Lemberg Law is investigating complaints that the 2022 Kia Carnival has power sliding doors that are too powerful and therefore a safety risk. Vehicle owners report that the doors close too forcefully, often resulting in injuries, especially to children.
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There is a serious problem with the 2022 Kia Carnival’s power sliding doors. Multiple complaints and reports of injury have resulted in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opening an investigation.
The NHTSA notified Kia Motor America on June 24, 2022, that their Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) had opened a Preliminary Evaluation (PE22-004). This was prompted by seven reports of the power sliding door (PSD) auto reverse malfunctioning in certain 2022 Kia Carnival multi-purpose vehicles (MPVs).
According to the NHTSA letter to Kia, two complaints alleged injuries with an arm or hand trapped by the PSD. It also states that consumers allege “larger than normal forces are required to halt and reverse the direction of the moving door.”
An ODI resume states that an estimated 24,312 vehicles may be affected.
The NHTSA requested comprehensive and very specific information from Kia about 2022 Carnivals, including when and where they were sold. They want full disclosure and details of all consumer complaints, reports of crashes, injuries, fatalities, reports involving a fire, and any property damage claims.
The letter warns Kia that if the company doesn’t respond promptly and fully, they could be liable for civil penalties.
The first complaint about the 2022 Carnival’s PSDs was filed with the NHTSA in July:
“Sliding doors seem unsafe. They take a tremendous amount of force to stop the automatic door from closing. There is no safety mechanism to prevent a child from getting stuck and/or extremely hurt if caught in sliding doors while closing. Seems like there should be a lesser resistance necessary to cause doors to open back up if encountering an object to prevent injury.”
Since then there have been many more complaints including reports of injury to or incidents involving children. One complaint states that Kia maintains the PSD’s auto-reverse feature shouldn’t be relied on a primary safety feature:
“’Auto reopen feature of power sliding side door FAILS TO REOPEN by not ‘sensing’ a SOFT item obstruction (i.e. arm, leg, hand, pet) when closing. Daughter had severe bruising to her arm (i.e. sliding door significantly squeezed arm).”
Even though the sensor was replaced by the KIA dealership, the complaint states that the “safety problem still persists. Continued talks with KIA eventually resulted in KIA stating (in a written letter) that “the auto-reverse feature is a supplemental feature and should never be relied upon as a primary safety feature.”
“The automatic doors will close even if a child or something is in the way. Kia has acknowledged that the sensor may not work, but this is a huge safety issue when dealing with small children. I was loading the car and pressed the button to close the door. Then, I realized I forgot something and placed my hand in front of the sensor to stop the doors from closing, but the sensor failed.”
“The sliding doors on the MPV do not have a sensor to stop the door from opening when it hits resistance. My 4-year-old’s leg was sucked down into the door as it was opening and it pinned his leg. The door met resistance on his leg and did not stop opening. The door also doesn’t stop closing unless you push it open, but not if it meets resistance. The vehicle is brand new. It has not been inspected but I called Kia and they haven’t called back. I was able to recreate the problem.”
“Side sliding doors fail to automatically retract open when they encounter something in the way. Both doors present the same problem. Door failed to retract when (my) child was in (the) way, resulting in an injury.”
“My daughter was closing the left sliding door with her right hand using the button and her left hand was in the doorway. There is no worthwhile sensor in the car to detect her hand and thus the door crushed her hand. She now has a fractured left thumb due to the Kia Carnival. I have tried to see if the sensor would detect my entire hand and it didn’t! I am appalled that a car could be sold that has ZERO sensor.”
“Child got hand smashed in rear sliding door. There is no pressure sensor to avoid the door closing on hands or fingers.”
“The automatic doors are supposed to stop when they sense an interference but they don’t stop. My daughter got her hand smashed in ours.” To test whether it was a freak accident or not, the owner “used my own arm to test the door and it smashed by arm before reopening. Left an awful bruise. I have heard many other Carnival owners have had little hands smashed in their doors.”
“Power sliding doors are way too powerful. They take a lot of force to be stopped.”
“Rear passenger sliding door shows that it is still open, even when closed. Rear passenger sliding door will open while driving even if the automatic doors are turned off.”
The owner of another 2022 Kia Carnival with only 820 miles on the clock stated that, “while driving approximately 10 MPH, the sliding door inadvertently opened without warning. The vehicle was taken to a local dealer where it was diagnosed with needing the latching mechanism replaced. The vehicle was not repaired.”
Lemberg Law is currently investigating complaints about the 2022 Kia Carnival and issues that relate to the malfunction of its power sliding doors. If your Carnival has power door issues, you might be sitting with a lemon.
All you have to do is complete our case evaluation form or call us at 844-928-4443. Our services are free, so you’ve got nothing to lose. The law states that Kia must pay all legal bills for lemon law cases.
Brian Jones spent more than 30 years working as an ASE Certified Master Tech and Parts Specialist at multiple dealerships. Brian has become an authority in the industry, traveling across the country to consult for car dealerships and contributing his expertise as a writer for several major automotive publications. In his spare time, Brian enjoys working on pickup trucks, muscle cars, Jeeps and anything related to motorsports.
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