Owners of certain Hyundai and Kia products from the 2010s have really had a cursed existence since the pandemic started. It’s not every Hyundai or Kia owner who has to worry, of course, as many of those cars have merely been subjected to the ongoing minor recalls and Technical Service Bulletins that are part of the modern car ownership experience. I’m talking about the people in the Venn Diagram between easily pilfered cars and, now, potentially fiery ones.
Ok, we talked about Biden so we probably gotta talk about Trump’s UAW visit. Let’s try to do it in a way that keeps our comments civil and focused. If we can do that I shall reward you with an update from the Tesla Autopilot Lawsuit and some good news for people who like square SUVs.
Kia And Hyundai Recall Over 3 Million Cars
I got the above text from my dad yesterday and, for once, I could make sense of what he was saying (My dad is an inscrutable texter. Recent messages include: “Bring catrol pil” and “Jim Belushi at Local Roots” followed photo of my dad with Jim Belushi at what I assumed was a grocery store and definitely is not a grocery store). He was curious if his 170k+ mile Kia Soul+ was on the list for the most recent major Hyundai-Kia recall.
I have not, actually, gotten the VIN from my father, so I can’t say for sure that his car is impacted, but I’ve got a good feeling that it is. Here’s how hilarious it is to be an owner of a Kia Soul (or old Elantra).
For about the last 18 months my dad has been worried that some TikTok teen with a screwdriver and a USB drive was going to steal his car. My dad did what the police and common sense advised, and parked his car inside. Bad news dad, courtesy of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration:
Hyundai Motor America and Kia America have issued “park outside” recalls for more than 3.3 million vehicles due to the risk of fire.
Until these recalled vehicles have been repaired, the manufacturers say the safest place to park them is outside and away from homes and other structures. Fires can occur whether the vehicle is parked and turned off or while driving.
Great. Let’s look at the list of cars:
Hyundai’s safety recall (NHTSA ID: 23V-651000) applies to the following vehicles and model years: 2012-2015 Accent, 2012-2015 Azera, 2011-2015 Elantra, 2013-2015 Elantra Coupe, 2014-2015 Equus, 2011-2015 Genesis Coupe, 2013-2015 Santa Fe, 2013 Santa Fe Sport, 2011-2015 Sonata HEV, 2010-2013 Tucson, 2015 Tucson Fuel Cell, 2012-2015 Veloster and 2010-2012 Veracruz.
[…]
Kia’s safety recall (NHTSA ID: 23V-652000) applies to the following vehicles and model years: 2014-2016 Cadenza, 2011-2013 Forte/Forte Koup, 2015-2017 K900, 2010-2015 Optima, 2011-2013 Optima Hybrid, 2011-2017 Rio, 2010 Rondo, 2011-2014 Sorento, 2011-2013 Soul and 2010-2013 Sportage.
Oh man, some absolute bangers in there. Kia Forte Koup! 2015 Hyundai Tuscon Fuel Cell! A freaking 2010 Kia Rondo!
The issue seems to stem from the ABS system used by Kia and Hyundai across a wide, random assortment of vehicles. The system can potentially leak brake fluid, causing a short and then a fire. No one has been killed, but numerous fires have been reported.
So what’s my dad to do? He can either take his Kia, which he bought new, and park it inside and potentially risk it catching on fire and burning his house down. Or he can park it outside and wait for some teen to steal it.
Donald Trump Sort Of Talks To The UAW
I’m going to talk about the content of what former President Donald Trump had to say about the ongoing UAW strike, then the setting, and a little bit about the politics of it. As best as anyone can tell, Trump is still the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, though I’m sure the Chris Christiementum is coming any day now (Touches earpiece: I’m hearing now that Christiementum is not a thing and will never be a thing.)
What he says about the strikes is important because, in theory, it sets the tone for the debate. And, on its face, there’s a logic to it (This version of the speech I found has the perfect YouTube thumbnail because if you hate Donald Trump or love Donald Trump the word “unbelievable” is enough to get you to click).
