NHTSA complaint #11767293

Owner complaint summary

My daughter's 2020 Kia Sportage S was purchased September 22, 2025 from a Nissan Dealership with 96,574 miles on it. It dove great. She used it less than 20 miles per day on residential streets to get to and from work and to church on Sunday. It was not used for interstate or freeway driving. By June of 2026, we noticed that it was requiring more oil between oil changes. The oil level was checked at least once every other week to see if more oil needed to be added. We were adding about a quart of oil every two to three weeks although there was no evidence of excess smoke coming from the exhaust. Then on my daughter's way to work on August 13, 2026 she experienced a sudden shaking of the car and the engine light came on. She immediately pulled over and turned off the engine. We were out of town at the time so my son came to see what was wrong with the car. He checked the engine oil first and it was within the right level. The car was limped to the local Kia dealership to trouble shoot it and they said that there was evidence of rod/bearing failure in one cylinder that was causing the shaking. There is no fix for it other than to replace the engine at a dealer discounted price of $6,600. Kia corporate is offering a $1,000 credit toward the repair and the dealership is contributing $4,040 to the engine replacement. The car has 103,510 miles on it now. The Theta II 2.4 engine had an engine settlement that covered model years through 2019. Ours is a 2020 that was built in May 2019 and has the same engine that failed under the engine settlement. But ours is not covered. We are still in the process of working with the local Kia Dealership and Kia Corporate to make it right on an engine that clearly has known problems causing premature engine failures. I have owned or recommended to family members to buy Kia/Hyundai vehicles and between all of us we have had 13 Kia/Hyundai vehicles. This may be the last Kia/Hyundai vehicle that we own...