Bought my 2017 Kia Soul from Carmax in Jan 2021. Things have been great with the car, no problems at all until Sept 15, 2022. Noticed a slight knocking that day, and the next day had an oil change scheduled, when the tech called and told me there was metal in the oil. I said well, is that bad? Can I still drive it? He said it's fine, just have it checked out soon and change your oil more often.

I picked it up later that day and drove approximately 10 miles running errands and back home, and the knocking returned. Started it up on Sept 16th, rattling, knocking and clanking was horrible, and only then did then engine light come on. I had it towed to a repair shop that was on my extended warranty plan, and they said it was engine rod bearing failure and that this was a pretty common issue with Kia cars. He called CNA the warranty company to file a claim to cover the repairs, but they said nope, it's a manufacturer issue, Kia has to fix it.

Towed it for a 2nd time to a Kia dealer, they said the repairs are not covered because of a "knock sensor" that was not installed on the car. Never received any notices about a knock sensor. This does not thing to prevent engine failure so it's just a way for Kia to get out of repairing their faulty engines. The dealership, Carmax, Kia corporate all told me it's a "known" issue, and it's just too bad, I have to cover the repairs myself. The estimate for repairs I got from the local shop was $13,000, yes thousand!! dollars to repair it with a USED engine since Kia engines are on backorder. Kia dealer will not give me any written estimate, but they have told me $8800 to fix it. The engine he found has 70K miles on it, which is about the time the engines fail on these cars.

I am stuck with $11,000 in payments on this car, had to buy another car to get me through life and no one will help me. I'm still pursuing it but in the meantime I'm complaining everywhere I can think of about these cars and the horrible service I'm receiving. Everyone tells me "just go off on them". That will get me nowhere, they will just block me from any other interactions.

My research into the well documented engine problems of KIA/HYUNDAI prepared me for the diagnosis from my local Kia service center. Catastrophic engine failure is being denied coverage from Kia and Asurant Warranty.

I’ve made four payments on this car and now I have a remaining loan balance of $22,000. As I learned from reading through an abundance of journalistic research and reports that Kia has skillfully inserted some slippery phrases in their warranties, not favorable to the consumer. Calling Kia America only allowed coverage of an “engine upgrade”, I’ve since learned that the upgrade is a software update that is a “knock sensor”.

I don’t see how that software could have benefited me because I had about three seconds from knock to complete to complete engine failure. There was no instrument warning light or rise in engine temperature. There was, however, less than one quart of oil in the crankcase which presented a mysterious conundrum. The engine did not display any of the typical signs of gasket leaks or oil in my parking spot or blue or white clouds of exhaust smoke or any smell of burning oil.

Do your research because the Theta II DGI 2 Liter California designed engine was planned to revolutionize the baseline for mpg. The new dedicated fabrication plants for this engine represented a significant capital investment that KIA/HYUNDAI are defending ruthlessly. However, so flawed the process was that left metal milling filings in the engines, resulting in oil flow constriction. There really isn’t a comparable adrenaline rush offered by any other auto manufacturers, domestic or foreign.