Here’s the point that Trump is making, via The Detroit News:
Trump, a former president who’s seeking to challenge current Democratic President Joe Biden next year, made the comments during a speech at Drake Enterprises, a parts supplier in Clinton Township. Amid a historic strike by the United Auto Workers against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, Trump said: “Your current negotiations don’t mean as much as you think.”
Trump argued that regardless of the outcome of the strike, the bigger threat to employees was the shift to electric cars and trucks, which he described as a “hit job” on Michigan and Detroit.
[…]
He told workers to reach out to Shawn Fain, president of the UAW, and tell him if the union backs Trump, Fain could take a vacation and they would better off than they ever were. Trump later characterized the transition from gas engines to electric vehicles as “a transition to hell,” a phrase he has repeated on the campaign trail this year.
“The auto industry is being assassinated,” Trump said. “If you want to buy an electric car, that’s absolutely fine. I’m all for it. But we should not be forcing consumers to buy electric vehicles they don’t want to buy.”
Those are the coherent parts, at least. I’m not sure that the transition to electric cars is a transition “to hell,” but it is somewhat hellacious for carmakers. If it turns out that people don’t want electric cars and demand softens, it’s possible that we’ve radically altered our manufacturing prematurely. The counter-argument, of course, is that it was always going to be chicken-and-egg and, even if American consumers aren’t going to immediately jump into EVs, we’ve effectively secured battery production for all sorts of markets outside of America and can better serve our own market. Still, it’s not an entirely unreasonable view.
That’s what he said. Let’s look at the actual theatrics and setting of this. In theory, this was an address for the UAW, but the UAW officially wanted nothing to do with it and it happened at a non-unionized supplier facility.
Still, the UAW has a lot of people in places like Ohio, that Trump won twice, and has plenty of members that do like Donald Trump. According to this NBC News report on the speech, not a lot of them showed up:
“[H]ardly any striking workers were on hand.
“There are a few strikers here, yes,” said Brian Pannebecker, a former local autoworker who organizes an Auto Workers for Trump Facebook page and helped shore up attendees for the event. “I don’t know where they’re at. But there are several — a handful.”
One of the striking UAW members on hand, Scott Malefant, concurred.
“I haven’t seen anybody yet,” Malefant, wearing a Make America Great Again hat, said as he waited for Trump to arrive. “I’m sure there might be a few.”
A handful!
The UAW’s current leadership has made it clear that they don’t like Trump and don’t want him to be president, though they’re doing him the favor of thus far not endorsing President Biden.
The Tesla Autopilot Trial Starts Today
The details of the crash that led to the trial today in San Francisco over Tesla’s “Autopilot” system are pretty terrible. A Tesla Model 3 driving on a Los Angeles highway suddenly leaves said highway, hits a tree, and catches on fire. The driver dies, one passenger is seriously injured, and another, a child, is disemboweled. It’s pretty bad.
Tesla is expected to argue that it’s unclear if Autopilot was engaged and that the driver had consumed alcohol prior to the accident. The attorneys representing Lee will likely argue that Autopilot is defective and that Telsa knew it.
Reuters has a good explanation of why this is so important:
Tesla has been testing and rolling out its Autopilot and more advanced Full Self-Driving (FSD) system, which Chief Executive Elon Musk has touted as crucial to his company’s future but which has drawn regulatory and legal scrutiny.
Tesla won a bellwether trial in Los Angeles in April with a strategy of saying that it tells drivers that its technology requires human monitoring, despite the “Autopilot” name. A Model S swerved into a curb in 2019 and injured its driver, and jurors told Reuters after the verdict that they believed Tesla warned drivers about its system and that driver distraction was to blame.
If Tesla wins another case, especially one with a death involved, it might discourage others from pursuing legal action against the company over Autopilot claims.
The Grenadier SUV Will Go On Sale In The US In November
The Ineos Grenadier is an extremely capable British SUV. It looks like a modern Land Rover Defender and sounds like it was named after a character’s rank in an Evelyn Waugh war novel. Also, unlike so many cool European cars, you’ll soon be able to buy one in the United States.
