[Raghu M]

Originally Posted by Rahul Rao

He got what he paid for. Normal Hyundai Kia gimmics. Great finishing, lot of electronic gizmos and cost cutting in core engineering.
Not very common but this is not un heard off in Creta either. Rahul

Can't agree more with you. The kind of PR they maintain with top reviewers and the features they throw in on the dashboard, and no one even mentioning about the build quality of the cars anywhere, I mean literally anywhere, this is not surprising. Just curious to know what Kia has to say and how they resolve the problem. The suspension, rims (alloys) everything needs to be thoroughly checked.

[locusjag]

You can't really blame Kia. If the car goes over a deadly pothole at speed, the engine mount can and does give way. My 2011 Dec manufactured Suzuki A Star's engine mounts had to be replaced recently due to exactly such an incident.

Oh wait, I'm comparing a 9 year old compact car with a brand new SUV, aren't I? This is my Richard Hammond moment where I flash all my teeth at you and when James May points out the obvious flaw in what I just said.

[Kochikaran]

Typical. Seems KIA is not the bigger brother but rather the twin brother of Hyundai. When KIA launched in India, I had hoped they would begin some quality to Hyundai cars overall, but the reverse has happened and KIA is turning into another Hyundai. What is the average Indian left with for a sturdy, reliable, fuel efficient, safe and good looking car?

[Latheesh]

Looks like fatigue failure due to stress concentration or material composition issue of the bracket (if this is the case entire batch may have the issue).

Hitting pothole should not cause engine mounting bracket failure. Suspension conponents are for the same reason and they should be the first one to fail.

[saisree]

Where is the picture of the Pothole the car ran into?

Our cars and the manufacturers are very well aware of the pothole ridden roads we have and there would have been a stress test conducted on the parts that are added to the car.

Is the broken part a bracket or its something part of the Engine case? if its the bracket then, its something that can be fixed. But if its the later, then its a serious quality issue in the part manufacturing. One of case or the entire batch is faulty.

Insist to get all the brackets replaced as part of good will. Again, is it possible to get the factory spec fit from the ASC? given these ASC's are pretty new for these kind of businesses. Ask the dealer, if they can get the tech people from KIA's plant to look into the failure and assist in the refitting process.

[fhdowntheline]

While I am concerned about the quality issue in the particular car , I am also surprised more by the brand-bashing that seems to be the norm with even a single incident nowadays. By that token, I should have sold my Fiat Linea on the day I took its delivery with the kind of niggles I faced that day.

[Shreyas_H]

This is an unfortunate incident but I disagree with many comments here. This is no death knell for the brand nor should we brand all Kia vehicles as unreliable, although it does raise QC concerns.

This is most probably a one off incident and similar incidents have also occurred with other brands. I remember when the Jeep compass was launched and a brand new car had it's suspension give away within the first few days. I believe Jeep had replaced the car for the owner.

The important thing to see here will be how Kia responds to this. Hopefully they look into it seriously instead of a high-handed approach.

[JithinR]

Originally Posted by fhdowntheline

While I am concerned about the quality issue in the particular car , I am also surprised more by the brand-bashing that seems to be the norm with even a single incident nowadays. By that token, I should have sold my Fiat Linea on the day I took its delivery with the kind of niggles I faced that day.

Is an engine mount snapping off considered a niggle these days? If so, Hyundai/Kia really have mastered the PR/Marketing game.

Besides, if this is a material batch issue there would be at least a few cars plying on the roads with this same disaster waiting to happen. Better we create enough noise for KIA to silently recall the cars for a "New-Year Special Thank you" service (I don't really expect them to own up to any quality issues).

[Comrade]

I don't like Kia and Hyundai engineering as longevity in any area (body, mechanical, trim etc) was never their USP. But to see a brand new part fail is something else altogether. This is clearly a manufacturing defect due to bad metallurgy. Kia should check the vendor and the batch, and issue recall if necessary.

Also, why are we even asking for size and evidence of the pothole. If it was user error like dropping the car in open man-hole, wouldnt OP have mentioned it already. And wouldn't there be other damage before this part failed. We shouldnt assume anything but I would think many motorists must be using this same road, and any car made for India is expected to bear the brunt of our bad roads.

[romeomidhun]

The Hyundai-Kia saga seems an over-hyped one. An influential group and a fanbase (or competition haters?) can keep the saga alive for some more time - either until it shows its real face or until Kia resolves the issues.

The question is also of maturity. We - and what we get - don't seem to be.

• The premature launch of products cause many issues. Look at the suggestion: Don't buy version:1 of the new car.
• Then there are people who run after new launches and bling, while completely neglecting the basics of the car.
• Now comes the safety discussions - cars at the lowest-priced segments should still be allowed to sell even if it is having low safety features considering the buyers may be upgrading from bikes, but what about high segment cars?

