Staff Reporter
KIA Motors South is conduct a voluntary safety recall of approximately 1266 KIA Rio 2017 model year to inspect the operation of the rear door child locks.
The manufacturer estimates that the Kia Rio models imported to South Africa to have been affected by faulty rear-door child locks.
KIA Motors Corporation has advised that there may be some Rio vehicles where the child locking function of the rear door may be inoperative due to the actuator cable length being out of specification.
The culprit is an actuator cable that does not meet the necessary specification and was fitted to those Rios assembled in Korea between 10 April and 5 June 2017.
As a result, the mechanism that locks the rear doors, and prevents children from opening them from the inside, may not work.
Kia can identify the batch number of the incorrect cables and the batch of Rio vehicles the cables may have been used in, but they cannot be 100 percent sure that the incorrect cables were used in all of those 1 266 vehicles – which is why they are recalling them to be checked.
Owners of the involved vehicles will receive telephonic notification from KIA Motors South Africa’s call centre, beginning in the week of 4 September 2017. Owners of the involved vehicles will be assisted in having their KIA dealer perform the inspection and, if necessary, repair of the Rear Door Child Locks.
“The inspection is quick and simple, and should take no longer than 10 minutes to complete. Should the repair be carried out, it should take no longer than 1 hour, although customers should be aware that the time required to inspect and potentially repair is dependent on the vehicle’s position in the work queue on the day of the booking,” the company said in a statement.