Here’s the skinny from our pal Richard Truett over at Automotive News:
Nice! If you were curious, Ineos has to pay the Chicken Tax to import the cars into the country, but for something that’s not a huge volume car that seems fine for now (eventually, knockdown kits or other things will be considered). Prices range from $73,100 for the base model and go up from there.
The Big Question
Is the Ineos a good deal at $73,100? A Land Rover Defender S starts at $60,600, so we’re in the ballpark. It’s not as nice, but it’s definitely more old-school.
Photos: Tesla, Kia, David Tracy
Considering it has one of the more reliable Diesel BMW motors and solid axles, it seems like something no worse than say G wagon or a diesel Gladiator. Certainly I would think the Ineos was more reliable than even a brand new land rover. I imagine this is for one of two people, rich folk who kill game from a mile away and want to look rugged? or rich folk who want to look rugged while valet parking at the high end restaurant on Saturday night. Price is not that far off of a middling level Bronco, and the solid axles and diesel motor make it way more capable in theory, so I may be over stating the rich person these days.
Had a mini-heart attack reading the title.
Not that I’m worried about my mom’s 2005 Optima, just for her.
It’s really seeming like 2000s era H/K products were better vehicles in the long run.
From the first half of the 00s – improving, not as good as the typical segment leaders but decent budget options. Still more routine maintenance sensitive which probably was part of the downfall for some owners that didn’t keep up with it so well.
From the latter half – behind in some styling or dynamic aspects, but much closer to the heart of the segment, heading in the right direction. 2006 Sonata in particular was a viable Camcord competitor.
Sure, could be just they’re too old or covered up or something but just never seems like you hear about issues as much with those years, it’s repeatedly 2010-era models when they had the big push for dramatic designs and restyling and tech (early adopters with things like direct injection and turbos in mainstream vehicles).
We’ll hopefully neither of those dopes are in the final race 14m from now. Both are just using the UAW for potential votes, besides if the workers aren’t smart enough to figure it out then they don’t deserve any raise. Most likely the visits have no impact on UAW negotiations or who these people might vote for down the line.
so many dumb things in your post here, but thanks for swinging by
He only ever shows up on posts that mention the UAW. Curious.
IT IS CURIOUS INDEED, ALMOST LIKE….you know
I am a dual Chinese Russian bot here to create turmoil and bring about the downfall of US auto companies so we can start selling $5000 kei car EVs to 200m Americans that secretly get their electricity generated from Russian oil.
Nice! Already tailgating for the Lions v. Packers game tonight, I see. Stay safe 🙂
Yes objective and logical posts without bias don’t make sense to many.
Sorry, my guy. You know that’s not what you’re doing. That sort of garbage ain’t welcome in these parts, but keep on keepin’ on with that gibberish
You’re quite right.
We deserve better candidates than two senior citizens who are puppets for their parties (which is nothing new, and the presidency is just that, not a monarchy/dictatorship, thankfully). Those two in particular have done more than enough in their careers, and could/should be enjoying retirement as they see fit.
There are over 200 MILLION 35+ year-old citizens that minimally qualify to be POTUS.
We can and should he doing better.
Bipartisan politics just makes it “us versus them”.
“Is the Ineos a good deal at $73,100? “
No.
You’re better off with a Jeep Wrangler for substantially less AND have better parts/service along with it.
Yeah, if you’re going to buy a car that only takes you to and from the mechanic, you may as well buy a Jeep.
I wonder why it hasn’t occurred to Hyundai that for a relatively modest sum they could send each of their registered customers one of those steering wheel club thingies as a good will gesture.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JodD_KARacg
Huh, how about that? I guess I should spend even more time on the internet. The real world is turning out to be a real information desert. 😉
Matt. Come on dude. This is straight up journalistic malpractice. You should know better.
We don’t want the hate and cultists here.
They aren’t welcome in ‘car culture.’
They aren’t welcome here.
They aren’t welcome anywhere.
This needs to be made clear.
Now on to less important things.
