Kia Optimas Have Defective Door Locks, Class Action Says

Kia Motors America, Inc. was hit with a class action lawsuit in a California federal court, alleging that its Kia Optimas made in model years 2001 through 2006 are made with defective door locks that pose a potential safety hazard.

The Kia class action lawsuit was filed on Wednesday by plaintiff Colleen Davison, who owns a 2003 Kia Optima. She claims that in June 2013 problems began to develop with her Optima with both the driver’s side door and the passenger’s door in the front of the car.

Her first problem was that couldn’t unlock the doors with the key fob while outside of the vehicle and “merely touching the door handle would trigger the doors to lock, preventing” her from entering the vehicle, and she was required to open her door manually with the key, the Kia Optima class action lawsuit explains.

Now, Davison claims that the car won’t unlock from the inside and it must now be unlocked from the outside.

“On more than one occasion, as a result of the door lock defect, Ms. Davison was locked into the vehicle and could only exit by climbing over the front seat into the back of the vehicle and exiting the rear door,” the Kia class action lawsuit says.

“After having been trapped in the front of the vehicle, Ms. Davison could no longer take the risk of locking her vehicle while driving,” it adds.

When Davison called her local Kia dealership in Olympia, Washington, she was told that since the warranty that came with the car had expired, she would have to pay $500 to have the door lock problem fixed, she explains in her class action lawsuit.

However, she could not afford the repair at the time and continued to drive the vehicle with the door lock problems for a few more months until unlocking the doors grew more difficult.

“By September, Ms. Davison was unable to unlock her front doors by any method . . . which meant that her vehicle could no longer be locked (either when driving or when it was parked and left alone,” the Kia Optima defective door lock class action lawsuit states.

“At this point her Kia Optima posed an unreasonable safety hazard. A vehicle door lock that will not unlock on demand poses a clear and definitive safety risk to vehicle occupants who may need to egress the vehicle quickly in the even of a crash, vehicle fire, or other emergent circumstance,” according to the Kia class action lawsuit.

Davison was able to have the driver’s side door lock repaired in February 2014. However, the passenger side door still doesn’t work properly.

The class action lawsuit cites “hundreds of Kia owners complaining about the same problem” on internet forums as well as complaints filed with the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration.

Davison is seeking to represent a nationwide class of Kia Optima owners of model years 2001-2006.

The Kia Optima class action lawsuit is charging the automaker with violating the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act and violating California’s Unfair Competition Law.

The plaintiff is represented by Michael D. Braun of the Braun Law Group, P.C. and by Roy A. Katriel of The Katriel Law Firm.

The Kia Optima Defective Door Lock Class Action Lawsuit is Colleen Davison v. Kia Motors America, Inc., in the U.S. District Court in the Central District of California in the Southern Division.

UPDATE: The Kia Optima Defective Door Lock class action lawsuit was dismissed on June 29, 2015.