Kia Seltos was taken out of the dealership for an entire night – Owner tracks SUV via Kia Connect app
In a rather shocking turn of events, Kia Connect telematics suite exposed joyriding of dealer personnel after a Kia Seltos GTX+ Diesel AT Pewter Olive was handed over to M/s Sun Globe authorised Kia dealership in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh for repairs. Owner of said Seltos raised concerns over potential misuse.
Kia Connect Telematics
Automotive technology has been seeing new heights with every year passing by. Once flagship tech, usually trickles down to mainstream vehicles and one of them is telematics. Kia Connect telematics suite is now on offer with its most affordable Sonet, something that we detailed in our long-term final report.\
Mr Priyank Shah, spouse of said Kia Seltos owner, had dropped their vehicle at M/s Sun Globe authorised Kia dealership at Bhopal on 26th October 2023 for minor accidental damages. Repairs were done and Mr Shah was notified of the same on 25th November and collection of said Seltos from Sun Globe was scheduled for a later date.
To owner’s surprise, Kia Connect telematics suite began to ping connected mobile phone regarding usage of the vehicle on 26th November at noon. When Mr Shah used the live tracking feature on Kia Connect mobile app, the horrors began to unravel. We say horrors because one of the stops included “Desi Sharab Shop” near Ashima Mall, Bhopal.
Mr. Shah took screenshots of commutes made by their Seltos from here onwards, sensing a fishy situation. In the screenshots above, we can see the vehicle going over 100 km/h speeds and multiple trips covered, including an overnight stay outside of dealership premises and brought back to the compound on 27th November morning.
We can also see other patterns suggesting misuse of customer’s vehicle by dealership personnel too. For example, the 28-minute idle time for a 1 km commute distance suggests turning on AC at customer’s expense. When Mr Shah visited Sun Globe authorised Kia dealership on 27th noon unannounced, service department had no idea of the whereabouts of said Seltos vehicle, the previous day.
Service advisor fired
After producing concrete evidence suggesting joyriding of their vehicle, it came to light that service advisor was the culprit here. Sun Globe dealership has fired said service advisor after it was brought to their notice. Kia Care customer support, however, didn’t provide a satisfactory response, according to owner.
Kia Care regretted this inconvenience and promised necessary action in response to owner’s email. Later that day, Kia Care changed the status of the complaint to “Case Resolved”. Mr Shah mentioned that Kia India has not reached out to them regarding preventive measures for future occurrences of similar issues, as this blunder from the service advisor could have had life-altering implications for Mr and Mrs Shah.
This incident sheds light on the need to track one’s vehicle even though they have officially handed over their vehicle to an authorised dealership. This is true for any brand, and not just Kia. The Kia Connect telematics suite did a commendable job in alerting owners regarding usage of vehicle and providing thorough statistics for the same.