[padmrajravi]

What happened to the original poster is really concerning. But I would not attribute this one incident to completely write off a brand. Hyundai Kia does a lot of things right and that is the reason for their success here. Hyundai has been in India for 20 years now and that can not happen only on the basis of PR.

We have a thread for rust induced chasis failure in Safari Storme and head replacements in Hexa. There is a thread about premature engine failure in XUV500. There is even an Innova with half engine replaced. So none of them are saints. These one off incidents happen with every manufacturer. Failure rate of Hyundai Kia is still better than Tata and Mahindra considering the number of cars sold. They are nowhere close to Toyota, but then you get what you pay for. The brake failure incident is the only concerning one for me. Rest of the incidents are either one off or common across manufacturers.

[fhdowntheline]

Originally Posted by JithinR

Is an engine mount snapping off considered a niggle these days? If so, Hyundai/Kia really have mastered the PR/Marketing game.

There was an incident while driving the car that led to this. It didn't happen just out of the dealer parking lot.

In my case, I had to replace the entire steering unit at the time of driving out my Linea on delivery, due to multiple issues. But eventually everything worked out just fine.

Originally Posted by padmrajravi

What happened to the original poster is really concerning. But I would not attribute this one incident to completely write of a brand. Hyundai Kia does a lot of things right and that is the reason for their success here. Hyundai has been in India for 20 years now and that can not happen only on the basis of PR.

We have a thread for rust induced chasis failure in Safari Storme and head replacements in Hexa. There is a thread about premature engine failure in XUV500. There is even an Innova with half engine replaced. So none of them are saints. These one off incidents happen with every manufacturer. Failure rate of Hyundai Kia is still better than Tata and Mahindra considering the number of cars sold. They are nowhere close to Toyota, but then you get what you pay for. The brake failure incident is the only concerning one for me. Rest of the incidents are either one off or common across manufacturers.

This is exactly the kind of commentary that is required. Although time will tell if Kia is a saint or sinner. Some of the others have gotten away with worse and are still doing pole position in the market.

[GTO]

Hyundai-Kia are most definitely suffering QC issues. As mentioned in our Official Reviews, we have seen niggles with brand new cars from both brands. Had never ever witnessed this in Hyundai review cars till a year or two back. It's either cost-cutting, or compromises while scaling up.

Have hit potholes big & small at speed in all kinds of cars. In the worst case, I have ended up with a damaged tyre or rim, but never a broken engine mount / bracket.

Quite sad.

[torquecurve]

Circa 2011 - I was driving the Vista at night in rain on the Nagar - Kopargaon highway. Smooth stretch, doing high double digit speeds bordering on triple digits when I hit a joint - basically the road had a drop of about a foot and the gap was about a foot or so. Like a trench. The car was wobbling slightly. Was just on the outskirts of Shirdi so decided to drive on till Kopargaon slowly. Made it. In the morning 2 front tyres were flat. Rear rim had a bend. Took it to a tyre shop where he ‘repaired’ the bent rims, tyres were checked and okayed. No other damage!

More recently than that my nano hit a pothole at 60ish - no damage. Experienced the same in my now sold Superb as well (suspension check showed minor damage).

This happening on a Kia Sonet - that too a mount failure is unacceptable. Ideally the first to go would be the rims, followed by suspension, followed by the mount damage. Engine mounts are generally designed to take higher stress (engine vibration and load). Maybe - just maybe - the international version and Indian version could differ on mounts maybe missing rubber (urethane) mounts that act as shock absorbers. It could be a myriad of reasons.

What’s sad is that we are moving away from Mechanical reliability and paying for gizmos. I would take a better engineered car over a ‘connected’ car any day!

[Bibendum90949]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

In our family Hyundai Xcent run just 25k kms (and 10 similar examples of the 1.2 petrol shared with the Sonet that I could find on the forum) - the alternator assembly fell of the car, after the bolt got sheared off.
Why am I not surprised if a load bearing part shears off, especially after an impact! IMHO - Hyundai Kia cars are delicate and need to be treated as such.

A similar case was reported in Seltos too.

Originally Posted by Bibendum90949

This was shared by a friend of mine who owns a Diesel AT Seltos which has clocked 7000 kms so far. He had the serpentine belt fallen off while on the move. He got a low battery warning and pulled over. Guess alternator, water pump etc are driven by the same belt.

See how the component broke away which is surprising for a relatively new car. Must be a defective component I presume. He's waiting for the part to arrive that will take a week, he's told by Kia

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/offic...ml#post4869678 (Kia Seltos : Official Review)