attn customers: kia sorento 2005 ..
this is a special case, thats putting me closer to bankruptcy;
Back in march 2011, I accidentally stopped by kia moritz in hurst, and ended up driving a 2005 kia sorento that almost kills me !! 30 day afte I bout the car, this unit started falling apart after driving at a speed of 70 mph by 360 hgwy in Arlington.
I survived a dramatic engine loss, power steering loss and brakes loss....still dont know how I landed at a safe place... I was speechless...scared and upset !!!
and this all happened during rush hour....
what happened was; the master pulley came apart from the crankshaft and belts got all chewed up, in addition the pulley's big bolt snapped/sheared and damaged the inner thread of the crankshaft....broken bolt stuck inside !!!!
I paid my first 250.00 to tow it over to my place/home.
I contacted KIA MORITZ in hurst and was advised, car sold as is....not responsible for any damage since i had declined to buy the extended warranty ! hang up the phone and started looking for a mechanic of my choice..right after learning this repair was gonna cost me $$$ 000.00 dollars...decided to come see the manager Mr Paul Mainer which politely accepted to pay for the repair...
to my surprise this car was missing screws and loose noisy parts, squeaky belts and more !!!
mechanic warned me, thread damaged, needed to replace the crankshaft, or drive until happened again....I liked the car so much that i took the risk...
well, it happened again the crankshaft doesnt retain the pulley and a mess, a real mess........
this time happened at highway 30 with a family of 5 members
I came back to see Mr Mainer again, he said he would help but i was ripped off instead !!!.
he sold this car for 11k, and I had a remaining balance of 4300.00
his solution was :
1.-sell a different car to me, and add up the 4300.00 to the value of the new unit.
2.-sounded and looked good, but it wasnt...
3.-the 11k KIA SORENTO 2005 he sold to me was now worth only 1000.00 !!! AS A TRADE IN..
4.-he offered a nice high mileage car overpriced/of course, and added up the 4300.00 remaining balance.
5.-they got me a more than normal APR.because 2% of the apr is for them, not for long...
6.-he asked for another 2k as a down payment...sold the highest GAP insurance and extended warranty
7.-left the building with a new debt of 23k !!! car price NADA only 14.5k
8.-hard to refinance, because debt is higher than the cars value...putting some money down ..
I feel there was no help at all, they took my kia back, put me into debt, and the rest is history i was angered, desperate and fell in their trap ...
I must admit, kia sorento 2005 was very very nice, and almost positive they knew of this problem car looked so good, low mileage, mint condition but tricky/fishy.....nice pioneer gps/stereo.....bells and whistles...but....oh surprise...this car almost kills me...!!!
how can they sell a car in this poor conditions ?
they knew of these problems, there were signs that they attempted to fix it...!!
I could go on and on...but i'll show you a few pictures....
and think about this before you purchase cars from them.