Kia driver's anger (From Witney Gazette)

Kia driver's anger

8:34am Wednesday 26th July 2006

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OWNERS of Kia cars bought from the only dealer in Oxfordshire will not have their warranties honoured by the firm after a row broke out with the manufacturer.

Drivers are being told they must take their cars to the nearest Kia dealership, in Swindon, to have work carried out because Kernahan of Witney is refusing to honour the manufacturer's warranty.

The dealership terminated its Kia franchise, which it had run since 2004, in September and said it decided to stop honouring warranties because of a dispute with the Korean car maker over paying the bills for warranty work Kernahan had carried out.

Kia said it could not comment on details of the dispute as the two companies were in the midst of working to resolve legal action arising from Kernahan's decision to terminate the Kia franchise.

The firm, part of the Kia Motors Corporation, said it wanted to assure drivers that warranties issued as standard for three years on new cars were valid at any other authorised Kia dealership.

But there are no other appointed Kia dealerships in the county. The closest is in Swindon.

Kernahan managing director Martin Kernahan said: "We have a number of issues with Kia Motors UK, which unfortunately includes their failing to pay bills in a timely manner and in some cases completely failing to pay at all.

"As a result we took the decision last September to terminate the Kia sales franchise, but we continued to support our customers by retaining the aftersales element of the franchise, with a view to resolving the outstanding issues.

"Unfortunately, the situation has not improved. We cannot continue to carry out Kia warranty work without being paid, which I think is a reasonable position to take."

Kia spokesman Sue Cugley said her firm was sorry about what had happened and wanted to assure customers that the warranty on Kia vehicles was valid at any authorised Kia dealership.

She added: "Kernahan's and Kia are currently working to resolve a legal dispute arising from Kernahan's decision to terminate the Kia franchise. Therefore we cannot discuss the specifics of the dispute.

"We are working hard to appoint another dealer in the Oxford/Witney area."

Kernahan, which was set up more than 40 years ago, was traditionally an MG Rover dealership, but also took on the Kia range in 2004.

At the start of last year MG Rover collapsed and Kernahan was appointed sell Ford cars in July, 2005.

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