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You bought the car as is. Unless you can prove fraud you are not likely to get anywhere with threats or even a lawsuit. Lawsuits are costly and can take years.
What can be effective is get a permit and picket the dealership. Make sure your sign only says opinions, feelings or facts you can absolutely prove without and doubt. Feelings are the best. "I feel cheated by Tricky Dick Cars" they cannot content you are lying, it is how you feel. They cannot stop you. As long as you get a permit from the city or township or whatever, you are free to picket. Figure each day you picket reverses the benefit of $5,000 - $10,000 of advertising. If the local news or newspaper comes out ant takes a picture, then it jumps to about ten times that amount. In my experience, they will suddenly become very reasonable in resolving the problem (sometimes buying back the car at the purchase price).
I'll make this as condensed as possible as your time is valuable.
About a year ago, I bought a used 2013 Soul from a Hyundai dealer locally with about 59K on it.
With 63K on it, I've been told it has a blown head gasket by my very honest mechanic.
Not only that but the vehicle had blown the head gasket before and was apparently repaired poorly prior to my purchase. There is no evidence of who repaired it.
The repair says my garage is a used engine (since parts of it were previously shot) with an estimate of about $4300.
Not only that but there was NO mention of any of this on the CarFax prior to purchase.
Not only that but the extended warranty company refuses to cover this citing "overheat damage."
They do not respond to my emails or phone calls either.
I'll be heading to the dealership later this week to discuss the matter.
Meanwhile, I have no vehicle and a payment schedule for a non-driveable car plus a business that demands regular USPS runs.
Has anyone any thought on my predicament other than filing with state consumer protection for both dealership & warranty company?
Should KIA, the company be involved in this? If so, who/where is the best place to start?
If you have additional questions to ask me, I'm happy to answer.
You hear these stories and figure it'll never happen to you.
Well, here I am and it really stinks.
TIA
Steve
You bought a used car, Kia is out & the dealership is likely out unless they actually did the "bad" repair. As there was apparently no outward sign of damage when you bought the car, and as *you* apparently didn't do anything to cause the car to overheat, I'd get the repair done & sue the warranty company for the bucks in small claims court. Odds are probably 50/50 you win. Grumbling, whining & moaning at the dealer or Kia isn't going to get you fixed.
I just ran the carfax. I bought this car in Feb 2017. For April 2017 there is a REPAIR fix for a blown head gasket from a garage 30 miles away that I never heard of.
Needless to say, this is BS x 1000 if you're following where this going.
And I will look into the engine price and find out through my shop why the repair price is what it is.
Very strange. Even for secondary owners, the factory warranty is 5 years or 60k miles. I would call Kia and give them your VIN# and see if there has been any denied warranty claims.
you didn't mention which engine and if it has start/stop... I assume the popular 2.0 without start/stop, you can get an engine with a warranty for less than $1000 and its only 90 minutes away from you.. you should be at under $2300 with the engine and installation.
you have an out of warranty car... just fix it or dump it..
Not the fault of Kia unless it was a Kia dealership you bought the car from. Sounds as if the previous owner was either hard driving or ignorant of vehicle maintenance. The previous owner probably damaged the engine through neglect or hard driving. It’s the risk one takes when buying used.
Since writing the original note, I've been face-to-face with both the dealership (who basically threw me out) and with the shop listed as repairing the head gasket for the first time.
I realize that this sounds like something that "doesn't add up" but I'll try to make this clearer. I'm no fool but at the same time, my knowledge of vehicle mechanics is limited.
1. Neither the dealership nor the repair shop listed on the carfax would take any responsibility for the current state of the vehicle (damaged engine thanks to previous negligent repair of a blow head gasket. The dealership blamed the repair shop and the repair shop blamed carfax.
2. I contacted carfax (beware no phone #) asking them about two entries on the document that were NOT there at the time of purchase. They haven't contacted me back after repeated attempts.
BTW I am the 3rd owner of this vehicle.
What "tipped off" the whole thing was that the ac began running hot and the temp gauge crept up to H about a month ago. When my shop looked at it (it technically didn't 'overheat' at least not during my ownership) determined that not only had the head gasket been blown but that it had blown previously and repaired negligently which permanently damaged the engine.
Who knows when the block was damaged?
It might have been the 1st time the vehicle was re-started after repair-months(year?) before I bought it.
I had ZERO issues for the 1.5 yrs I owned it and only put 5K miles on it-90% local driving except (interesting) a leaky radiator when I purchased the vehicle. (NOTE: That "pre-me" repair shop also "fixed" the radiator, remember?)
No aggressive anything was done by me that would void a warranty or cause damage.
---
Here is what I know now.
1. The car was involved in an accident in 2016. The original carfax DID NOT contain this information. The entry has a 2016 date on it so it was backdated. This is what the dealership points to in saying that it has zero responsibility. I say that if it left their possession with an obvious radiator problem (from a previous negligent repair), they didn't inspect it worth a damn and that checking the state of an engine before putting a vehicle up for sale is pretty darn important.
2. Supposedly the damage to the vehicle involved a blown head gasket and a busted radiator. However, the repairs aren't noted on the carfax until 2 months AFTER I purchased the car (in 2/2017!) and obviously many many months after the vehicle was supposedly in an accident.
The dealership has the original CarFax printed on the day of purchase which it shared but refused to copy for me. It contains neither the notation for the accident or the "fantom" 2017 repair.
WHAT I'VE DONE:
1. I got a partial reimbursement from the warranty company which went to my repair shop. I'm covering the rest of the repair for now. I realize for some the repair estimate was high especially the cost of the engine. However, when factoring in my shop's responsibility for the engine from their "trusted" (rather than hassling with some ebay merchant) I think the extra money is well spent.
2. Once the car is back operating I'm filing a complaint with 2 state attorney generals (carfax is in VA) and make every effort to get full reimbursement for the repair.
3. I decided that my best course of action was fork out the remainder of the repair and then move with full force in a position of strength to secure reimbursement. The leverage will be with the attorney generals and/or local media.
Maybe I'm kidding myself that anyone gives a rat's ass about less than a $5K claim where someone besides me should pay, but most of the documentation is already written as well as a solid timeline.
As for whether KIA should be responsible with their 10/10 I just figured that because this was negligently repaired by a 3rd party (even though not authorized by me) that would probably void any warranty. I get that if the head gasket blew for the first time during MY ownership that warranty would most likely apply. But we're now talking about replacing an engine due to the negligence of a 3rd party as opposed to a "simple" blown head gasket.
I expect the car back tomorrow from my shop (with "new" engine) but who knows?
Feel free to continue to ask questions.
One of the reasons I've posted this really effed up scenario is to perhaps spare one of you something like this.
if I'm successful, there's at least a strategy in place to try to recoup what is yours against those who engage in unethical conduct.
I hate it when people take no responsibility for their ignorance or their conduct and play "victim."
During my 60 years I've rarely played that card. But here, I'm getting what is due or at least will try.
If I'm guilty of anything it's of not canceling the deal when there was the radiator problem on my 2nd day of ownership. That should have been a sign of bad things to come.
If you bought the car used,the warranty is 5/60. Several car warranties won’t cover head gasket. If Kia did not do the repair, they aren’t liable at all.
But time to take another shot at learning how to purchase a used car.
I don't purchase a used car that has had any paint work. IE - accidents. I can tell within 60 seconds if there has been any paint work - accidents. If you don't have that skill then one needs to take to body shop for a look around and/or a trusted mechanic/shop.
On another note. Have read multiple stories about how great KIA/Hyundai is with the infamous 10 year 100,000 mile warranty.
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