The contact owns a 2018 Kia Soul. The contact stated that the vehicle intermittently hesitated after a stop. The contact also stated that, occasionally, the accelerator pedal traveled all the way to the floorboard and the vehicle did not accelerate. There was no warning indicator illuminated. When the contact released the accelerator pedal, the vehicle accelerated. The failure recurred several times. The vehicle was taken to bill bryan Kia (352-431-2354, located at 9039 us-441, leesburg, fl 34788) where the technician test drove the vehicle and found no failures. The dealer stated that the vehicle performed as designed. The technician cleaned the turbo, but the failure recurred. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and stated that the dealer test drove the vehicle and found no failures. The failure recurred. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 16,000.

- Tavares, FL, USA

My 2018 Soul has an automatic transmission and from early on after I bought it "new" last year "08/30/2018" the transmission started acting up for no apparent reason. What it does comes out of nowhere it will not speed up when you give it the gas. It hesitates for just a brief second then it moves slower than normal. This happens from a dead stop and while driving in traffic too. It will go along driving perfectly for a while then without any reason it will act sluggish and or stumbles. It can happen when it is cold or well warmed up and in all traffic conditions. The end result is it makes the car dangerous to drive because the person driving does not expect it to falter at very inordinate times. One tends to forget about the problem and then boom your heart skips a beat because you just drove yourself into a potentially dangerous traffic situation. My car now has 5,600 miles and the dealer is just giving me the runaround regarding the problem. I have checked on the internet "Kia forums" and I am far from the only owner to have this dangerous problem. It is like having unreliable brakes. The drivability is unpredictable!

- Greenville, SC, USA

From a stop, the vehicle has a significant hesitation pulling away from a stop sign/redlight etc. As you pushing the gas pedal down, it hesitates then accelerates hard. Has 340 miles on it at this time. Dealer and Kia state this is normal for the new transmission/turbo design. Even the service manager was shocked when he drove it saying he would not have bought it. I would think this problem could be resolved with a programming update. My concern for safety is to part: 1st, anticipating the vehicle may go when in fact it hesitated to pull off creates an anticipation event. 2nd, the hard acceleration when it engages could result in rear-ending someone. The attached documents represent the work order and description of the new transmission. This is a bulletin explaining the drivability concerns, however, it does not reflect the hesitation issue.

- Mauldin, SC, USA