Complaint Rating:

Company information:
Kia Motors
United States
kia.com

I have a 2002 KIA Sedona with 54, 000 miles on it, bought it new so I am the only owner of this piece of crap. All scheduled maint. has been done by authorized KIA dealers. I took it in for its 60, 000 mile maint. check-up and was told that the timing belt needed to be replaced. After looking in the Warranty book I found that this is considered a part of the 100, 000 mile power train warranty so I approved the work, thinking that it was covered under warranty as stated on page 4 in the booklet under Power train coverage. To my surprise when I went to pick it up after 2 days, I was hit with a $600 timing belt charge with labour. After a long discussion with the service manager with no results, I called KIA Customer service in California. I was told that the timing belt was not covered because it was worn and since it is rubber it gets worn out, however if the new belt broke, they may cover that. I read this dummy who could hardly speak English word for word from the booklet that says the timing belt is included in the 120 month/100, 000 mile warranty. She then asked me if I felt that they should be required to replace the tires too if they were worn out. I told her this was a completely different situation, their service techs said the belt was bad and needed to be replaced, and this is a warranty part and she again said that this belt wearing out is considered normal wear and tear, so it is not covered. I told her every part on the vehicle has wear and tear so what was her point in that statement. She told me that rubber wears so it is not covered and the dealership was well within its rights to charge me for replacement. I asked her what kind of warranty plan do you people have. She then said if the belt had actually broke it may be covered under certain circumstances. I told her that was the dumbest thing I have ever heard to allow a belt that the dealership said was about to break before they might consider it under certain circumstances, I asked her what circumstances, and she said it is on a case per case basis. If I would have said do not replace it and it broke, they would then tell me that we were advised to replace it and since we didn't it was our fault. Talk about a bunch of double talk. Why put this part in the warranty booklet if it is not covered? I told her when my headlight went out on my Explorer, Ford picked up the tab 100% with labour and that went out because of normal wear and tear, but she again went off on how rubber wears and so they could not cover that. I will never buy another KIA ever.