Monday August 2009 I had a towing service tow my 2004 Optima to the Butler Kia Service Center in Medford Oregon for what I had suspected could be a tranmission or clutch problem. I called ahead and spoke with Adam in the service department to see if I needed to come in with the tow truck driver and he said that would not be necessary. Because I had not heard from the service department at approximately 1:30 PM I called to check on the status of my car. At this time Adam in the service department told me that my car was going through diagnostic testing and it could take up to 4 hrs to complete. Because I work it was important to me to know how long my car could be in the shop so I could make arrangements to get back and forth to work so I called again at 5:15 to see if there was any results. Again Adam told me my car was still going through diagnostic testing so I expressed the importance of having an answer as soon as possible and he assured me he would call me by mid-morning the next day. At 11:55 the next morning I again had to call to inquire about my car and again was given the canned answer that it going through diagnostic testing and could take up to 4 hours at which time I reminded Adam that he had had my car since 8:00AM the previous morning and this was the third time he had told me it was going through diagnostice testing. At this point Adam hesitated and said if I didn't mind holding he would go check on the status of my car. After holding for 5 or 10 minutes he returned to tell me he had bad news for me, he said that I needed a new clutch, a new flywheel because it was cracked and I needed my fuel systems flushed out be cause they were corroded and would soon cause engine problems. His quote at this time was between $2500.00 and $3000.00 but he said the testing was not complete and he would call be back with a final quote. A little while later Adam did call me with his final quote which was $2805.00 to have the clutch replaced, the flywheel replaced and all the systems flushed out. He said if I didn’t want to flush the systems at this time it would only be $2310.07. He told me it would take two days to get the parts and 5 days of hard work to get everything done.

I called Adam the next day to let him know that I could not afford to have Butler Kia do the repairs on my car and that I would be picking it up. He told me it would cost me $97.00 for the testing they did, he also ask if I would like to trade my car in on a new one which I found interesting. I have since had my car repaired. The only thing that needed to be done was replacing the clutch. The flywheel was not cracked as Adam had said and the systems did not need to be flushed. The total repair cost was $816.00.

My car has less than 36, 000 miles on it and the mechanic that fixed it was surprised that the clutch went out with such low mileage. I can tell you it runs better now than it ever has so I am wondering now if the clutch was bad at the time I bought it at a Butler dealership.

Having given you an outline of my experience with the service department at the Butler Kia Service Center. It is not only the disappointment in the customer service because I had to call them, not once did I get a call explaining the status of my car, but also the possibility of fraudulent quotes because I was a women and would not question them. Had finances been better I would have paid the amount quoted me and not known that not all of it really needed to be done and may not have actually been done.

Another dissapointment is, according to Adam, the 10year/100 thousand mile warranty is proiated if you are the second ower of the vehicle. I feel the warranty should roll over with any new buyer.If it had been tranmission problems my warranty ran out, according to Adam, in February of 2009.

My feeling is that there is a problem with the Kia Optima clutch system and it should be Kia paying for the replacement and not me.

Diana Womble