Pride Kia of Lynn

**This review is over 6 years in the making as someone who purchased a brand new 2018 Kia Optima and during that time has had a history of dealing with Kia's body shop and warranty department** Roughly 7k miles shy of 100k, my car was experiencing issues with its engine oil levels where the oil light would come on within 3k miles after an oil change. I'm not a mechanic by any means and I made every attempt to take the car to a Kia dealership for maintenance whenever possible but my experience with this shop and Kia's warranty department was enough to make me sell the car altogether and never look back. In June of 2023, I met with the shop manager, Marc Cortez, who kept the car for a few days while his mechanic inspected it for possible leaks. After no leaks were found, the next step was to submit a warranty claim and test the oil burn rate by driving it for 1k miles and checking the oil levels - this was after Marc had me hunt down all oil records for the past 6 years - After driving for 1k miles, I was told that the engine is "burning at an acceptable rate" and was given a "solution" which involved flushing of the engine with instructions to return to them if I continue to have issues. Needless to say I needed another oil change in less than 3k miles and I had to return. This time, things went a little different. Suddenly, I was told that my valve cover gasket was causing a leak and needed to be replaced out of pocket and ANOTHER oil change was needed BEFORE we could continue with the existing warranty claim with no indication that the valve cover gasket was even the issue. The sudden shift from one visit to the next was extremely off-putting as if I had gone to two different body shops and now they were trying to get me to pay for repairs that did not exist before. I called Kia customer service and explained the situation and the representative stated that there is an ongoing lawsuit regarding Kias who are experiencing the same issue but unfortunately, customers are at the mercy of the shop managers to escalate to the warranty department. With that knowledge, I believe Marc was not doing everything he could to help but was doing everything he could to make sales. I've also sent this to the BBB to raise awareness and hope no one else falls victim to this scam.