Gas Recirculation Valve (egr Valve) problems of the 2009 Kia Motor Optima

The vehicle had three expensive problems in rapid succession. The first was the transmission which started a severely hard downshift on braking from about 25 mph. The whole car shuddered and felt as if we slammed on the brakes for a second. After troubleshooting, kia told us we needed a new transmission for $2700 with no help from kia. After this repair, not even two weeks later, the air bag light came on. Diagnosis from kia, defective sensor in the passenger seat, not covered by warranty and a $1500 replacement estimate. We decided not to fix this item because we were going to trade the car in on another make and cut our losses. The third problem which occurred one week later was a failure to start after parking the car for an hour at a doctor's office, stranding my wife in 95 degree heat. The car was towed to a non-kia repair shop as I no longer want anything to do with kia who will deny any claim against their so-called quality products and will be disposing of the car as soon as it is running again since kia does not stand behind its defective products. After three major failures in a short period of time we feel this is an unsafe vehicle.

After returning from work and parking my vehicle at home, the car sat in my driveway in 40 degree weather for approximately 12 hrs. I woke up the next morning and found my car on fire and is a total loss. The police and fire department were called and dispatched to my home. The fire department extinguished the fire and determined it was probably an electrical fire. There is no remote starter installed or any other accessories installed in the vehicle after purchase. The fire started in the engine compartment and started spontaneously, perhaps due to a manufacturer defect in the electrical system. I was about an hour away from leaving with this car to return to my office and I am concerned it could of started while I was in it, perhaps causing injuries or death. I am also concerned that if this could happen to me, that there are other vehicles with the same faulty electrical system and it could happen to someone else. I believe kia has a hidden manufacturing defect as was described in my incident, and its very possible it exists on other kia vehicles. Please take my concerns seriously and I think kia needs to look into this matter ASAP. Although the car is damaged beyond repair, I welcome and encourage kia to take the vehicle back to assure it doesn't happen again to anyone else. Updated 03/12/13.