Talked to the dealership this morning. Turns out I have a broken belt on my right front tire. How the hell the first dealership could have missed that is beyond me, but whatever. I’m having my dad call to deal with them since technically the car is in his name (he bought the car before I moved, I took over the payments) and I know nothing about cars. The guy’s telling me it’s not covered under the warranty, but since it’s a defective tire, it should be covered. Then he tried to get me to buy all four new tires - not gonna happen. Aside from us not having the money, it’s not necessary.
So, I’ll let my dad call and hopefully we can pick the car up on Wednesday night (the dealership is an hour and a half away from here). I’ll have to rely on my husband to drop me off to work the next two days (we’re going early to the polls tomorrow so I can vote first thing and not have to worry about having someone take me), then my co-worker said she can give me a ride home tomorrow afternoon.
I am not happy. And Kia won’t give me a rental car. Ugh. I like my little car since I’m not one who needs all the bells and whistles (give me a CD player and A/C, and I’m happy), but I’m highly annoyed that I’ve had this many problems with it in a year and a half. I think we’ll be looking for a Honda next.
First, the serious side. Glad they found what the problem was. Tires are usually not covered by the auto manufacturer’s warranty, but they are covered by a separate, tire manufacturer’s warranty. It might be prorated for the mileage (i.e., if only one-quarter of the tire’s expected life was gone, they’ll cover you for three-quarters of the cost of a new tire). And you’re right, unless you’ve put an awful lot of miles on that car already (like at least 30k), you shouldn’t need four new tires. If you have some serious mileage, however, it might be worth doing two new tires (the faulty one and its partner, be it front or rear), just to keep things balanced (better handling, more even braking, etc.)
Now, for the <Insert Kia joke here> item. You know why they put rear window defoggers on Kias? It’s to keep your hands warm while you’re pushing them.
That’s been my experience with tires. Somehow, I got a sorta-circular cut in the sidewall of one of my tires (like I caught a piece of loose metal in a chain-link fence and it went around in the tire until it disengaged.) Not enough for it to go really flat to any noticable amount, but enough to do funny things to the handling. It was caught when I was having something else looked at, so I took it back to where I got the tires and they replaced that one, prorated. There hadn’t been a lot of wear on the tire, so it worked just fine to replace that one.
So, yeah, look into just replacing that one tire if it’s under warranty. What with pro-ration and all, you’re probably looking at no more than 20 bucks.
Of course, neither of us has properly credited the source (I believe) of the gag - Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers (the Car Talk guys, Tom and Ray Magliozzi). The target of the joke was originally the Dodge Omni, IIRC.
For Kia? Impossible, I know you said you wanted to head off the Kia haters, but their incredibly piss poor customer service and refusal to stand behind their product is second only to the cars’ so-called quality in pisspoorness.
Stand firm, make them give you a loaner, show them your paperwork proving it’s in your warrenty, and go to the operations manager if you have to, and document everything that they do. Keep all copies of their failed attempts to fix it and so on. Best of luck to you.
There are several websites dedicated to Kias and “outing” their lack of quality to the media, I think the most prevalent one is called “Don’t Buy a KIA” but I’m sorry I don’t remember the URL offhand.
I can see how they could have blown this one. The tire was probably opening up only after a long time at highway speeds. The mechanic was looking for something wrong with the drivetrain, suspension or whatever when he took it on a test drive, and he didn’t take it on a long drive because he makes no money for taking test drives. It sucks, and I think the only workaround is Rick’s suggestion of insisting that the service rep goes on a test drive with you, if you can convince them to do it.
Out of curiousity, was the rental car offered as a part of KIA’s warranty… which doesn’t cover tires?
Yes, the rental was part of Kia’s warranty. And no, the tire wasn’t covered. We made do - my husband was able to drop me off at work in the mornings and my co-worker gave me a ride home. I didn’t have any problems.
Update - We picked up the car this morning - first chance we had to get to the dealership in Shelby. Nice guys at the dealership, but more importantly, on the entire hour and a half ride home, the car did NOT shake, the car did NOT make that noise one time (and this was at speeds of 75 MPH, when it usually does), and it drove like a dream. It felt like it was a lot tighter than usual. So I’m pleased with the fix.
I am not pleased with Kia, but there’s nothing I can do about it. Personally, I don’t think the tire should be fucked up like that that soon, but whatever. I’m just glad it’s fixed.
And we’re seriously talking about selling the car in another year or so and buying either a used Honda Civic or a Civic Hybrid, depending on our money status. Now I know the importance of getting a decent car.
As the owner of a Kia, I can tell you this is indeed the case; the tires are covered by a separate warranty. And I note, to all the Kia detractors, that while the service offered by Avabeth’s dealer was indeed somewhat less than satisfactory, the ultimate problem was found not to lie with the vehicle manufacturer. So, nyah.
We’ll hafta see how my car holds up over the next couple years; it may be that I’ll hafta eat my words. I’ve got over 22,000 miles on mine - in less than eight months.
Ava, I went from a KIA Sephia to a Honda Civic. I bought my KIA for the same reason you did. It was cheap and my credit wasn’t the best. After paying all of my KIA payments on time, my credit improved and I wound up getting a great deal on a new Civic (back in 2001). I’ve had the Civic for about 3 years now and I love it. Difference is night and day including my experience with the service department. Glad to hear you and Mr. Avabeth are back on the road.
His car, as he likes to point out, has never had a problem. :rolleyes: :wally
But I’m on my way to a new job (hopefully - I have two fantastic prospects right now), and as soon as I get one, I’ll be able to get my bills paid off faster and rebuild my credit. We’re buying a house (with his credit only - his is spotless), so I’m hoping that will help. I had a Honda out of college (1997) and I LOVED it - I would buy another one in a heartbeat!
And hijacking my own thread, but I did a doubletake at your name - my sweet Isabella cat died a month ago, and we used to call her Izzybella, or Izzy, for short. So your screen name gave me a bit of wistful nostalgia over my girl - even a month later, I still miss her like crazy. Great username to choose:).
Man, I logged on to one of those KIA complaint boards, and it is amazing! I had no idea those cars were so bad. What really amazed me…so many problems at low miles…one poor guy had his brakes fail at 3000 miles. High number of brake failures and all kinds of body and electrical problesms.
I guess the Koreans are running their auto factories like we did in the 1970’s-ship EVERYTHING, even the crap on the floor!
Really, NO modern car should have the problems that these sh*tboxes seem to have…I would NEVER buy one!