2023 Kia Forte Steering

Car has steering issues. When driving on flat straight roads steering wheel will slightly tighten and start to pull to the right. This happens about 70% of the time. Resistance on the steering wheel is needed in order for the car not to drive off the road or into another vehicle. It is hard keep the car in the lanes at times. Car was kept in the shop for 4+ months and verified by the dealership that there was an alignment issue. It has had 5+ alignments. Dealerships have not fixed the issue, but are now saying the car is driving as designed. Alignment has been done by a different dealership two more times after they said, the car was driving as designed. There are recalls on this car for steering issues, but I was told my vin is not associated.

Issue seems to be with the steering of the car. It is very stiff and difficult to maneuver. Steering needs to be hold tightly to keep car in the lane, else car keeps on going towards the right side. I took the car to service center as well and they also acknowledged the problem and as per my understanding they fixed some steering angle issue. But, issue is still persisting and I tried to take the appointment but seems like no Kia service center has appointment available before one month. Requesting to look into this issue so that it can be fixed or I can return the car.

The contact owns a 2023 Kia Forte. The contact stated while pulling out of the driveway and making a left turn, there was an abnormal clunking sound coming from underneath the vehicle. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer and test driven the vehicle and diagnosed but no issue was found. However, the contact stated that the failure reoccurred increasingly while making left turns with a clunking sound coming from the floorboard. The contact related the failure to NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V906000 (Steering); however, the VIN was not included. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 80.

New 2023 Kia Forte LXS (barely 1020 miles) steering wheel feels stiffer and steering the car becomes challenging when driving at or above 45 mph with lane-assist feature set to 'Warning only'. Vehicle starts to steer away (wander) automatically. This issue is subtle when driving at lower speed such as 20 -30 mph. Passengers in the back seat felt unsafe including the driver at the time of this occurrence. I emailed the dealer twice but didn't hear back for 2-3 weeks. Then I called dealer to vent out the frustration over the issue then they asked me to visit the Service center for inspection of the problem. Right from the beginning, service dept. was in denial of such an issue after test driving the car. In the first visit, they checked the wheel alignment which was OKAY. In the second visit, they sent me back saying no appointments were available. In third appointment the technician turned blind-spot feature to 'warning only' and sent me back. So far these visits or appointments were atleast a week or more apart. I drove the vehicle again with the damn features off such as Blind-Spot, Lane-assist still the issue persists with steering wheel being felt stiffer at higher speed and softer or loose at lower speed. I have another car, the steering wheel of which remains softer when driving at 50 mph or more however the new 2023 Kia Forte does not.