Not long after purchasing my Kia Soul in 2014 I noticed a moldy smell coming out of air vents when car was turned on. After a while it would disappear (maybe because I got used to it). This happened every time I turned on car. After some time I decided to complain about it to Kia, and they told me to change the air filter. It was perfectly new and clean, but I changed it anyway. Still got bad mold smell. I complained again, and they wanted to charge me for a "refresher kit", so I refused, and I was STILL under warranty.

I called headquarters who gave me the same excuses and remedies but would not cover it because it was a "maintenance issue". That's bologna!!! The car was having this problem early on, and it is clearly a problem with the design, NOT a maintenance issue! Anyway, after a few more phone calls to headquarters and a detailed, scathing letter about the severity of this horrible smell, they decided to finally reimburse me for the cleaning of the air system. So far it's smelling ok, but we'll see how the summer goes with the AC in activation. Fingers crossed!