Sourplant!

KIA Motors Australia will continue to honour engine failure claims for its soon-to-be-replaced Carnival people-mover on a "case-by-case" basis.

According to the company’s new chief operating officer, Steve Lotter, any new claims would be evaluated on their merits.

Kia Motors Australia, which assumed distributorship of Kia vehicles in Australia on March 1 from Ateco Automotive, has a specific case management program in place for the estimated 3000 V6-powered Carnival models that were affected by engine gasket problems.

In June last year, GoAuto revealed that Ateco was forced to replace affected engines with a short (without transmission) engine free of charge, provided the vehicle was still under warranty.

This warranty was extended to five years and Mr Lotter said Kia had now put the issue largely behind it.

"I know that within the industry the problem has been addressed very well by Ateco and Kia Motors," he said.

"But anything like that... the best way to overcome it is to make sure you handled the problem well, honestly, openly and quickly and then you make sure it doesn’t happen again.

"And certainly on Carnival you wouldn’t expect it to happen again."

Mr Lotter said the fix was put in place in 2002 "so this is an old problem that’s been lingering because the Carnival is so successful".

"I think in terms of volume Carnival was probably the most successful in relative terms, in Australia, and maybe we ended up with a bigger share of the problems.

"There have been no problems since that change, so there won’t be a problem with the new model."Mr Lotter said all car companies had problems "from time to time".

"But how you deal with them and how quickly you deal with them is what determines the impact on the brand going forward," he said.

About 40 per cent of the 7208 Carnivals sold in Australia between the seven-seat wagon’s September 1999 release date and March 2002 suffered engine failure.

The problem arose through a gasket failure that allowed water into the cylinders.

The previous-model Carnival’s 130kW/220Nm 2.5-litre V6 was a K-Series engine supplied by the now-defunct Rover Group.

The engine was subsequently replaced by a new (Hyundai-Kia Motors) 184kW 3.8-litre V6 in the second-generation eight-seater Grand Carnival. The new engine will also appear in the short-wheelbase seven-seater Carnival, which goes on sale in June.

Carnival's real cost
GOAUTO has uncovered details about the full extent of engine problems with Kia’s Carnival people-mover sold in Australia.

A massive 7800 models were affected, with 5200 engines being changed and 580 models receiving "multiple" engine changeovers.

GoAuto understands that former distributor Ateco Automotive Group had asked Kia Motors in South Korea to recall the people-movers but this was not done.

During the peak of the problem, 230 loan cars had to be put into service while cars were being fixed. Management was also concerned about a backlash from owners in the form of legal action but this did not eventuate.

Kia Motors Australia, which assumed distributorship of the brand here from Ateco on March 1, has said it would honour any future claims relating to the Rover-sourced 2.5-litre V6 on a "case by case" basis.