[RahulNagaraj]

A 2012 Kia Sorento owner made full use of the dealer provided 10-year / unlimited-mile warranty in a very unique way. According to reports, with the dealer-provided unlimited-mile warranty, the owner was able to save tens of thousands of dollars.



While Kia offered a 10-year / 100,000-mile warranty as standard on all cars in 2012, a dealer offered a Sorento customer a bumper-to-bumper unlimited-mile warranty for an additional US$7,000. This dealer-issued warranty expired recently, with the Kia Sorento owner having clocked over 6 lakh miles (9.65 lakh km) on his SUV.

Not only that, over the course of the 10-year unlimited-mile warranty period, the Sorento went through 203 oil changes, 20 transmission flushes, 9 engines & 4 transmissions. This translates to 67,562 miles (1.08 lakh km) per engine and one transmission for every 152,015 miles (2.44 lakh km). The surprising part is that even though the oil was changed every 2,995 miles (4,819 km) on average, all the drivetrain parts failed at some point.



Reports suggest that one engine on the Sorento sets customers back by US$4,500, which adds up to a total savings of US$33,500 (around Rs 26 lakh) for 9 engines & after subtracting the $7000 for warranty paid initially. The savings go even higher when the transmission, transmission fluid, oil changes and all other factors are taken into account.

The Kia Sorento owner is said to have traded in his SUV after the warranty expired.

Source: CarScoops

Link to Team-BHP news

[r24x7]

Originally Posted by RahulNagaraj

9 engines & 4 transmissions. This translates to 67,562 miles (1.08 lakh km) per engine and one transmission for every 152,015 miles (2.44 lakh km). The surprising part is that even though the oil was changed every 2,995 miles (4,819 km) on average, all the drivetrain parts failed at some point.

Does this mean that a KIA engine can only last 1 Lakh Kms on an average? Despite the very shorter oil change interval of 4819 KMs on an average?

Sounds not too good to me.

[AROO7]

Originally Posted by r24x7

Does this mean that a KIA engine can only last 1 Lakh Kms on an average? Despite the very shorter oil change interval of 4819 KMs on an average?

Older Kia models in the United States had abysmal reliability. The main reason why both Kia and Hyundai now give a 10 years / 100,000 miles powertrain warranty as standard. And also Kia in general worked hard to get rid of its unreliable brand image through the years and now realizing the fruit of it. So any new Kia cars are fairly reliable these days by market standards.

[Doge]

Originally Posted by AROO7

Older Kia models in the United States had abysmal reliability. The main reason why both Kia and Hyundai now give a 10 years / 100,000 miles powertrain warranty as standard. And also Kia in general worked hard to get rid of its unreliable brand image through the years and now realizing the fruit of it. So any new Kia cars are fairly reliable these days by market standards.

This is true in Europe too but i thought this is a “new” Kia I believe. Those junky ones were from the early 2000’s, this Sorento is from the time when “Kia/ Hyundai make good cars now” period.
Regardless of all this, the engine dying every 1L kms is awful. How did this guy drive the car, redline 24/7?

[amol4184]

From Reddit thread where CarScoops got the story from:

1. Most engines were replaced because parts inside the engine would simply shatter. While at least once a head gasket was blown.
2. The owner after milking warranty every last drop and then some more, got $1425 on it as trade value.
3. The dealer who accepted it as trade-in is going to keep it in his private collection as some sort of joke.
4. The owner did not buy another Kia (thank god) but he did buy an obscure, completely forgettable Saturn Vue for $18000 + his damn Kia Sorento.
5. Saturn Vue went out of production 12 years ago in 2010 in USA.

This story just keeps getting absurd every passing moment - although many people are wondering how did the body last 600k miles.
Such is/was Kia's reputation in the USA until recently before they started ridiculous warranties on most models. Still, many old timers and Reddit despise Kia/Hyundai.

[Azalactone]

I am not against Hyundai/Kia but the reality is that in the west they were never known for Quality and reliability in the past. Their reputation in USA was same as Tata's reputation in India in the 2000s. Only in recent years i.e. late 2010s they have come up with stunning designs and technology. Infact in the USA only if you can't afford a Toyota, Honda, Nissan you "settle" for a Hyundai/Kia vehicle.

