Kia Access Customer Service

Kia Access Positive Reviews

Kia Access AppYou NEED this app. My kid is always forgetting something in the car and much like forgetting something in the car… she always forgets to lock it back. I can lock it back with the app. No need to get back up to go out in the super hot sun or in the freezing cold to go lock the car. And speaking of freezing cold or hot sun! I love the option to start my car ahead of time and cool or heat my car not to mention it even includes cooling or heating my seats! Look… I’m just saying… if you waste money on fast food throughout the month or you vape or smoke, or you have a shoe addiction like I do… you can at least invest in this app that is WORTH the investment and you get some use out of it. There are some other features worth using in the app such as valet which I use with the Veterans Administration at the hospital. And I have had to use my app to before to check on the amount of miles I had and for the VIN for other purposes. Call me lazy. But the app has saved me from having to go outside and interrupt what I’m doing countless times. I’m pretty sure it’s even helped me find my car a few times in a parking lot after a football game before. Anyway, you NEED the app. Enough said! :) Enjoy!.MimislovedVersion: 7.23.0

Works but missing some key features.I’ve had a 2020 Optima SX for about 5 months and i’ve had the Kia Connect subscription the whole time. I overall like the app and it does work, however I have a few complaints/suggestions. First of all, the biggest complaint is that when you use the app to start the car your hazards will flash (brightly) and continue to flash until the car is no longer running or you get in it. I find this to be irritating and I highly doubt my neighbors like it much either… maybe just leaving the running lights on would be less irritating… Another feature missing is the fact that I cannot turn on my heated (or cooled) seats from the app. I can turn on my defroster and heated steering wheel but not the seats which in my opinion are the best part. This could be a technical limitation but I would really like to know why that would be. Another thing is that I would like to see is maybe a home screen widget for iPhone to start/stop and lock/unlock the car right from the home screen. And finally the time from when you send a request to the car for it to actually execute it takes forever sometimes 2+ minutes even with great cell/GPS coverage in the wide open, and sometimes you’ll get an error that it can’t at all. Overall the app does work and is much better than nothing, but has some pretty irritating quirks that I feel could be ironed out..AnanomykiVersion: 6.2.1

Great app, room for improvementMy review is based on the past couple of days that I’ve been using it. I just recently purchased a 2022 Kia Sorento, which I love, but the app can be a hit or miss when it comes to usage. I find that it works better on Wi-Fi and not so much cellular, which is weird because I get pretty decent coverage anywhere I am. It tends to freeze up at the sign in screen, causing me to have to force close it a few times for it to act right. I’ve restarted my phone, redownloaded the app, and even force closed any apps running in the background, but still hit or miss. As far as the app’s functionality though, veeery nice. I love the fact that you can remote start, lock/unlock, and confirm if you engine is off and doors are locked right from the main screen screen. You have access to how-to videos in case there is something you need to look up for your vehicle, and the biggest take away for me is that yo can check the diagnostics right from the app!! BYE AUTOZONE, PEP BOYS, etc. Schedule maintenance appointments is a very convenient option since that you means you don’t have to call the dealership or go online because its all in one place. The fact that you can remote start from the app and change the temp settings so that your car is cool in the summer and warm in the winter means you’ll never have to get in your vehicle uncomfortably again. I’m would love to change my review if the bugs could be fixed, but they make the biggest impact on the app usage on a day to day basis. Fix them please!.IDKhow2ACKVersion: 5.5.1

Awesome software but you have to pay after the trailThe frustration related to delay due to cellular or GPS connection many people expressed here is understandable. However, I agree that Kia should make Kia connect free for the first five years or lower the price forever….and maybe for those cars without immobilizer completely free forever and or update the security settings etc. I got a 2023 Sportage Hybrid in July 2022. After my purchase, I found out about the TikTok challenge of “how to steal a Kia or a Hyundai in one minute”. I went into panic and spent hours researching for added security and theft deterrence for my car, even though it is equipped with immobilizer. While being able to track the car’s location increases the recovery rate if the car is stolen, I think it’s still the manufacturer’s responsibility to have the state of the art security system. I have not looked into my insurance’s cost compared with, say, if I had purchased a RAV4 Hybrid, but I am sure the insurance company takes make/models that are frequently targeted into consideration. If the consumers had known this ahead of their new purchase, it would have really hurt Kia. So, I am shouting out to Kia to “give back and upgrade”. Another note to the Kia keyless entry owners, make sure you put BOTH of your key fob in a faraday bag every night. Google this and you will see what I mean..NicktzerVersion: 5.8

Happy so far...I’ve had Optima since Dec. 8th. I like the remote feature however there’s a delay up to a minute to sync, 30 seconds would be best. I’ve found that the system shows the doors unlocked even though they are locked. That issue is that the system hasn’t updated to show locked. What needs to be done is the moment you log in the app should sync with the car immediately and I’m sure it will then show the doors are locked. One feature should be added is when the a/c is set on the windows should default down a 1/4 of an inch for a minute or two to exhaust the heat to cool the car down quicker when using the automatic remote. I would like to see a countdown feature once the remote has been used to to start the car showing you that you have 5-10 minutes or so and the vehicle will shut down. The one feature that doesn’t link is the finance feature. If you fiancé a car it doesn’t link to your Kia Acct. , feature not available. The only app that I have problems with is the UVO app. , can’t get it to work. The other issue that I see is in the locations app the car is facing always one direction and it’s white. How about allowing that color to be the color of you car? Contact me if you need to further discuss however I believe in a week all these issues can be fixed. I live the app and my car..Yasou!Version: 3.6.0

