Hey Scotty,
My friend's parents in Ontario, Canada recently leased two fully loaded midsize SUVs, one was a 2022 Mitsubishi Outlander (made in Japan and basically a Nissan Rogue underneath it) and the other was a 2021 Kia Sorento (made in the USA in Georgia) and both stickered for around $50 000 CAD. They loved both of them until one and a half months into ownership the Kia started to go haywire and was having so many problems at 6500 km whereas the Outlander had 7300 km was flawless. Both have 2.5 direct injection 4 cylinder engines, but the Kia is turbocharged and the Outlander is NA and all I can say is that the Kia was a headache for them. The Kia had engine and transmission problems, where the turbo crapped out and that was thankfully replaced under warranty, then they continued driving it and the wet dual-clutch transmission (that's what Kia calls it) that was in the Sorento was acting up where they put it into reverse and it wouldn't even move at all, so they had to get it towed to the Kia dealership and now they are getting ripped off by being told that it was their fault it won't reverse and now they have been quoted $7000 for a new transmission even though they are still under warranty which I find very ludicrous. Now they don't know what to do with the Sorento and they wished that they never leased one. I even read reviews online and consumers were not happy with the new Sorentos compared to the Outlander, Rogue, CR-V, Rav4, Murano, Forester, Ascent, Passport, Venza, CX-5, and CX-9. Should they try to find a way to get Kia to buy it back and just live with the Outlander or do you have any other suggestions?
I can't even recommend leasing Kia/Hyundai products like the Sorentofrom from now on because of what happened to them.
Be thankful that they leased a Kia instead of bought it! What they need to do is to get the Kia dealer to exchange the crappy Kia for a better example. Unfortunately, my understanding is that the Canadian "lemon law" situation is an arbitration system. Tell them to document their problems in exhaustive detail.
I might see if a local television station would do a story on their dilemma - nothing like a news crew arriving at the dealership to motivate a dealer to address a problem.
Yes even I have to say the turbo's are a problem. I was at the dealer the other day a saw a pile of used short blocks with cracks and holes in a corner of the mechanics bay. Was told they were the turbos from just this year alone. I have a 2021 2.4L GDI non turbo and it is running just fine going on 10K. I had a Santa Fe from 2011 with a non-turbo 4 and it lasted 150K. I traded it in on the Kia and it sold for nearly what I paid for it new 10 years ago. The turbo's are giving Kia and Hyundia a big black eye. I had a 2008 Hyundia Veracruze with a V6. I traded that in with 300K on it and it did not burn a drop of oil. The only major repairs were a steering rack and wheel hubs. It had the usual shocks and bushings that rotted away and started clunking but that's par for the coarse. I wish they would bring back the V6. They were super quiet with power to spare. They were little piggish on gas.
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