"We can't replicate the issue"

As I’ve mentioned before, I drive a 2016 Kia Sedona minivan as my daily driver. Not because I want to, but because it’s practical with kids, hockey equipment, etc. I love my van. It’s great for getting my kids to school and hockey practice, it has pretty nice finishings in it (WAAAAAY nicer than the vans of my childhood in the 90s) and the build quality it great.

Every vehicle has issues so I’m not bashing Kia or Kia of Saskatoon. I have had great experiences every time I have dealt with them and their Service department has amazing customer service. This is a story of how it can be frustrating to have an issue when you have the vehicle but then the dealer is not able to replicate the issue and therefore can’t fix the issue.

In the past several weeks I’ve had an issue with my Sedona where the headlights will flick off and back on when the turn signal clicks off. This only happens with the headlights are set to Auto and so it doesn’t happen during the day. This is the beginning of the dealer not being able to replicate the issue, and therefore unable to cover the repair under warranty.

I had my van in for a regular oil change at the dealer shortly after it started happening – they couldn’t replicate the issue. Since it had only happened a few times by then I wasn’t too worried about it.

A few weeks later and the issue is happening most of the time when turning at night. So often that I ended up recording this happening on my first attempt.

I took my van back to the dealership first thing in the morning on Friday this past week and told them what was happening. I mentioned that I have video of this happening, but the service rep didn’t want the video yet. After having the van ALL DAY without one word I ended up calling to see how things were going. At this point it was already nearly 4 pm and they only then requested to have me send them the video for them to see. They told me they wanted to keep the vehicle over the weekend so they can keep working on it on Monday, except that they didn’t have a vehicle for me to take over the weekend, but they would try to figure it out.

By 4:30 I decided to just leave work and go to the dealer to see what they what we were going to do to resolve the situation. When I got there they had basically given up trying to resolve the issue for the day and had decided to just give me the van back and asked me to bring it back on Monday. I ended up being able to talk to the technician and answer some of his questions to help with his diagnosis. Since I have the video evidence of it happening, they know what to look for. Unfortunately, until they can reproduce the issue they can’t replace parts under warranty. And because it’s only dark for a little bit first thing in the morning, it’s really difficult for them to be able to replicate the issue since the sunlight will prevent the headlights from turning on during the day.

At this point I’ll be bringing the van back for them to continue investigating this issue. Here’s to hoping they can resolve it.