Buying Second Kia Niro EV with Damaged Gearbox

  • Thread starter Thread starter spazstic
  • Start date Start date
  • Replies Replies 13
  • Views Views 4K
S

spazstic

New Member
Bought a 2019 Niro EV Premium brand new. Drove it for nearly 70k miles before it was totaled in an accident a few weeks ago. Never had any noise or issue from the motor/gearbox.

Looking for a replacement now. Trying to get the same year and under $25k because:
1. CA charges up to $175 a year extra for EVs model year 2020+
2. I can get a $4k federal tax credit on a used EV, granted it costs less than $25k.

Test drove an EX (non-premium) this weekend with 40k miles. Could tell the gearbox had the failing bearings before I'd even driven a block. Told the salesman no thanks. He came back saying they would have it fully repaired by Kia as it's under warranty, if I was willing to wait. Thought this might be a better deal as I'd be getting a new motor and rebuilt gearbox. However...

I have a few questions for you all:
1. How long is this repair taking now? I know they have a flowchart to follow and I see others posting last year waiting 7-10 months.
2. Will the motor be replaced or only the bearings? (710 to 712 upgrade)
3. Were there improvements to the 2020/2021/2022 model years that correct this issue, and I'd be better off just paying more for a newer model that fixed this issue?

Bummed that we had a perfectly good car that apparently skirted the gearbox issue and now it's a struggle to find a replacement. Oh well.

I used to be a mechanic so replacing the gearbox bearings myself in the future when it's not under warranty wouldn't be the end of the world, but it would be inconvenient.

Appreciate any insight from the community.
 
Parts delays from KIA/Hyundai are only part of the puzzle.

If they stick to the TSB protocol, only the next part will be ordered after evaluation of the completed step. The delay built onto that is three months. If tge requested next part is unavailable, you could be beyond six months each of the last two steps.

Rather than go through this consider leasing a Niro EV, where $5000 comes "off the top" against the cost.

https://www.edmunds.com/kia/niro-ev/2023/deals/
 
spazstic said:
Could tell the gearbox had the failing bearings before I'd even driven a block
Click to expand...

I'm at 25K miles on my 2019, retirement and COVID kept me from driving as many miles as I normally would, but I still worry about the 710 motor, which I believe is what I have in mine. From your perspective as a mechanic minded person, how could you tell that the car had the failing bearings? Mine has never had any noise, nor any sort of glitch in acceleration, it's always linear and smooth as glass.

I was thinking like you, I'll pay for this car and keep it FOREVER! I like everything about it, especially low total cost of ownership. But then, just for fun, I started looking at the 2023 models. They call them Wind and Wave now. And it seems like they've brought back a more traditional styling, I don't need my car to scream "I'm an EV" at everybody. I also noticed that they have moved from FWD to RWD, even now offering AWD. I would love to have an EV that did AWD as well as a Toyota or a Subaru. I keep my Highlander just for mountain pass trips and occasional snow in the low lands, but having 2 drivers and 3 cars is expensive. To be honest, I paid too much for what I got, and I wish it had more range, but I do so hate the thought of going through another purchasing process. Also, based on my experience with buying dozens of new and used cars over the years, it seems that some cars roll off the line done just right, and they just keep on going, and going, and going. Others seem to be cursed and just keep breaking and breaking and breaking. Then you have the VW experience where you Megatronic unit goes out and it suddenly costs you huge dollars and forces tough decisions about how to unload it.

Good luck in your search, I started looking at used EVs before I bought new and decided that the risks were too high since everything is so different and new (to me anyway) with EVs.
 
Last edited:
Something came back from a Google search, but I didn't read it in detail. After I got your reply, I looked again. I did find this link at Car & Driver:

https://www.caranddriver.com/kia/ev6

I think the mini-link that Google returned was wrong about switching to RWD, or maybe it fed me the specs from the gassers. I apologize for the misinformation, but it does look like AWD is an option starting in 2023.
 
Jim Matthews said:
Parts delays from KIA/Hyundai are only part of the puzzle.

If they stick to the TSB protocol, only the next part will be ordered after evaluation of the completed step. The delay built onto that is three months. If tge requested next part is unavailable, you could be beyond six months each of the last two steps.

Rather than go through this consider leasing a Niro EV, where $5000 comes "off the top" against the cost.

https://www.edmunds.com/kia/niro-ev/2023/deals/
Click to expand...
We put 70k miles on the car in 3 years, including one year of light driving during COVID. I don't think a lease will work for us.

It looks like we should have just purchased the standard Niro EV a week ago when the $7,500 credit was still in place. Could have had a new car for $30k. As it stands it looks like we'll be paying the same price for a used car. Grrrr........
 
