Marina Roy has become the lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit against Kia for alleged panoramic sunroof defects. The class action lawsuit is seeking compensatory damages at an amount to be determined at a later date, as well as punitive and exemplary damages temporarily assessed at $1 million, according to court documents.
According to her class action complaint, Roy underwent several issues with the panoramic sunroof in her 2016 Kia Sportage. The complaint also alleges at least five models should be “deemed too dangerous to drive” due to spontaneous panoramic sunroof breakage. The five models listed in the class action complaint are:
- 2011-2019 Kia Sorento;
- 2011-2019 Kia Optima;
- 2011-2019 Kia Sportage;
- 2014-2019 Kia Soul; and
- 2014-2019 Kia Cadenza.
Quality Breach
The complaint also alleges “Kia breached its obligation of quality warranty by selling defective vehicle models.”
According to Roy, the automaker does not respect its warranties or its quality guarantees regarding its panoramic sunroofs. She also claims the sunroofs allegedly explode because of defects in its design, manufacture and installation. “Kia Canada conceals the defective nature to continue selling the vehicles,” a portion of the class action complaint reads.
According to Roy, Kia Canada “misleads its consumers by marketing its vehicles as meeting the highest safety standards.” The plaintiff also alleges Kia customers began experiencing issues with their panoramic sunroofs and began filing complaints about shattered sunroofs in 2012. In December 2012, the Korea Automobile Testing and Research Institute (KATRI) began an investigation into sunroof breakage incidents regarding other automakers, according to the class action complaint. In 2013, KATRI published the results of its investigation, of which Kia was allegedly notified that its panoramic sunroofs were susceptible to breakage.
Look to a future edition of glassBYTEs for continuing coverage of this lawsuit.
This happened to me while I was driving down the road in my Kia Optima.