Should I repair engine, buy, or lease a new vehicle?

Submitted by mastiffmamaWA t3_zyfet1 in personalfinance

Without warning, the engine in my 2017 Kia Sorento blew. Apparently, this is super common but no recall by Kia & no warning lights ever came on. We still owe 9K and the cost for engine replacement is 10K. We have a couple thousand cash on hand but not sure what our best option is. If the Kia were still running, it would be worth 10-12K. Is it best to have the engine replaced (we'd have to pull money from our retirement to do so) or is it better to pay off the kia loan and buy or lease a new or used car & risk a higher interest rate than we currently have on the kia loan? If we lease or buy a different vehicle, we wouldn't have to pull money from our retirement; we'd just continue making payments on the Kia until we can sell it as is. No idea what to do.

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rmg22893 t1_j25k65g wrote

Is your Sorento no longer under the 10 year/100k powertrain warranty?

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mastiffmamaWA OP t1_j25kj1c wrote

We bought it used & it only came with a 60K mile warranty. It just turned 100K prior to the engine blowing

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rmg22893 t1_j25l4vm wrote

Powertrain warranty and general warranty are two different things. Unless the powertrain warranty is non-transferrable between owners, I would beat down Kia's door and see if you can get them to cover it, especially since it occurred so close to the tail end of the powertrain warranty. All it would cost you is a bit of time.

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mastiffmamaWA OP t1_j25m4tt wrote

Only the limited power train warranty transfers unfortunately.

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jvac23 t1_j25ijkm wrote

Had to make this choice at beginning of COVID when cars were scarce. Our Odyssey blew a cylinder. Since we couldn’t find one, we repaired the engine. It kept crapping out in different ways for a couple years till we bought a new one.

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tomNJUSA t1_j25niqf wrote

Go to Kia directly and be an annoying squeaky wheel. I had a turbo die at 55,000 miles on a VW. It was covered through 50,000. I called VW directly and they covered it.

If the dealer is giving you that price find a private mechanic and see what their price is. See if they can put a used engine in.

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mastiffmamaWA OP t1_j25o1sq wrote

Thank you! The 10k is for a used engine (includes labor) from a private mechanic. I will reach out to kia again. So far, they haven't been helpful at all.

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CelticsWin7 t1_j25ofbo wrote

Either fix it and sell it or sell it how it is. Regardless, get rid of it as soon as possible. Kia is notorious for building terrible cars.

Buy or lease a Toyota or Honda. Very reliable brands.

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