South Korean carmaker Kia has recalled 410,609 vehicles in the United States. The recall will see Kia fix or replace the airbag control units in the affected vehicles.
The recall affects certain 2017-2019 Sedona, Soul, Soul EV, 2017-2018 Forte, and 2017 Forte Koup vehicles from Kia. The US National Highway Transport Safety Agency (NHTSA) released a statement on the recall of the affected Kia vehicles stating, “Kia Motors America (Kia) is recalling certain 2017-2019 Sedona, Soul, Soul EV, 2017-2018 Forte, and 2017 Forte Koup vehicles. The Air Bag Control Unit (ACU) cover may contact a memory chip on the printed circuit board and damage the electrical circuit. Circuit damage may result in deactivated airbags that will not deploy in a crash.”
Kia claims that issue was first detected in South Korea in July 2021. Documents released regarding the recall show that the South Korean manufacturer has received 947 warranty claims along with 13 customer complaints due to the airbag issue. Thankfully, no crashes or injuries have been reported to date.
As per the National Highway Transport Safety Agency, Kia will start notifying affected customers by mail starting the 21st of March, 2022. Affected owners will need to bring their vehicle to their nearest Kia dealership for inspection. Once inspected, Kia will fix the issues with airbags by either updating the software of the affected unit or by replacing it altogether. As is always the way with recalls, the manufacturer, in this case, Kia, will cover all costs for the work done to fix the faulty airbags in the affected vehicles. The customer of the recalled vehicle will not have to pay a single cent for the fix.
The cars covered in the recall include the Kia Sedona minivan which won the best minivan award in the 2019 JD Power Initial Quality Study. Other models affected include the funky looking Kia Soul in both fossil fuel-sipping and electric guises and the Kia Forte in both sedan and ‘Koup’ guises.
This is not the first time that the South Korean carmaker has come under the close scrutiny of the National Highway Transport Agency. Kia and its sister company Hyundai are both currently being investigated by the NHTSA due to a series of engine fires that have plagued their vehicles for the past 6 years.
In December last year, the NHTSA stated that it would start a new engineering analysis investigation which would cover over 3 million Kia and Hyundai vehicles from the 2011 to 2016 model years. The agency at that time stated that it had received 161 complaints with regards to engine fires, some of which occurred in vehicles that had already been recalled.
Kia and Hyundai had first issued a recall for the affected cars in 2015 to fix the issues with ‘engine failures’. The companies according to NHTSA documents have since then issued 8 additional recalls for a host of engine issues. The engineering analysis investigation by the NHTSA will evaluate if enough vehicles were covered by the previous recalls issued by the two Korean carmakers.
Thoughts On Kia’s Recall
Kia’s massive recall of over 400,000 vehicles in the United States shows just how much safety has become a talking point over the past few years. Thankfully the issues with the airbags failing to deploy haven’t resulted in any injuries or death and we hope that Kia’s fix will ensure car owners can enjoy their drives once again instead of worrying about the aftermath of a potential crash every time they hit the roads.
Keyword: Kia Recalls Over 410,000 Vehicles Over Faulty Airbags