Kia is recalling 23,000 EVs over fears that a worker forgot to bolt the seats down

[zohaibahd]

Facepalm: Well, this is certainly an embarrassing blunder for Kia. The Korean automaker has been forced to recall nearly 23,000 of its brand-new EV9 electric SUVs in the US market after discovering that the rear seats were improperly installed.

A total of 22,883 EV9 models built at Kia's plant in Gwangmyeong, South Korea, between September 25, 2023, and October 15, 2024, may be missing mounting bolts for the second and/or third-row seats. This information comes from documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Interestingly, Kia's report places the blame squarely on a single "plant assembly worker" who allegedly made an "error" and failed to properly secure all the seat bolts on an unspecified number of vehicles.

The issue first surfaced in September when a customer reported that the third-row seats in their 2024 EV9 were not properly mounted due to missing bolts. Shortly afterward, Kia identified a second affected vehicle in the US.

In an effort to determine the extent of the issue, Kia inspected 90 randomly selected EV9s imported from its South Korean factory. Surprisingly, none of the inspected vehicles were found to have missing or loose seat mounting hardware.

After being alerted by its Korean operations about the error linked to the two US cases, Kia opted to issue a recall for nearly 23,000 EV9s, including those already delivered to customers or awaiting shipment. An additional 990 units still awaiting delivery were inspected, with none found to have the seat bolt problem.

While the NHTSA report doesn't specify how many bolts may be missing in affected vehicles, the primary concern is that improperly mounted seats could detach in the event of a crash, increasing the risk of passenger injury.

To address the issue, Kia dealers will inspect the second and third-row seats on all recalled models and tighten or install any missing mounting bolts free of charge. Since the affected vehicles were not built consecutively, owners are advised to check with their local dealer to confirm whether their EV9 is part of the recall.

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Kia is recalling 23,000 EVs over fears that a worker forgot to bolt the seats down

 

[Megalomaniac]

Do they even do a final inspection before they put the car outside.

 

[WhiteLeaff]

Something doesn't sound right about this report...

 

[p51d007]

Hey Joe, how come you have so many nuts & bolts left over?

 

[wiyosaya]

Seems like something like this would become blatantly obvious very quickly.

 

[RudyBob]

Some guy on the line always knows better than the engineer, just ask them

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Some guy on the line always knows better than the engineer, just ask them

To be fair, we've seen plenty of engineering failures over the last decade from most any brand where cost cutting was done in a blatantly "this is gonna fail in 2 weeks" variety, that the third party market had to step in and fix.

 

[toooooot]

Hey Joe, how come you have so many nuts & bolts left over?

Every time I fix something, every time one of them magically stays unused.
Not in a car though, I use my focused mode for it.

 

[NicktheWVAHick]

One worker….23,000 cars……no wonder he was so productive.

 

[Jarenien]

Don't worry, seat bolts are not primary reason to pull you over, so you're good.

I'll see myself out.

 

[Gars]

So many ppl give op, but they never even step inside a car plant?

 

[BadThad]

Did they remember to install the immobilizers? lololol

 

[Endymio]

Do they even do a final inspection before they put the car outside.

Do you really think it's feasible to inspect every single part in a vehicle to check that it was properly installed?

To be fair, we've seen plenty of engineering failures over the last decade from most any brand where cost cutting was done in a blatantly "this is gonna fail in 2 weeks" variety..

Well so far they've found a total of two vehicles that were missing some of the 3rd row seat belts ... and out of the 1000+ that Kia randomly inspected afterwards, none were found to have the issue. They could simply ask new owners to check themselves to verify -- but then some numb-nut wouldn't do so, have an accident, claim the missing bolt led to a death or serious injury, then sue Kia for $5.9 billion.

 

[Win7user]

Gen Z

 

[Megalomaniac]

Do you really think it's feasible to inspect every single part in a vehicle to check that it was properly installed?

Well so far they've found a total of two vehicles that were missing some of the 3rd row seat belts ... and out of the 1000+ that Kia randomly inspected afterwards, none were found to have the issue. They could simply ask new owners to check themselves to verify -- but then some numb-nut wouldn't do so, have an accident, claim the missing bolt led to a death or serious injury, then sue Kia for $5.9 billion.

O forgive me....apparently lose chairs, shaky chairs...none of that ever is noticed as they literally sit in them and drive them out.

 

[Endymio]

O forgive me....apparently lose chairs, shaky chairs...none of that ever is noticed as they literally sit in them and drive them out.

I'll forgive the fact you didn't read the article. These are third-row seats, which isn't generally the first choice for the driver to sit in. And even these seats are partially bolted down -- they just lack all the bolts required to properly restrain them in a high-speed accident.

 

[Megalomaniac]

I'll forgive the fact you didn't read the article. These are third-row seats, which isn't generally the first choice for the driver to sit in. And even these seats are partially bolted down -- they just lack all the bolts required to properly restrain them in a high-speed accident.

Won't change the fact they should be checking the seats.