Fucking Consumer Reports is claiming “oh it’s the engine” in their articles, which is just… really? Those assholes couldn’t even read the recall notice?
Took me about 10 minutes to find out that the affected module isn’t made by Hyundai or Kia – it’s made by HL MANDO, a tier 1 supplier to basically every manufacturer. Even Japan. The recall investigation started in 2019, based on a 2012 car that started smoking. There wasn’t enough to show it was a defect, so it hibernated a while. Then it took them nearly 2 years to determine the root cause is a very slight variation in the rubber used in an internal O-ring in some module assemblies. And specifically that variation causes the O-ring to lose seal over a very long period of time – 8+ years. Oh, and the seals in question? Well within tolerances and QA until they aged nearly a decade.
People giving Hyundai/Kia shit over this are just looking to bash Hyundai/Kia. Period. This is the kind of problem that can’t be tested for, and can turn up in any fleet – and ultimately has and will continue to. Very similar if not identical modules are found in other manufacturer’s cars. And the newest cars being recalled are 9 years old; most were built over 11 years ago.
Meanwhile, owners of manual transmission Wranglers built from 2020 to 2023 are still waiting for a fix to be available for exploding clutches that have caused fires and injuries.
The last thing anyone needs is another toy for rich assholes to show off their wealth with. But here we are, with yet another.
It might’ve sold when interest rates were 0.9%. Now? Yeah. Something tells me no small portion of those ‘firm’ orders are going to balk and they’re going to exit the US market as unprofitable by 2026.
Couldn’t say any of that better myself.
And speaking like this is how you got them elected and will continue to get them elected. Demanding ideological purity and conformity is for college students. Grow up.
Amen.
We don’t talk like this to any political affiliation WHEN WE’RE ENJOYING CARS in person. So don’t do it here WHERE WE’RE ENJOYING car culture online. I dislike Trump too, but it’s high time we stop letting people like you destroy and divide any semblance of community because of something as silly as politics.
Here’s a hyperlink for you if you want to discuss this way:
Jalopnik
I’m with you Hanoj. I much appreciate that Autopian strives to bring nothing but simple facts to discussions where our hobby is forced to overlap with politics. There is a distinct effort to keep the author’s political leanings out of these writings, which, silly me, I thought was doing exactly what Rootwrym is ranting about. By not leaning in to politics when forced to write about them, I thought Autopian was avoid haters and cultists. I thought they were just discussing news that impacts the auto world, never even needing to decide if they should gatekeep. I dislike and disapprove of any member here trying to tell me that US Political leanings are the official gateway through which we must all function. I don’t like Trump, but I sure as hell don’t like being told that If I did, I’m not allowed to enjoy an A-political auto enthusiast website.
“Stick to sporps.”
Yeah, and dictatorial views and arguments are how comments on Deadspin got turned off.
I really want to state this respectfully and I hope you can take it as such since I don’t want to start a whole thing here, but…
Your rhetoric is essentially the same as the one you seem to hate so much. Just the flip side of the same coin. Your absolutist statements and assumptions that your side is right and gets to dictate who is allowed in “the culture” is no different than the various idiots you spout off against.
Everyone here came here to be inclusive and start a new culture that is less extremist and welcoming. That includes alternative points of view.
Keep on keeping on with your opinions as they’re generally entertaining even if I rarely agree with you. But take your gatekeeping and the general statements that your side is the absolute arbiter of all that is right, correct or good and GTFO.
Thanks
No, I’m saying keep it to cars. There are plenty of platforms to circle jerk on political beliefs but here is not one of them.
Yeah my comment wat directed at rootwyrm really. I get your POV on it but really there is just too much overlap.
It’s healthy to discuss these things and here we should all strive to keep it in the context of the vehicles.
But demonizing the opposite or dissenting view shouldn’t be tolerated and if we can’t discuss things we disagree on with respect for each other then those comments should get banned/deleted. Can we all not act like adults here?
Nevermind. Dumb question.
You can (and they did) report the NEWS of the story. It’s just that Root says we must damn them all to hell and exclude anyone associated. That’s not the purpose of car culture or this site.
