ORLANDO, Fla — Vanessa Salazar of Apopka wanted a larger vehicle to transport her family. She fell in love with the Kia EV9.
“We loved it. We thought it felt great,” Salazar told Action 9 Consumer Investigator Jeff Deal.
But four months into her lease, it had a problem. It went into the shop in January and hasn’t come back out.
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She said, “I’ve been making payments on this car that I’m not even driving.”
It’s been disappointing for her and her family
“We were super excited to go into the electric family of cars,” Salazar explained. The teacher and mother of two believed the SUV was a perfect fit.
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She said, “We went ahead and thought about it, budgeted for it, especially because of all the things they tell you about, when you’re going to start charging it, you’re going to save a lot of gas money.”
She initially realized there was a problem with a light on the dashboard indicating a battery issue.
At first Vanessa Salazar was pleased because City Kia of Greater Orlando gave her a loaner car. She hoped it would be temporary, but she soon learned she couldn’t drive the loaner out of town for her son’s swim meets. The EV9 remained unrepaired.
City Kia then agreed to cover a rental car from Enterprise, but Salazar said she constantly had to be a go-between with the dealership and Enterprise to extend the rental. Eventually Enterprise charged her around a thousand dollars after claiming City Kia didn’t pay the bill. She said City Kia then had her switch to Hertz for another rental. Salazar told Action 9 she wasted hours on the phone and on the road switching out cars and often it was on school nights.
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“I was very disappointed that I had to do this. It’s my time. It was just not ideal for me on a school night to be doing this,” she said.
Meanwhile, she believed Kia’s corporate office was dragging its feet and not giving her answers about the car she was still making lease payments on.
Jeff Deal asked, “How do you feel about this whole situation?”
Salazar answered, “It’s been very, very frustrating not having a timeline of when I’m going to be getting back the car, or at least answers.”
Two days after Jeff Deal reached out to Kia America, it responded by offering to repurchase the SUV or give Salazar money for her trouble while she waits for it to get repaired.
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City Kia told Action 9, its team believed it was a battery problem from the beginning, but with the technology so new it relies on field engineers from Kia for electric vehicle repairs. Several of the recommended repairs from Kia didn’t work and City Kia then advocated on Salazar’s behalf to help initiate the repurchase. City Kia also said it always paid Enterprise, but Enterprise dropped the ball on the rental car by charging her.
For Salazar, the whole situation has been less than ideal with juggling cars, paying for gas and not knowing if or when the electric vehicle she’s paying for will be repaired.
“I just thought it would be just maybe a day or two, but I never thought that the problem was so serious,” she said.
Kia America and City Kia confirmed for Salazar the battery now needs to be replaced. At last word, Vanessa was considering waiting for the battery to be replaced and accept some money from Kia for her troubles.
Action 9 reached out to Enterprise about the claims it dropped the ball in charging her for the rental car, but so far, the company hasn’t responded.
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