KIA
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Kia awful experience still ongoing
I purchased a Kia Sportage from Hawkins Kia dealership in Hayle, Cornwall in November 2021. This is an approved used vehicle still under warranty. Kia in Hayle serviced the car on 21st June 2022. The car also had its MOT carried out in November 2022. In the summer the car had an issue which Kia in Hayle were able to rectify. At the end of December 2022, whilst away in France, the car broke down on the motorway. It literally lost all power. We crawled to the hard shoulder panicking that another car was going to crash into the back of us whilst we very slowly made our way to the hard shoulder. I also note that my two children aged 5 and 9 were in the back of the car. This happened early evening so it was dark. Of course, we all had to get out of the car on the side of the motorway. My children were very distressed at having to stand outside in the dark, the cold and rain. As were myself and my husband. Luckily a service vehicle pulled over to help us and he contacted a recovery vehicle company. The Kia was towed to a nearby garage. We were in the tow recovery vehicle too and were taken to the garage with the Kia. We then got a taxi from the garage to a nearby hotel. In total we waited around 45 mins to an hour to be rescued. The next morning we contacted Kia which in itself was a challenge. We were informed that as the car is still under guarantee that ideally it would need to be repaired by a Kia repair centre. Otherwise if a non Kia repair centre carried out the repairs, the guarantee would be invalidated. Of course I appreciate this and it makes complete sense. We then had to pay yet more money for the Kia to be towed from the original garage to the Kia garage. We have been told it will take approx 2 weeks for the car to be fixed. Now luckily my parents live in france although approx a 3 hour drive from where we broke down. So my parents drove to the hotel we stayed the night in to pick up myself and my children. My husband remained at the hotel to see what else, if anything could be sorted out with the car. Also I believe at that point that not all the arrangements had been made. Now I am sure you will appreciate that we cannot just stay in France for 2 or more weeks. Both myself and my husband have jobs to get back to. The children need to go to school. Not to mention we have pets to get back to also. As such, we have had to make alternative arrangements to get us all home. Then we will somehow have to come back to France to get the Kia back once it is fixed. Now bearing in mind we live in Cornwall, it isn’t exactly a quick journey to get to France to get the Kia back. We have also been told that we can’t have a courtesy car, again, because we are abroad. We are significantly out of pocket as a result of this situation. We had to pay for the Kia to be towed to the first garage, then to be towed to the Kia garage, then for a taxi from the original garage to the hotel, then the hotel stay, then the alternative arrangements to get us home. Then we will have to pay yet more money to get back to France to pick up the Kia then back to the U.K. again! I am sure you will agree that this is unreasonable to expect that we foot the bill for all this. For any of this! Just to note, the car is still in france with Kia! We purchased the car from a Kia main dealership, the car is approved used, the car is up to date with its servicing and MOT, the car is under warranty, it has done under 50,000 miles. We purchase our cars from main dealers because we feel we have more security and assurances and guarantees. We spend more money to purchase our cars from main dealerships rather than just any random car dealer garage. We do this because we expect more care and we expect quality. We expect that if something should go wrong that we will be looked after. Thus far, we don’t feel that we have been looked after at all. I hope that you can change my opinion of Kia by helping us in this awful and extremely stressful situation. As you may imagine, we have lost all confidence in the car. I don’t feel that having 2 problems, one relatively minor and one major within a year and a month of purchase is reasonable. I am sure you will agree that this is not something that anyone should have to contend with;