Kia Sportage 2012 Problems

The Kia Sportage sold in the US certainly did have its share of problems. In some cases, the engine failures were traced to a faulty batch of engine bearings, in others, a leaking oil sump was blamed for allowing too much oil to escape, leading to oil starvation which destroyed the whole engine. Kia’s fix for the latter condition was to fit an oil-pressure warning light with a more proactive trigger-point.

But it’s dangerous to assume that the same make and model sold in the USA (or anywhere else) will have the same problems as Australian delivered cars. Often, even though they share a brand and badge, the cars from different markets are built in different factories and use parts from different suppliers. Sometimes there are major mechanical changes to cope with local conditions and tastes which can lead to very different reliability outcomes.

That said, however, the Theta engines used in local Kias have been problematic for some owners and catastrophic engine failures are part of those. You could talk with Kia Australia’s customer service division about financial assistance with the cost of repairs, but at nine years old – even with relatively low kilometres – there would be no guarantee of that happening. 

It’s not a common problem, with the Sportage or AWD vehicles in general. Even though yours is well out of warranty it’s still covered by the consumer protection laws, so it’s worth asking Kia for at least part of the cost of repairs.

Your budget limits you to older models, around 2010-2012. One to look at is the Suzuki SX4; others are the Kia Sportage and Mitsubishi ASX.

There are lots of reports of the Sportage pulling to the left, so you're not alone. Make sure the tyre pressures are correct and the same on each side then pick a normal section of road and drive it on the left side and observe what happens when you take your hands off the wheel. Then, when it's safe, drive on the right side of the road and again observe what happens when you take your hands off the wheel. If it still goes left there's a problem with the alignment, it goes right it's the effect of the camber of the road. Our roads have a significant camber that falls away from the crown on the centerline to the edge of the road on the left, and this can cause the sort of effect you are feeling. There is often insufficient adjustment in the car's suspension to correct for this wandering. You could take the car to a suspension specialist and have it checked there.

As a result of our request Kia had the vehicle inspected and also checked the conditions that it was occurring in and they told us that the vehicle is ok and that the problem Tim sees is related to the way he was trying to drive it. We understand that Tim is now content with Kia's response.