Consumer Complaints
| Fail date | miles | occurences | Purchase date |
|---|---|---|---|
| POWER TRAIN | |||
| 07/04/2012 | 36000 | ||
| Tl-the contact owns a 2011 kia optima. while driving approximately 40 mph, the transmission exhibited a jerking motion and failed to respond when engaging the accelerator pedal. the rpms began to increase rapidly. the contact was able to maneuver to the side of the road. upon restarting, the vehicle resumed normally for a short period and the failure recurred. the failure occurred three times. the vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer three times for the identical failure and they were unable to duplicate or locate the problem. the manufacturer was notified of the failure. the approximate failure mileage was 36,000. kmj | |||
| 07/04/2012 | 36000 | ||
| Tl-th contact owns a 2011 kia optima. while driving approximately 40 mph, the transmission exhibited a jerking motion and failed to respond when engaging the accelerator pedal. the rpms began to increase rapidly. the contact was able to maneuver to the side of the road. upon restarting, the vehicle resumed normally for a short period and the failure recurred. the failure occurred three times. the vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer three times for the identical failure and they were unable to duplicate or locate the problem. the manufacturer was notified of the failure. the approximate failure mileage was 36,000. js | |||
| 06/27/2012 | 13250 | 1 | |
| This is update to odi #10453907. optima hybrid still experiencing power loss problems. latest is at cold start, when it starts in ev mode, system indicates ready, shift into reverse or drive, car doesn't move. if we turn it off and re-start it, it operates normally. when this happens, dash icon indicates hybrid system malfunction. at re-start light goes off. dealer can find no trouble codes stored. ## vin passed ## kia optima hybrid 2011 ## *tr | |||
| 06/04/2012 | 11000 | ||
| Sometime around june 4, on an expressway at 70 mph, it felt like i had hit something. there was a violent slam in the front of the car. i pulled the car to the side of the expressway to see if i had hit something. after seeing that i had not hit anything, i got back in the car to get back on the expressway. i put the car in gear and tried to accelerate and the car would hardly move as though it were starting off in a high gear. i drove toward the next exit at 55 mph at around 3500 rpm and it felt as though the vehicle never shifted gears. when i got off the next exit to return home, the vehicle did not shift into low, it stayed in a high gear. i drove home in one gear and got home to back into the garage, and when i shifted the car into reverse, it slammed into gear. i parked and went inside for the evening intent on getting the dealer to send a wrecker for the vehicle in the morning. i got up the next morning to see if the car was still acting the same way. i started the car up and it drove perfect, shifting through all of the gears as it was supposed to behave. we took it to the dealer and they supposedly found the problem and we left with our repaired vehicle. on june 26, while driving the car at 50 mph on a surface street, the same slam happened in the front of the car, frightening my wife. she then pulled to the side of the road, stopped the car, and shut it off. she restarted the car and it shift as it was supposed to. she came back home, parked the car in the garage and called the dealer. she started the car on june 27 to go to the dealer, went down the road approximately 3 miles and the same event occurred. she pulled over, restarted the car and drove to the dealer. they now have the car and say they are going to replace the transmission at 12000 miles. | |||
| 12/13/2011 | 2200 | ||
| After 1-2 miles of driving after cold start, engine contines to rev up but car come to rolling stop. as if no power is being transferred from engine to transmission/drive system. then turn car off for a minute, restart and car runs okay. dash icon indicates trouble with hybrid system. has happened multiple times since first incident. dealer finds nothing wrong. causes an extreme hazard when it happens in traffic. | |||
| 04/11/2011 | 3600 | ||
| On 4/11/11, we were driving to work and had gone four miles from our house, when we thought we had hit a deer! the car made a very loud sound and lurched violently, at highway speed, frightening us both. the lurching was so violent that it may well have caused other damage. we were extremely fortunate not to have crashed. we then found that the car would not shift gear. the transmission had gone out of our 2011 kia optima ex. we bought the kia new at o | |||
| POWER TRAIN - DRIVELINE | |||
| 06/15/2011 | 100 | ||
| 2011 kia optima lx. car pulls to the left at all speeds but most significantly at speeds above 60mph. this can make for very dangerous situations as the car drifts in all situations to the left. if the road is crowned to the left the car will pull almost violently to the left. i have almost hit midian barriors and/or gone veered off the road several times. i can consider myself a good driver without any accidents in the past 12 years and this is unacceptable. kia has been notified of the issue and is working the problem. however, kia has not come up with a fix for this problem. | |||
| POWER TRAIN - MANUAL TRANSMISSION | |||
| 07/15/2011 | 4036 | ||
| Tl-the contact owns 2011 kia optima. the contact stated the vehicle was parked on a flat surface with the engine off, the emergency brake was on and the vehicle rolled back about twenty feet. the vehicle was not taken to the dealer. the manufacturer was contacted and will give him a return call. the faiilure mileage was 4,036...mw | |||