Kia Stands by 10-Year Warranty
Kia is on a roll with strong sales, but it aims to stick with its vaunted 10-year warranty. Executives at the Korean automaker stood by the 100,000-mile powertrain policy — mirroring Hyundai's defense of the same warranty last year amid questions as to whether it was still necessary.
"We continue to get the cross-shopping set," said Tom Loveless, Kia's U.S. sales chief. "Customers who are continuing to purchase other brands who are coming to Kia expressly for [the warranty] ... actually make the decision to purchase because of the warranty coverage. I see no reason to change. It's part of the Kia recipe."
"We're growing in the meat-and-potato segments," Loveless said. He expects the boxy Soul to find more than 100,000 buyers for the second year in a row as the brand builds on its 22nd consecutive monthly sales record.
But some of that encroaches on Hyundai, which bought a controlling stake in then-bankrupt Kia a decade ago. Bloomberg News noted as much earlier this year, and the carmakers have competing products in a number of segments. Kia's Rio, Forte and Optima sedans compete respectively with Hyundai's Accent, Elantra and Sonata.
Michael Sprague, vice president of U.S. marketing at Kia, says there's "not as much [competition] as there used to be, quite honestly." Sprague said shoppers compare the Optima to the Sonata, but the Toyota Camry ranks No. 2. Shoppers compare the Kia Sorento SUV, meanwhile, to the Toyota RAV4 most often — not a Hyundai.
The popular Kia Soul remains without a Hyundai equivalent while Hyundai's Veloster and Genesis Coupe don't have similar variants in Kia showrooms.
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It's the Quoris now, not K9. And it matches up with the Equus, not the Genesis.
WTF,
Thanks for the heads-up. Filed the story before the Quoris news broke. Sprague and Loveless wouldn't comment on K9/Quoris coming here last week, so we cut the mention.
Kelsey
In my opinion (based on experience), the highly advertised and self-proclaimed "America's Best Warranty" endlessly touted by Hyundai and Kia is quite frankly a sham. Basically they make millions on this fictitious claim which has little or no merit base because they rarely ever pay out on it. Of course they will have you jump through hoops on maintenance records for even none maintenance failure. If ever you vehicle's engine prematurely fails they will deceive you with claims that the cause was not a "Drive Train" issue. For example, say at 7 years/78k miles an intake manifold “butterfly” valve falls off and into your engine and it blows... Ask them if that is covered under their "Best Warranty"?...
World Auto Group (DMV Facility ID#: 7096963), d/b/a Autoworld Kia, 2520 Hempstead Turnpike, East Meadow New York 11554, Tel.: 516-935-7449, autoworldkia@yahoo.com just handed me a $9,000 repair bill!
Bottom line……. Stay with the "Good Guys".
In my opinion (based on experience), the highly advertised and self-proclaimed "America's Best Warranty" endlessly touted by Hyundai and Kia is quite frankly a sham. Basically they make millions on this fictitious claim which has little or no merit base because they rarely ever pay out on it. Of course they will have you jump through hoops on maintenance records for even none maintenance failure. If ever you vehicle's engine prematurely fails they will deceive you with claims that the cause was not a "Drive Train" issue. For example, say at 7 years/78k miles an intake manifold “butterfly” valve falls off and into your engine and it blows... Ask them if that is covered under their "Best Warranty"?...
World Auto Group (DMV Facility ID#: 7096963), d/b/a Autoworld Kia, 2520 Hempstead Turnpike, East Meadow New York 11554, Tel.: 516-935-7449, autoworldkia@yahoo.com just handed me a $9,000 repair bill!
Bottom line……. Stay with the "Good Guys".
Kia rejects warrant claims by default. I brought my car(original owner) to the dealer with what appeared to be a wheel bearing problem, 98,300 miles. Been a great car, followed all maintenance according to the service manual. Called me back 2 days later and said it was internal transmission damage, manual transmission. When was the last time somebody heard of a modern manual trans failing? After getting the run around for almost a month, they tell me that I should have been following the severe service schedule because I live in New York.... The car has had an easy life, well cared for and garaged. So, Kia warranty isn't worth the paper it was written on in the manual. The 10/100 power train warranty is a scam. Warning, if you have a Kia ignore the service schedule and follow the severe service duty schedule, that way they can deny you claim later because it was used in severe service.
Kia case number 2378715
John Buckley, my son had the manual transmission in his Explorer die after only 56K miles, right after the warranty expired. ($2800 for a rebuilt)
The Kia and Hyundai warranty is NO scam. We drive both Kia and Hyundai cars in my family and none of them have gone kaput during the warranty period.
Then again, they're all automatics and we don't give them the work out you do in New York.