busybee fluffy rambles

Backstory

The 2019 Kia Niro EV has a design flaw which causes an estimated 2% of vehicles to develop a grinding noise in the reduction bearing (commonly referred to as the “Wheel of Fortune click”), which in turn can lead to drivetrain failure. This issue usually appears at around 60,000 miles.

When I test-drove my (used) 2019 Niro back in January, I made sure that there was no reduction bearing noise, but as the car was approaching 60,000 miles, I opted to buy an extended warranty so that if this issue did occur, it would be paid for. Kia’s own warranty situation around this is confusing; the car has two different warranty periods depending on whether you’re the primary or secondary owner, and while the drivetrain warranty should still be active for me, Kia has historically tried to claim that this issue is not covered by the drivetrain warranty.

Anyway, about a month ago, I started to hear a faint click, and over the ensuing weeks, the click got louder and more concerning. So, I took the car in to be evaluated and, ideally, repaired.

Current status

When I dropped the car off on Tuesday, they told me that they would hopefully be able to get me back in my car by the end of the day. Knowing the nature of the TSB I found this highly unlikely.

Half an hour later they called and said, oh yeah, this TSB involves the EV system and will require detailed evaluation, and they’d be able to tell me more on Wednesday. I said, yeah, I figured and was expecting that, just let me know as soon as possible since this is my only car and I need to figure out if I need to rent a car in the meantime or not.

Wednesday was complete radio silence. So I called in the afternoon to get a status update.

Thursday morning I got a response: oh yeah, they only have one EV technician, and that technician has been out sick, so nobody’s been able to look at it, but the tech was “looking at it right now.” Fine, stuff happens.

All of Thursday and Friday passed without any updates, so Friday afternoon I contacted them again to ask if there’s any updates. No response from the “service advisor.”

Saturday morning I get an email from the dealership telling me that my car is in high demand and they want to talk about buying it back from me for use as a trade-in, and that they are going to offer me “110% of the market value.” I’m not terribly interested in that but I figure I’d find out what they’re going to offer me anyway, just out of curiosity.

This sets off a process where their used car person gets in touch with me asking me what car of theirs I’m interested in and he’s just like, totally fucking clueless about the nature of this thing. I explain to him that I’m not looking to trade in, I’m just curious about what the offer would be. Used car person tries to get me to take the car in and provide information and so on and I clarify that they already have the car and they’re working on it, and I’m not actually interested in this, but since they’re making an offer, please let me know.

A couple hours later, he gets back to me with an asininely low offer: he says that the “market value” is now only $11,000.

Which is, of course, complete fucking bullshit as even KBB’s lowest estimate for the same car is $17,000.

So I assume that what’s going on here is that they have evaluated the car as needing a $6000 repair (which is, you know, why I have the extended warranty) and are trying to strongarm me into dumping it or something.

Anyway my response was “Absolutely not, but thanks for looking into it.”

I still have no idea about the status of my car but I can guess, based on the estimate, what the expected repair is going to be. And perhaps there’s now an indication that they aren’t all that interested in actually fixing it, which would be, y'know, pretty fucking unfortunate.

In the meantime, I don’t drive often but when I drive it’s because I need to do so. My extended warranty covers a rental car at up to $40/day (which barely covers an economy shitbox around here) and only for up to 5 days. So if I’m going to take advantage of that part of the warranty I really need to know that it’ll be worthwhile.

I have a bunch of projects that involve hauling building supplies, which I can’t do on a bus (or using an economy shitbox, for that matter). I also have a choir-related show coming up very soon, and would like to be able to get to it (although I do have a standing offer for a carpool ride to that at least). I also have a potential upcoming gallery show which would require me to be able to get downtown, which would also be obnoxious (although not impossible) to do by bus, although that’s at least not for a couple more weeks.

If Kia decides they can’t actually repair my car, though, it’s incredibly unethical and shitty for them to try undercutting me on the cost like that. That’s not how a fucking dealership buy-back works.

I also rather want this car back! Aside from this one defect, the Niro is my favorite car ever. I’m also not about to buy a second fucking car (or spend oodles of money on a rental while I wait for my car to get back to me). Nor am I able to switch to non-car-based locomotion.

I’m just, like, supremely disappointed in the lack of communication and understanding that’s coming from the Kia dealership, here.

Now, if Kia wants to offer me a loaner in the meantime, at no cost to me, that’d be great! But that’s never been on the table. Maybe I could call them and ask, though. Because this is getting frustrating.

Above all else, I want my freaking car back.