Kia Motors Spectra Consumer Reviews

KENNESAW, GEORGIA -- I live in Kennesaw, Georgia. I purchased a brand new Kia Spectra 5 in 2005. After about 6 months of owning the car, the battery went dead for no reason. I was sitting at my son's school waiting on him to come out. The car was off as was the lights. When I went to start the car, the battery was dead. I called the Kia roadside service number and waited an hour for them to come get me. This happened again repeatedly for the next year.

I took the car to Town Center every time it would do this. The service dept said there was nothing wrong with the car that I was leaving the lights on. It was not the lights. We were on vacation once. Had been driving for about an hour and stop to get gas. In the time it took to fill my 12 gallon tank the battery went dead?!?!?!?!?!?

Skip ahead to last month (Aug 07). We decide it's not worth being stranded at school, and at the grocery store, and on vacation and we need to trade it in. We were not too keen on the idea of another Kia so we went to Hyundai Cartersville. We were given a price on a 07 Hyundai Entourage Limited edition. Leather, power seats, power locks, powers door and trunk, tri-zone air. Of course we were going to "trade in" the Spectra 5 so that added 14k in rollover debt.

After getting this price we thought MAYBE Kia would work with us more knowing the trouble we had had with the car and that they were not able to fix it. And the fact that they owned the car. Kia was going to put us in the basic model Kia van, no leather no nothing for almost 1000.00 a month. We honestly said Hyundai can do better. We gave them the deal from Hyundai and the manager laughed in our faces. He said there was no way Hyundai was selling us a van for that little. And that is we could get that deal to go do it. Very rude. He told us to take the van home for the night and sleep on it.

So after we had been in Kia for about 2 hours, while the idiot of a manager laughed at us, we leave unhappy with this van. On the way home I told my husband I did not want it. I do not want another Kia. Saturday morning as soon as Hyundai opened we went and bought the Entourage.

After words with my husband driving the Kia and me following in the Hyundai we returned the Kia to the dealership. The dealership manager came up to us and said "so you decided to sign those papers?" My husband said "No. We bought the Hyundai." The manager said "so you paid more." My husband said "DO I look stupid?" We got a top of the line model for less than Kia's bottom line!

Moral of the story. Do not buy anything from Kia Town Center. The black manager there sucks and is very rude and the dealership manager is a jackass. I hope they read this. And I hope they get fired. Thanks for loaning me a soapbox.

This car's battery voltage will drop below the voltage that will start the car if the car is parked for more than overnight and the memory fuse is not pulled up. I bought this used car in December 2009 and neither the salesman nor the sales manager mentioned this fact to me at the time of sale.

Shortly after I purchased the car it was parked for three days. When I went to start it the battery didn't have enough voltage to turn over the starter. A 10 amp battery charger got it going so no real problem. But got me worried that maybe the battery would fail while I was in town. But it didn't. If the car is only parked overnight, there is no problem starting it the next morning. But let it stand for two nights and the car won't start on the third day.

That's when I went looking through the manual that I had to ask for because it wasn't in the glove compartment at the time of sale. Buried in the Kia manual there is a procedure to go through when parking the car for a "prolonged period" -- the fact that this "prolonged period" is only two days was not revealed to me at the time of sale. Yes, that's right. The battery will not start the car on the third day if it has been sitting parked for two days. Overnight parking is no problem but leave it parked for another day and the battery will not start the car.

What is the procedure described in the Kia manual, you ask? "Turn off the headlights and tail lights and pull up the MEMORY FUSE in the fuse box that sits in front of the driver's left knee" -- this procedure disconnects the clock, the audio (radio), the door chimes, and the interior lights. But the rest of the electrical components in the car work (ignition, headlights, tail lights, etc.). But if you drive the car with the memory fuse pulled up then the Tire Pressure Monitor check light comes on.

Following this procedure, I was able to leave the car parked for four days without having the battery go dead. Does following this procedure mean that when one is ready to drive off in the car, the clock needs resetting as does the radio? Yes, they do! This is a real pain in the you know what. I feel the salesman and everybody else involved in selling me this car were deceptive by not telling me about this 2007 Kia spectra quirk.

HAMBURG, NEW YORK -- I am a 21 year old female. I bought this car when I was 20 and it is my first car. I had also bought this car new. About six days after I bought the piece of junk I didn't want it any more. I thought that there was something wrong with the car. I know a little bit about cars but I can't fix one. It turns out my car has a bad transmission sensor (automatic) which means that the car doesn't know when to shifts right. The funny thing is that Kia and the dealer I bought it from can't figure out what is wrong with it.

I have been fighting both companies since I bought it. I even got into an accident at my local car wash because the car would not go into neutral. After the accident I stepped up my fighting. A couple days after that I got a call on April 7, 2005 from a rep from Kia Motors and he started to yell at me telling me that Kia doesn't want to do anything to make me happy. I was shocked because of this treatment. I feel that I got taken advantage of because of who I am.

Now I have a car that is "the walking dead" with a bad transmission. The car's engine is now shot because it has been running for a year and a half with a bad transmission. So even if Kia does actually fix my transmission the car is still screwed. The whole car is going to end up dying because of the condition it is driving in right now.

My whole reason for doing this is that I had my car in for service and I get treated like some dumb stupid little girl who knows nothing about cars. This car company called me up to harass and yell at me on the phone. And why would I want to do business with this company, let alone drive this car.

****** AS OF MARCH 31, 2006 KIA MOTORS AMERICA JUST RECOGNIZED THAT THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH MY CAR. The best part is that Kia does not know how to fix my car. I plan ongoing to the State of NY or the US Dept of Transportation and force Kia Motors to buyback my car because they don't know how to fix it.

