Two problems related to carrier/rack have been reported for the 2013 Kia Motor Optima. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2013 Kia Motor Optima based on all problems reported for the 2013 Optima.
Driving home on the highway on a Sunday evening on may 19, 2019 in oakland, California, my sunroof (specifically, the middle panel of the three glass roof panels on the kia Optima sx 2013) suddenly and without any warning cracked, letting off an ear-piercing pop. I drove to a safe place with my hazard lights on, hearing pieces of glass fall off of my car into the lane behind me. The sunroof was closed at the time of the incident, and fortunately, the fabric sun shade underneath was closed, so I was spared from the shower of glass and injury other car owners have experienced during this explosion of glass. There were no other vehicles around me at the time of the incident and no debris, and I was driving straight on a smoothly paved road. When I inspected the sunroof, there was a huge hole in the center of the glass panel and the broken glass around the hole was pointing upward into the sky. The entire glass panel was shattered but still in place. There was no debris or a rock inside the sun shade underneath that could explain the hole. It was altogether eerie and very frightening and traumatizing, and I was grateful I wasn't killed by any potential accident that could have been caused by this unsafe sunroof explosion. I am in process of getting it repaired at the dealership where I bought the car used, and I have made a claim with both my car insurance company (geico, who has not been very helpful in acknowledging this as a manufacturing defect), and with kia consumer affairs. Kia also has not acknowledged that this is a defect, and none of the kia dealership service representatives or managers I've spoken with (six of them) have heard of this before.
Shortly after getting onto the freeway on my way to work in the morning I heard a loud pop followed by what sounded like light rain hitting the car and the roar of the freeway. We quickly pulled the car to the side of the freeway and upon looking at the roof of the car there was a huge hole in the center of the car's sun roof with sharp shards of glass tilted towards the sky and large cracks extending from one side of the sunroof frame to the other. Conditions were raining, 7:30am and about 50 degrees f outside. The canvas screen was closed to catch the falling glass so no glass fell into the passenger compartment of the car. There were no injuries, and no debris or other cars in the area.