Thoughts on my Kia Rio's clutch?

Having an issue with a 2021 Kia Rio (manual transmission) which I bought new.

A couple of weeks ago, it got stuck in second gear while driving. I pulled in, turned the engine off: gears working perfectly. Turned engine on: it got stuck in gear again. After a few minutes it came right again by itself.

Got it checked in the garage where I bought the car, but they found nothing wrong with it. The car was driving perfectly fine then for nearly three weeks. Then the same thing happened again.

Brought it to the garage again. Was told it was a slipping clutch. I doubt that very much as the car is just four years old with 75,000 kilometres on the clock.

They took their sweet time with repairing it! I received no phone calls from them, no quote, nothing. I had to keep ringing them for updates.

Today out of the blue, I got a text message saying my car had been repaired: "Full clutch replacement" at €1,400. I'm still in shock.

What's the story with the Kia warranty: seven years or 150,000 kilometres? I think a clutch shouldn't fail abruptly after four years and 75,000 kilometres.

I reckon it's a faulty component, rather than wear and tear.

Silvia (Offaly)

Nov 2025 Filed under: warranty

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Expert answer

Hi Silvia,

Though it's not ideal that the garage went ahead and did the work without providing a quote and your permission to do so beforehand, I fear there's very little you can do now. Ideally you would have brought the car to an independent assessor to verify the issue. 

Clutch wear would never be covered under warranty as I'm sure you know and yeah, it could wear out in such an amount of time, depending on how and where the car is driven, though I must admit that the symptoms you've described don't seem to tie in with the diagnosis provided.

I'm not sure what route you have for any recourse at this stage.

Shane O' Donoghue - Complete Car Advisor