****** MAY 25, 2006 Kia is still doing nothing about the problems with my car but a local TV station wants to run a story on this car and this whole situation that have been through!!!!!!!!!!

We bought a 2003 Kia spectra car in September of 2003. It has a lot of road noise, the windows leaks air into the car from outside, the paint peal off the hubcaps, and the door trim on the driver's side came off. The dash around the steer wheel makes a lot of noise. At 70 mph the car makes a lot of noise. The dealership where we bought the car in Dallas Texas was Southwest Kia. The car was stickered at 14000 and somehow it came out to be 16500 without even telling us. We never got a copy of the contract until 3 months later and it was not from Southwest Kia.

The bank that finance the car was Wells Fargo. Their interest rate was so high that it made the car cost 31650. That's with a down payment. Also they added an extended warranty without even telling us. So please don't buy a Kia or any car from Kia or Southwest Kia of Dallas Texas.

I bought a 2006 Kia Spectra 5. Within the first year of owning the vehicle we had to take it back for reprogramming because there was a computer defect that left the automatic lights on. The car began shutting off and stalling out at stop lights and on busy interstates. So we returned to the garage once again and the oxygen sensor had gone bad. The oxygen sensor went bad 2 times since I have owned the vehicle while I had my children in the car.

I have also taken my vehicle for my regular oil changes and have been told that I have build up in my oil. Now the check engine light keeps coming on and I have to keep putting in a fuel cleaner to get it to turn off. I had a diagnostic run on my check engine light and the catalytic converter is running under threshold! I also am having a problem with the rear driver's side brake wearing too fast and I am probably going to have to replace my rotor.

The last time I had my vehicle in the shop at the Kia dealership, they refused to release my vehicle back to me unless I paid an $85.00 fee? Did you know that it costs you $85.00 just to pull your vehicle into their garage? I was not made aware of this "Policy" until I could not get my car back. Even though I was just having my car looked at. I am furious with this company and its 100,000 mile warranty is just a safety cushion to tempt you to buy and because your car is in the shop so much!

The problem with the oxygen sensor also happened with my previous Kia Spectra so this is not a fluke and that also went bad several times (meaning 3 times!). Therefore my experiences with this company have been far less than positive. I will never own another Kia due to the costly repairs and the times that I had to miss at work because my car was in the shop.

BATON ROUGE -- Kia Spectra 5 fuel consumption gas cap fuel tank sensor. 3 visits to dealership. Replaced 3 gas caps. This is under first 1500 miles. Gas mileage was 15-17 mph. The engine light never came back on for another 5k miles. Followed Kia service manual to the letter on all changes. Then another round of 2 gas caps, until tech said that it was the fuel pressure sensor. And no check engine light. But he insisted that the light had been on for the last 5k miles and that had voided the warranty.

Basically I had to pay 1383.00 dollars and now I'm told that all subsequent problems will not be covered due to me violating the "service" agreement. Kia is ka ka. Their car is ka ka. Their whole design is ka ka. I will never, never, never get a "ka ka" Kia again!!!

I have read a number of complaints about this issue on the web and thought I should add mine since this appears to be a design flaw and not customer-related as Kia defines it. This involves the fact that if the fuel tank gets regularly over-filled it will cause the engine to arbitrarily shut off at different times regardless of whether you are on the highway or in the driveway.

Apparently there is a valve high up in the fuel tank that gas can get into and goes into a canister that leads to the stated problem. In all cases I have read, Kia states it is the result of the consumer overfilling and not a warranty issue. Most customers, as I did, state 'we are not idiots and know better than to overfill' to no avail. Anyway, I am paying $1500 to replace the fuel tank and supporting components with no warm fuzzy that will not happen again.

Last week I was in an auto accident. I rear-ended another vehicle at 35 miles an hour. My son was in the passenger seat. We both had on seat belts but my son only had the lap belt in place. Our airbags never deployed and as a result I hit my head on the steering wheel and now have 35 stitches in my forehead. I was told by all parties (state highway patrol and local police) that my bags should have deployed.

I will now have a permanent scar on my forehead. My car is being fixed even though there is 5800 dollars worth of damage, but this will not include the airbags (insurance states that it is not their problem). So I have to drive a car that is unsafe for accidents even though I bought this car used from Kia and still make payments on it. I am contacting Kia as well as a lawyer. I have also filed a complaint with the public safety commission.

My husband bought a used 2005 KIA Spectra in January. More than once after getting in the passenger seat I saw the light come on saying the passenger airbag is not working. I always sit as far back as I can and ALWAYS wear a seat belt.. Kia tells me I AM AT THE BORDERLINE WEIGHT for the airbag to work and that it really isn't their problem - that the seat belt is what really protects me.

I have found federal law that says no such thing, under Dept of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 49CFR Parts 552, 571, 585 and 595 tell me that I am entitled to MANDATORY PROTECTION regardless of how much I weigh even though I sit 'properly'. THIS IS ABSURD! I am looking for others who have the same problem we do. Car is under warranty until August 28, 2010 and KIA is stalling for time. You may e-mail me at: **. Thank you.

I have had my Kia Spectra for almost 3 years. For probably half of that my car has been parked in my driveway. I have had nothing but problems with it! It will start but starts chugging and dies every 10 feet! I have taken it to several mechanics and changed numerous parts on this car and it STILL dies on me! No one can figure out what is wrong with it. It is a piece of Junk! Wish I could return it and get my money back! DO NOT BUY ANY KIA VEHICLE! Trading mine in this week! Can't wait to get a vehicle I can actually drive!