TheHellYouSay said:
Something came back from a Google search, but I didn't read it in detail. After I got your reply, I looked again. I did find this link at Car & Driver:

https://www.caranddriver.com/kia/ev6

I think the mini-link that Google returned was wrong about switching to RWD, or maybe it fed me the specs from the gassers. I apologize for the misinformation, but it does look like AWD is an option starting in 2023.
Click to expand...
The EV6 is an entirely different car built on a different chassis. I'd be surprised if they continue to manufacture the Niro EV in the next year or two given the competition to the EV6.
 
spazstic said:
The EV6 is an entirely different car built on a different chassis. I'd be surprised if they continue to manufacture the Niro EV in the next year or two given the competition to the EV6.
Click to expand...

Thank you for clearing that up. I just don't pay attention, I had concluded that Niro had already morphed into EV6, so was confused by Niro Wave and Niro Wind. I think that KIA has a tough time with marketing, but it's not surprising to see a car company make a dozen different models with a half dozen different styling lines or whatever (EX, Premium, Limited, etc.).

As long as I've got the chance to ***** about it, given that I think it's a poor marketing decision, but Kia ought to be giving away that UVO/Connect thing. And improve upon it, because it could very well be a way to give your EV a competitive edge when it comes to deciding on which one of the many models you want to buy. I think that's a big part of Tesla's success, it's ability to do over-the-air updates and provide so many features to protect your car (sentry mode) and help make your day a little easier. It should be so obvious that selling a car hamstrung, then offering to sell subscriptions to invoke those special features, peeves some people.

Also wanted to say that I was sorry to hear about the OP misfortune in having that the $7,500 rebate taken away, I was not aware that a new law had been put in place. I understand the whole "Buy American" thing, but sometimes that limits one's choices pretty severely.
 
spazstic said:
I have a few questions for you all:
1. How long is this repair taking now? I know they have a flowchart to follow and I see others posting last year waiting 7-10 months.
2. Will the motor be replaced or only the bearings? (710 to 712 upgrade)
3. Were there improvements to the 2020/2021/2022 model years that correct this issue, and I'd be better off just paying more for a newer model that fixed this issue?
Click to expand...
2. The details of the remedy used for a warranty repair would normally be Kia's business alone, as you would know, but a new motor will likely look new and you can read the part number off the end if that interests you. No one knows what has changed over those variations.
3. There have been several issues at play between the motor and GRU and it's not clear what has been improved over the years. Certainly tapping noise complaints have dropped off considerably over the last 2 years. But I'm fairly certain that they have failed to tackle the easiest of all to fix, the dirty oil issue and so it would be to your advantage to dust off the tools and change the gear oil at around 600 miles and again at about 3,000.
 
Jim Matthews said:
The lease is KIA'S backdoor rebate.

You sign on with the lease, and KIA reduces your "capitated cost".
The buyer then "buys out" the lease at a reduced price - without penalty.
Click to expand...
Was not aware of this... I'll need to speak to Kia and see what the options are. Thank you for the info!
 
KiwiME said:
2. The details of the remedy used for a warranty repair would normally be Kia's business alone, as you would know, but a new motor will likely look new and you can read the part number off the end if that interests you. No one knows what has changed over those variations.
3. There have been several issues at play between the motor and GRU and it's not clear what has been improved over the years. Certainly tapping noise complaints have dropped off considerably over the last 2 years. But I'm fairly certain that they have failed to tackle the easiest of all to fix, the dirty oil issue and so it would be to your advantage to dust off the tools and change the gear oil at around 600 miles and again at about 3,000.
Click to expand...
Good to know. I've always changed engine oil at 1,000 miles and then every 5,000 after. Never touched the gear oil in the Niro - I don't recall the owner's manual specifying any gear oil change, just coolant. The only thing I did on that car in 70,000 miles was change the cabin air filter every 15,000 miles.
 
We have a 2019 Niro EV for which the bearings just failed. I made an appointment to see the dealer on a Friday in late March. They replaced the bracket per the TSB bulletin, and on the following Monday they told me that they would need to replace the "traction unit", which I believe is the motor/gearbox combo. We had our car back two Fridays after that, so we had their rental for a total of two weeks.

I'm hoping that the new bracket will keep the new versions of the motor and gearbox from failing, but I don't know whether that's the true root cause. Yes, I've seen the Ukrainian video.
 
peter_in_cali said:
We have a 2019 Niro EV for which the bearings just failed. I made an appointment to see the dealer on a Friday in late March. They replaced the bracket per the TSB bulletin, and on the following Monday they told me that they would need to replace the "traction unit", which I believe is the motor/gearbox combo. We had our car back two Fridays after that, so we had their rental for a total of two weeks.

I'm hoping that the new bracket will keep the new versions of the motor and gearbox from failing, but I don't know whether that's the true root cause. Yes, I've seen the Ukrainian video.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info. That's incredibly fast, from what I've seen. I wonder if it's because they were footing the bill for the rental.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top