5.7

fairly significant
Crashes / Fires:
0 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
15,000 miles

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problem #1

Apr 022009

Amanti

  • 15,000 miles
The date below refers to most recent event. This has happened around 10 times since I have owned the vehicle (2007 Kia Amanti purchased new). In the most recent event I could not stop the car from running a red light, entering an intersection and nearly had a collision in the process. The problem is this: Every now and then applying pressure to the brakes--which of course is supposed to stop the car--actually causes the car to accelerate dramatically--to jackrabbit I think it is called--with such force that even full pressure applied to the brakes cannot stop it. The tachometer goes into the red or danger zone when this happens. I have noted on Kia forum (a web site for Kia owners with no connection to Kia motor company) other Amanti owners have reported the same problem. The Kia company does not acknowledge any problem and says that I must take it in so that it can be fixed if the service department can duplicate the problem. Of course, given the infrequency of the problem, they have not been able to duplicate the problem when I have taken it in--most recently a couple of days ago. Since I can never know when it might happen, all driving of the car makes me very anxious--afraid it will happen, for example, when I approach a crosswalk full of children. I feel I have no choice but to get rid of the car. I will, of course, feel morally obligated to reveal the problem when I trade the car in and will thus no doubt take a significant financial loss. This will be better than hurting someone either inside or outside of the car, however. I know very little about cars, but I would guess it is some kind of computer problem that happens only under certain unpredictable conditions. Just knowing it could happen at any time, however, makes the car too scary and dangerous to drive. If I can, I will get rid of the car as early as tomorrow even if I take a significant financial loss.

- Phoenix, AZ, USA