Well, on the 31st of December 2010 I bought a brand new car from Ipswich Central Motors. From the time I drive off I noticed that the air bag light on the dash would not turn off. So I called them up and explained. They told me that I needed to bring the car back so they can look it over, which I did.
An hour goes by and they said that their equipment is malfunctioning and they can not find the cause of the problem. They give me a loan car (which was nice) and they have the car for the day. They finally find the cause and I was informed that the reason the light was on was because a pin that an electronic cable was connected to was not push into its connector correctly, but I digress from the real problem.
After a couple of days I notice a noise coming from the back left of the car and over the next few weeks it gradually gets louder. As I got attuned to the noise it became very irritating and I was able to hear the noise over the radio. The problem I have now is that the Brisbane floods have hit and Ipswich Central Motors is underwater.
A couple of months pass and I call Ipswich Central Motors back up to hear that their service division is not operational and that they will call me when they are. A month passes (now in March) and I have to do something about it. I call Motorama Moorooka and organise a time to book in the car so they can look at it. They give me the usually spiel that noises are not covered under warranty.
So they look at the car and tell me that the noise was caused from the “Striker”. I was told it was realigned. I drive off and all is good. About 3 days pass and then the noise comes back quiet at first and then louder and louder over the next few days until it was like it was before. A week goes by and I take it back. They reckon nothing was wrong and ask me to take someone for a drive to hear the noise. So I do and to my surprise there was no noise. So two weeks goes by and I am happily driving my car and the noise slow comes back.
I’m now (still in March) starting to think I should drive the car into a wall and get insurance to replace the car for me. I’m thinking I bought a lemon and it is pissing me off.
November rolls around and the car is ready for it first service, 15K. I book it in and ask for someone to come for a ride me with. I don’t say anything and when we are driving I say there is this noise coming from the back. When you lower the back left seat the noise goes away. I said to him that you have had this car twice to fix this problem. I asked him does he know what it is.
He says to me something along the lines of, well to be honest it is a known problem with this car.
Well finally I have some acknowledgment that there is a problem and that something will be done about it. Later that day I pickup the car from the service and they tell me that they have ordered a part. For about 3 days there was no noise but in predictable fashion the noise comes back. I’m not too concerned as I know there is a part on order to fix this problem.
A week later the part arrives and I take the car in for them to install, fix whatever needs to be done. They ended up changing the “Lock Assy-RR Seat Back”. I drive the car away and all seems good, but I can’t be too sure until a couple of weeks or a month goes by, and this is where I am now.
So if you are going to buy as Kia Rio, be aware that you may have a problem with the Striker and or the Lock Assy-RR Seat Back.
I’ll keep you posted if this problem comes back.