Kia Sportage 2016 Problems

This situation will turn out very differently depending on whether the car is still under Kia's factory warranty, or an aftermarket warranty sold by the dealership when the car was bought by your daughter. It will also depend on whether the cracked transmission case was due to a flaw or something thrown up off the road (which would count as accidental, not warranty, damage).

Kia extended its factory warranty to new, privately-owned cars on October 1, 2014. Which means the car in question was covered to that extent. With that in mind, the car should, indeed, be covered by Kia's factory warranty (until next year) so there should be no quibbling about a failure like this one that has had nothing to do with the way the car has been used or serviced. My experience is that Kia is pretty good at this stuff, figuring that its long-term reputation is more valuable than fixing an – often – rare fault. And even though your daughter was not the first owner of the car, the factory warranty is transferable to subsequent owners. Provided, that is, that the car has been serviced and maintained correctly.

If, however, the car is covered only by the aftermarket warranty, then you'll be in for a huge fight as these aftermarket warranties are rarely worth the paper they're printed on. The fine-print is full of clauses and conditions that allows the car dealer to wriggle out of their responsibility, and we simply don't recommend these warranties under any circumstances.

As for the fault itself, it's pretty rare to hear about something like a transmission case fracturing. Perhaps there was a manufacturing or casting flaw in that particular unit that has taken its time to surface and cause the failure. As for what you should do, the answer is simple: Take it back to the dealership you bought it from and make sure it's fixed properly according to the terms of Kia's own warranty. Don't be afraid to be a bit patient, and always give the dealership (or Kia) every chance to put things right before you instigating legal action or contacting the ACCC.

If Kia expresses any doubt over what caused the failure, an independent inspection (perhaps by the NRMA) will be able to determine what caused the casing to fracture and, therefore, whether it's a warranty or insurance job.

That sounds like a system that’s well out of date, one that should be updated by Kia. You might have an argument that it’s not fit for purpose under our consumer laws, so if you want to take it further you could contact the Queensland state consumer affairs people and seek their advice.

Take it back to your Kia dealer and explain your concern to them and ask them to check it to identify if it is the lifters or perhaps something else. If they find a problem have them tell you what they plan to do about it. If you cannot find satisfaction with that take your concern higher and talk directly to the customer service people at Kia headquarters.

Basically the drivetrain is biased towards economy when Eco is selected, so you get better fuel consumption. When you select Sports mode you get better performance and will lose a little economy.

I would suggest the Soul could be ruled out on the basis that it won't have a high resale value when you want to sell it on. Your budget will limit your choices, if you could stretch it another $3000 you could look at the Honda HR-V or CR-V, or Kia Sportage.

Your need for low maintenance rules out the Europeans, Jeeps are popular but aren't as reliable as I think they should be, leaving you with the Japanese and Korean brands. The cars I would suggest you look at are the Kia Sportage, Mazda CX-5, Subaru Forester and Honda CR-V.

There is nothing official from Mazda Australia but the CX-5 is now more than four years old and that points to a new replacement in the second half of next year. If you're buying now, ensure you also test drive the new Kia Sportage — I give it The Tick and rate it ahead of the CX-5.

Two choices that get The Tick from me are the Toyota Camry sedan, which can be quite punchy with the 2.5-litre petrol engine and is great value, and the Kia Sportage SUV with turbo diesel.

In order, I would suggest you consider the VW Tiguan, Kia Sportage, and Mazda CX-5. All are reliable, drive nicely, and are well equipped.