6.0

fairly significant
Typical Repair Cost:
No data
Average Mileage:
178,550 miles
Total Complaints:
1 complaints

Most common solutions:

  1. not sure (1 reports)
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problem #1

Jan 262020

Optima Hybrid Hybrid

  • Automatic transmission
  • 178,520 miles

After driving 90 miles each way to an evening event, my Hybrid Battery Warning - Do Not Drive error came on (again) as I was driving into my driveway. I was very grateful that this did not happen while I was driving on the Southern California freeways with a million other people around me.

I've read in several forums that this has happened to other Kia Optima Hybrid owners and that it completely shuts down the car and disables it from being driven! I'm afraid to drive my car now! Several people said they were on the highway when this happened and I narrowly escaped being hit by other vehicles. Apparently, the hybrid battery has a substandard 125V fuse that should be replaced with a 150V according to a Technical Bulletin issued by KIA. How can they know about this issue and not issue a recall? Someone is going to get killed, and this is a fairly inexpensive repair as far as I can tell.

I loved my Optima up until the last year, and it's cost me thousands of dollars, lots of frustration and time without my vehicle.

- Brenda W., Escondido, CA, US