Only in India they have somehow managed to garner a premium reputation over Maruti Suzuki, Tata, Mahindra by offering good quality interior plastics and electronic gimmicky features.

9 engine changes for 9.65 lakh kms is never reliable. I had read on a website that a Toyota Innova in India has done more than a million kms with the same engine.

I am completely convinced their T-GDi engines will give a lot of surprises to owners when they are 6-7 years old or more (I hope my this statement is completely wrong though).

[GTO]

Originally Posted by Azalactone

I am not against Hyundai/Kia but the reality is that in the west they were never known for Quality and reliability in the past.

Not just Kia. Even parent Hyundai was known for junk products right from the Hyundai Excel's launch in the 80s, till the end-90s when they really turned things around. Nothing new. Can you believe that the first Toyotas in the USA were known to be unreliable pieces of junk? Not too many brands start off well. Some OEMs slip-up in the middle as well. Mercedes went on a cost-cutting spree thanks to that idiot Jürgen Schrempp and was known for poor quality, unreliable cars from approximately 1998 till 2010. Ask me about both examples, my sister owned an Excel when she was studying in the States, and we had the dreaded C180 in the early 2000s.

[DicKy]

Originally Posted by GTO

Not just Kia. Even parent Hyundai was known for junk products right from the Hyundai Excel's launch in the 80s, till the end-90s when they really turned things around. Nothing new. Can you believe that the first Toyotas in the USA were known to be unreliable pieces of junk? Not too many brands start off well.

If I read right, it was more to do with the Crownpet's inability to keep up with the highway speeds of USA. Designed for the bad, narrow roads of Japan at that time it was overpriced, slow and had poor NVH at speed for USA roads. Can't call it as unreliable as it was popular in rest of the markets, also the Landcruiser was being built and sold all over the world at the same time.

The only real complaint for Toyota (and most of the Japanese cars) were severe rust issues well into the 90s.

[Jangra]

Like others I’m surprised too about engine change every 1lac kms. With how well the freeways are in the US, smooth roads, transmission and engine should have lasted much longer. News source is authoritative but it still is hard to believe. Not sure how to take this news - Praise Kia for honouring their warranty OR building / selling an unreliable product.

[infotech58]

Kudos to this guy for staying on top of scheduled maintenance and actually keeping all receipts (I assume) to prove that engine/transmission giving up isn't his fault.

[Sen]

Original thread if anyone wants to go through it. Hilarious comments:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Justrolledi...ed_to_offer_a/

[CarJunki]

Apparently this car was a cross country courier vehicle. The question to ask would be, if this is normal wear and tear for this kind of purpose? Like if a car does Blr to Pune and back every day (which means approximately 2000km every 30 hours), would a different make suffer same fate. Of course different driver in different directions.

[GForceEnjoyer]

The Theta II engine in this 2012 Sorento was known for having reliability issues due to design flaws. Over a million cars were recalled in the USA.

• Engine failures: The cause was debris left in the engine during manufacturing eventually impeding oil flow to the rod bearings, accelerating wear and eventually causing them to seize. This usually resulted in complete engine failure, and in cases where it didn't, the cost of a rebuild exceeded the cost of a replacement.

• Excessive oil consumption: There were multiple instances of engines burning over a quart of oil per 1000km, which was one of the reasons for a class action lawsuit.

While the odds were against this engine lasting very long, 9 replacements despite frequent oil changes is quite absurd, as each engine lasted only around 68000 miles on average. There must have been abuse involved, such as towing loads beyond the weight limit or a mechanically taxing driving style in general, since in the original reddit post the OP states that the transmission was replaced 4 times. Interesting to see that the warranty was honoured each time without questions.

[Sounak04]

This news comes as a very big surprise to me.

I'm not saying that Kia/Hyundai make the most reliable engines around, but they definitely do not make engines which are so unreliable.

I have driven a few Hyundai/Kia cars in US which have clocked more than 100k-150k miles and are still on their original Engine and Transmission.

Few months ago, I saw a report about a lady clocking 1 million miles on her Hyundai Elantra without having any major issues.

I think there must be a different side to the story which we are missing.

[condor]

That's just one lakh km per engine ? Our desi vehicles last much longer !

Originally Posted by RahulNagaraj

The Kia Sorento owner is said to have traded in his SUV after the warranty expired.

More than the owner, it must have been the dealership which would have been happy with the owner getting a new car