On two occasions (to date) my Kia Optima has become inoperable - unable to put the car in drive or reverse. The first occurred during the winter in February 2010. After one of many snowstorms this season I was driving on a plowed road then encountered an area where there was only room enough for one car to pass. When I pulled over to allow an approaching vehicle to pass my car was in about 8-inches of snow. While moving the transmission selector between reverse to get out of loosely packed snow I found I could no longer get the car into a drive gear ' forward or reverse. The car had to be towed because it was no longer operable and was causing a road hazard for other vehicles. The dealer claimed snow caused the shifting cable to detach from the gear selector. The dealer, holly Kia, reported the problem was repaired by reattaching the cable to the selector. More recently my son was operating my vehicle on or about July 6th, 2010 ' a 100+ degree day. He reported that he was in reverse to move the car to another parking spot in a car dealership and the car could no longer be shifted into any gear' again. During this instance the car was on a steep incline and my son was fortunate to be able to maneuver the car around other parked cars but the car had to be coasted to the bottom of the grade in order to be safely parked. After the second instance, the car was again towed back to holly Kia for repair - holly Kia is now replacing the shifting cable. The holly Kia service department claims this problem with the 2007 Kia Optima as a manufacturing flaw. My concern is, after the repair can the car be trusted and operated safely ' both incidents left the car in a very compromised state and a hazard to other vehicles (moving and parked).

- Dover, DE, USA

The contact owns a 2007 Kia Optima. While the contact was backing out of the driveway at a low speed, he attempted to place the vehicle into drive. He noticed that the transmission would not engage into any gear and the emergency brake had to be applied to stop the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to the dealer and they stated that the shift cable needed to be re-attached. The vehicle was repaired, but the failure still persists. The current mileage was 38,100 and failure mileage was 26,591.

- Simpson, IL, USA