Oh shit. Yeah, you definitely replied right. My fault. The notification got me confused. Still learning it. 🙂
I generally agree with you on most things except I don’t understand the Hyundai/KIA apologizing unless you work for their PR department, which you don’t seem to do. It’s major recall after major recall with these two and they just don’t seem anywhere near interesting enough to deserve the defense.
Exactly my point.
It’s not nearly interesting enough or “you dipshits” enough to warrant the hysterical, overblown reactions of “OMG KIA’S RECALLING ALL THEIR CARS!!”
But everyone wants to insist that a 1995 Kia shitbox is the exact same as a 2012 Hyundai Elantra is exactly identical to a fresh off the assembly line Carnival.
Meanwhile? Nobody’s saying a thing about every single Wrangler over multiple generations shipping with an exploding clutch, that was discovered within six months, where they still don’t have a fix for it pushing a year since a stop-sale order.
> Nobody’s saying a thing about every single Wrangler over multiple generations shipping with an exploding clutch
Catastrophic failure is a feature of Jeeps and doesn’t constitute a recallable event.
In fact, when a Jeep is recalled and serviced, it usually comes back with an additional problem.
Fair enough. And Wranglers are trash, so you definitely won’t get any disagreement from me there. I drove one—a 2-door, even—thinking it would be a fun throwback agricultural experience that wouldn’t necessarily be my thing, but I could appreciate. Made a ’38 Plymouth seem like a modern Rolls Royce and I found no fun in it. Just a god awful riding, unreliable gas hog built by the terminally indifferent. OK, I didn’t do any offroading, just some snow driving, but if that’s the only time when it makes any sense at all while being so rubbish to drive otherwise (which is all 99% of them do), then just get a better specialized offroad vehicle in the first place. I guess it’s just a Jeep thing and I definitely do not understand.
Please provide legitimate citations for at least points 2 and 4 above. Otherwise, this response is clearly a misinformation campaign.
nope, as much as Root is not always correct, that information is now out there today.
Define Nazi, because I don’t think you have the definition down, speaking of regurgitating.
I didn’t really want to dogpile on your rare horrible take, but I’m watching day baseball so I have the time. I watched most of his speech as I wanted to see how folks like my friends and family in Detroit responded, and it was silly and full of all sorts of crazy claims that he kept repeating. Detroiters know when someone is lying. It’ll be ok. This leads me to my other point…
Both of those dudes are trying to get elected for a job that doesn’t start for some 14 months. There is a not insignificant chance that one or both of them will be incapacitated/dead by then. They are pretty old.
I’m not telling you what to do, but you might want to consider doing a 15-minute meditation every day. Saying hate isn’t welcome here while stating some bullying bullshit is certainly a choice. I know your schtick is to be a “my way or the highway” person, but sometimes…yikes.
Have a nice day.
OMG. I’m dying. 🙂
+1
Well said!
Oh for fucks sake. I am pissed off that I have to write this, but flame suit on and here goes:
YOU ARE THE BIGOTED SHITHEAD HERE
GROW THE FUCK UP
KNOCK IT THE FUCK OFF
YOU ARE ACTING LIKE A FUCKING ANGSTY TEENAGER ON REDDIT
YOUR HATE-JERK IS NOT WELCOME
The biggest shame in all of this is your comment about the Kia/Hyundai warranty is totally reasonable.
Take that reasonableness, and plaster it everywhere. Go rant about orange man bad somewhere else, but it’s fucking tiring as fuck seeing it here.
I’m no fan of you know who but the op seems to be…not right, as my Oklahoma mama would say to be polite.
Who elected you gatekeeper? Dial it back around 90%.
Being long-winded and knowledgeable on some topics doesn’t give you any authority. Especially when you’re so horrendously wrong on numerous other topics you spout off on.
Play nice in the sandbox.
Trump “sort of talking to the UAW” perfectly describes Trump’s intent. Matt explains the situation very well and even goes on to describe how few UAW workers actually chose to attend.