Hi, My Dad has a 2004 Kia Sorento diesel, with the five speed manual gearbox. He has owned the vehicle from new and it has covered 60,000 miles. The car has been serviced at the correct intervals by the supplying Kia agent and, until recently, had been trouble free. A month or so ago, on a holiday to Cornwall, he noticed a whining noise whilst towing the caravan in fourth gear and pulled over to investigate. There were some other strange noises and he pulled into a layby and turned off the engine. Upon restarting with the gearbox in neutral and his foot on the clutch, all was normal, but upon releasing the clutch slowly, the car stalled (in spite of being in neutral) and it was evident that something had gone very wrong in the gearbox. To cut a long story short, the car was recovered to the Kia agent in Cornwall and they confirmed that a new gearbox (the main gearbox, not the low/high range transfer unit) was required and fitted one for around £3k. Given that they were away on holiday at the time and needed the car to get home, there was no opportunity to seek an independent opinion from a gearbox speciaist. The Kia agent commented that they had never had to fit a new gearbox before and that they felt that Kia UK would view the matter sympathetically. On arriving home, Dad wrote to Kia asking them to refund the £3k bill as it is not reasonable to expect a straigtforward manual gearbox to fail at this sort of mileage. Last night, he recevied a letter from them saying that whilst they sympathised with his situation, sometimes 'these things happen'. Dad has had various cars over 40 odd years of driving and has never needed a new gearbox or clutch, in spite of running several cars to over 100,000 miles. He drives with mechanical sympathy and doesn't abuse the clutch or gearbox. He managed to get the tyres on the car to last to 50,000 miles! I don't feel that it is reasonable to have to replace a gearbox on a five-year old, 60,000 mile, Kia serviced car. Although it does get used for towing, it doesn't do a big mileage pulling the 'van and it's not a big 'van for the size of car. I feel that at the very least, Kia should stump up for a fair chunk of the bill. What do others feel? Can't remember when, but sometime after 2004, Kia increased the warranty on the Sorento to 5 years (and 7 years on some of their other vehicles), so they clearly have some faith in the their mechanical reliability. How would Backroomers suggest that he progreses this to try to get a more equitable solution? Many thanks.

Hi, My Dad has a 2004 Kia Sorento diesel, with the five speed manual gearbox. He has owned the vehicle from new and it has covered 60,000 miles. The car has been serviced at the correct intervals by the supplying Kia agent and, until recently, had been trouble free. A month or so ago, on a holiday to Cornwall, he noticed a whining noise whilst towing the caravan in fourth gear and pulled over to investigate. There were some other strange noises and he pulled into a layby and turned off the engine. Upon restarting with the gearbox in neutral and his foot on the clutch, all was normal, but upon releasing the clutch slowly, the car stalled (in spite of being in neutral) and it was evident that something had gone very wrong in the gearbox. To cut a long story short, the car was recovered to the Kia agent in Cornwall and they confirmed that a new gearbox (the main gearbox, not the low/high range transfer unit) was required and fitted one for around £3k. Given that they were away on holiday at the time and needed the car to get home, there was no opportunity to seek an independent opinion from a gearbox speciaist. The Kia agent commented that they had never had to fit a new gearbox before and that they felt that Kia UK would view the matter sympathetically. On arriving home, Dad wrote to Kia asking them to refund the £3k bill as it is not reasonable to expect a straigtforward manual gearbox to fail at this sort of mileage. Last night, he recevied a letter from them saying that whilst they sympathised with his situation, sometimes 'these things happen'. Dad has had various cars over 40 odd years of driving and has never needed a new gearbox or clutch, in spite of running several cars to over 100,000 miles. He drives with mechanical sympathy and doesn't abuse the clutch or gearbox. He managed to get the tyres on the car to last to 50,000 miles! I don't feel that it is reasonable to have to replace a gearbox on a five-year old, 60,000 mile, Kia serviced car. Although it does get used for towing, it doesn't do a big mileage pulling the 'van and it's not a big 'van for the size of car. I feel that at the very least, Kia should stump up for a fair chunk of the bill. What do others feel? Can't remember when, but sometime after 2004, Kia increased the warranty on the Sorento to 5 years (and 7 years on some of their other vehicles), so they clearly have some faith in the their mechanical reliability. How would Backroomers suggest that he progreses this to try to get a more equitable solution? Many thanks.

Hi, My Dad has a 2004 Kia Sorento diesel, with the five speed manual gearbox. He has owned the vehicle from new and it has covered 60,000 miles. The car has been serviced at the correct intervals by the supplying Kia agent and, until recently, had been trouble free. A month or so ago, on a holiday to Cornwall, he noticed a whining noise whilst towing the caravan in fourth gear and pulled over to investigate. There were some other strange noises and he pulled into a layby and turned off the engine. Upon restarting with the gearbox in neutral and his foot on the clutch, all was normal, but upon releasing the clutch slowly, the car stalled (in spite of being in neutral) and it was evident that something had gone very wrong in the gearbox. To cut a long story short, the car was recovered to the Kia agent in Cornwall and they confirmed that a new gearbox (the main gearbox, not the low/high range transfer unit) was required and fitted one for around £3k. Given that they were away on holiday at the time and needed the car to get home, there was no opportunity to seek an independent opinion from a gearbox speciaist. The Kia agent commented that they had never had to fit a new gearbox before and that they felt that Kia UK would view the matter sympathetically. On arriving home, Dad wrote to Kia asking them to refund the £3k bill as it is not reasonable to expect a straigtforward manual gearbox to fail at this sort of mileage. Last night, he recevied a letter from them saying that whilst they sympathised with his situation, sometimes 'these things happen'. Dad has had various cars over 40 odd years of driving and has never needed a new gearbox or clutch, in spite of running several cars to over 100,000 miles. He drives with mechanical sympathy and doesn't abuse the clutch or gearbox. He managed to get the tyres on the car to last to 50,000 miles! I don't feel that it is reasonable to have to replace a gearbox on a five-year old, 60,000 mile, Kia serviced car. Although it does get used for towing, it doesn't do a big mileage pulling the 'van and it's not a big 'van for the size of car. I feel that at the very least, Kia should stump up for a fair chunk of the bill. What do others feel? Can't remember when, but sometime after 2004, Kia increased the warranty on the Sorento to 5 years (and 7 years on some of their other vehicles), so they clearly have some faith in the their mechanical reliability. How would Backroomers suggest that he progreses this to try to get a more equitable solution? Many thanks.

Hi,

I am writing to you as I have just experienced a similar gearbox breakdown of my 2005 manual (diesel) KIA Sorento while towing my caravan in Spain. Gearbox replacement in Spain had cost me €5045 (£4300). I had the car since new, am a careful driver and had done only 38900 miles.

Please would you be so kind and let me know if your Dad managed to get anywhere further wih KIA, perhaps using the Sale of Goods Act 1979 etc.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Peter Pollak

peterkp@talktalk.net

PS. I am in Spain at the moment, returning to the UK on the 31st March.