2024 Kia Sportage VISIBILITY/WIPER

6” Snow ice storm & negative degree temps 12/13/25 used heated windshield deicer. On 12/15 driving to work on a country road no other traffic, heard pop cracking noise above my head checked sunroof snow ice melting no visible cracks thought noise from thawing ice. Parked vehicle in my home garage while I went out of town. Returned home 12/22 found large crack origination point in front windshield originating in glass down the middle of rear view mirror sensor housing black box mounted on inner windshield the crack spans from top middle to bottom of black box glass over to right center half of windshield. Believe this is a manufacture defect design flaw low quality integrity of glass weaker than standard glass making it more susceptible to temperature changes or minor impact. Entire crack feels smooth interior exterior glass as if the crack is in the inner layers of glass windshield. Due to multi complaints & prior class action lawsuit regarding manufacture defect of KIA windshields I am reporting my complaint as it is quite similar to others complaints, issues & lawsuits. The massive crack in windshield is a driving safety hazard & a manufacture defect that needs recalled & resolved before injury or death occurs. KIA must acknowledge, issue recall &/or post a bulletin, accept responsibility this is a manufactures defect, notify the public and replace the windshields under Good Faith Customer Relations Warranty

What I assume happened to my wiper blades: In December of 2024 we got a lot of heavy snow. I turned on my car to heat it up while I worked on cleaning off the outside of the car. My wipers were set to auto so the car automatically tried to clear the snow from the windshield. I did not notice this since they didn't move due to the snow weight. Once snow was removed I noticed the wipers did not work so I brought it in for the dealership to look at it. They determined that the gear had been stripped and needed to be replaced and informed me that this is not covered under warranty. Since the repair I have not driven the car in snow, no longer use the auto wiper function, and am sure to clean off all snow/ice before I turn the blades on. End of February I turned the wipers on to clean the windshield by pulling lever back. No fluid came out, the blades went back and forth a few times and then only one blade started coming up while the other lay in its off position. Determined that my car is not holding any wiper fluid (unsure if this was not connected properly during last repair). Have an appointment to get the car looked at again.

On 4/42024 I was driving home and there was a mix of rain and snow. My riverside windshield wiper went out of sync and slammed into the passenger side damaging the blade, it then went over the edge and was stuck on the windshield frame overhanging the side view mirror. It made it very difficult to drive. When driving behind any other vehicle ot creates a scenario where you can't see how far or close you are to another vehicle. When I got to the dealership to have it looked at, they tried to blame it on a buildup of the wet snow that happened overnight. I cleared off my car completely before going to work. The fix was they had to tighten the linkage. While I was there, I overheard them complain in the service department that they had a lot of wiper related incidents that day.

The contact owns a 2024 Kia Sportage. The contact stated while the vehicle was parked, the windshield cracked without impact. No warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was not taken to a dealer; the vehicle was not diagnosed. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 23,000.

Not really sure what happened, but last week the temperature suddenly dropped below freezing and there was ice built up on the windshield. We started the car and turned on the windshield defrost at high and we began to drive the car after the windshield was clear of ice and about 10 minutes later we noticed a crack develop on the windshield going from where the hot air from the defrost was hitting the windshield. and through out the day we noticed the crack grow exactly along the line where the defrost air would hit it. The crack is connected to a 2 mm round spot where a rock chip hit the windshield a few weeks ago but the crack seems to have started because of the temperature difference that was caused by the windshield defrost.