a car that costs less that a used hanky.
I had the exact same problem with my Saturn. Something like 15 window “repairs” in 18 months at 25 bucks a pop. The damn thing never worked. The dome light also fell out everytime you closed to door. Don’t know why the hell they couldn’t manage to fix that.
The mechanical problems started setting in around 70k miles and, all told, even at $345 a month payments, I spent more on repairs for that car than I spent on the actual car.
I can’t even LOOK at a Saturn now without getting pissed off.
Do what I did and get a Honda Accord. Mine is five years old, over 100,000 miles on the odometer and still runs like a charm with no problems since I first got it home eight months ago.