Works But Needs ImprovementThis app works with my Kia Telluride in an urban city with good cell service coverage, can’t speak for rural areas. I understand current cell communication technology won’t allow instant response times between the app and car. That’s fine. But instead of having a status refreshing symbol for what feels like forever in this modern age (any time longer than 10 sec) I would suggest simply acknowledging that the remote start or lock signal has been sent to the Kia servers. Then when the car is started or locked, have a response ping the app/email alert on the phone, this is a message confirming the car has been started/locked. That way, after sending the signal, we can just change out or the app and do other things while we await a confirmation message. The waiting to see if the signal was even sent out is what is mainly annoying. My second suggestion for the app’s future updates is to have an interior cabin temperature reading updated on the app when checking the status of the car. This would really help owners know how long to keep the remote start running. Also, adjusting the time for the remote start duration would be great as well. Some of us want longer than only a 10 minute run time. Lastly, do push notifications even work on this app? It seems I am only receiving mainly email notifications..DN1337DNVersion: 3.6.0

Very flakey and expensiveUse of this app is free for me right now but in a few months they will be requiring a $20-30$ monthly fee, which is really crazy. This application is at best half baked and not worth paying money for. Remote Start requires you to have the doors locked before it will execute. So you have to remotely lock the doors and wait while the entire app is locked up for a few minutes so it knows the doors locked or not. Sometimes that doesn’t work. But when it does work you then can try to remote start it again which may or may not work. This should be a single command that locks your car and starts it. And it should do it in the background and not lock up the entire app. And it should support Siri and shortcuts so you don’t have to open their shoddy buggy app and spend 2 minutes just to remote start your car. I love the Telluride, but this app is a joke and to charge a fee for something this broken and unreliable is insane. Hopefully they extend the free trial for users who have suffered using this dumpster fire of an application if they ever fix it to be usable..Stiles JasonVersion: 3.5.0

Less than the bestI’ve had DroneMobile with CompuStar placed in my previous Honda and absolutely loved it. It was very responsive, easy access from my apple watch, and the great interface on the app. When I sold it to buy my Kia Sorento, which I absolutely love, I have become very displeased and frustrated with the remote app. It always logs me out, in which I have to input my email and password in manually (there isn’t even a save log in / password option) each time and same with the apple watch. I would love when I’m getting ready for work that I can use my watch to easily start the car with DroneMobile and it would start within 10 seconds. Not with Kia’s Access. I go into my watch and it always tells me to log in on my phone (again because it always logs me out). It becomes such a chore to remote start that I just give up. It’s faster to get into my car and start it than actually remote starting it… this is not efficient at all! It also used to be that the design of the app would have a large circle START button on the middle… hate the updated version where the start button is smaller and now up and to the left. Please make this app and connectivity to the car faster and bring back an improved user friendly interface on the app..AlyssaavuuVersion: 6.1

2025 Kia SoulLove the concept of the remote start. Allows you warm up the car without having to go to the car. Usually you be dressed and ready to go and be in the car waiting for it to warm up. But now that hassle and dealing with the weather has not been such an issue. This saves me a lot of time and discomfort dealing with the cold and or hot weather. Sports mode has been very helpful in dealing with a very heavy and fast moving traffic. With my old vehicle, I used to be a bit timid, trying to hop on some roadways with speeds up to 55 miles per hour and the traffic would be terrible. The features in the vehicle have been very useful as well. There is plenty of space as I am 6 foot 5,having trouble fitting in most vehicles including vans. This vehicle offers enough space for me to sit up words without having to be cramped up in a small and uncomfortable position. The features are nice. They are updated with the latest technology allowing me to enjoy myself with the current system for vehicles of this era..B LunarVersion: 7.9

Hardly ever worksThis app has been more frustrating than helpful. It barely works to start my car maybe 3 out of 10 times will it actually start it. My battery needed replaced on my brand new Telluride and in the diagnostic section it didn’t even tell me anything was wrong when my SUV wouldn’t start for two days in a row. Not sure what the point of the diagnostic is if it doesn’t work. When the car is locked it will tell me that it isn’t or that I need to lock it before I can start it ( when it’s locked) the. Still won’t start it. This is during our free trial and I’m also livid to find out that you have to pay for it to start your vehicle. I don’t think we’ll be paying for the app but getting an actual remote start put in via a different company unless by a miracle they figure out the problem. One of my musts is a remote start and it was a selling point- never thought the app could be such a disappointment..Gav 09Version: 3.7.1

Remote Start No Back DefrostMy biggest complaint with remote start climate control is that only the front defroster activates! You have to remember to get inside to turn on the rear defrost which, in some cases, includes the outside mirrors. How often is it that only the windshield has ice and snow? Selecting defrost in the app should activate front and back or, at least, the option to choose both. I realize that only allowing up to ten minutes is, likely, best for vehicle components, fuel, and the environment; however and without the back defrost, 10 minutes often is not enough time to warm the car to help with clearing front, back, or side windows. This is especially true since the defroster is not heat and is air conditioning. Are these people defrosting as they back out of the garage because I have never found cool air to be very effective (nor is it fun on my face!) in below-freezing temperatures. On a higher note, I really appreciated the update of having to briefly hold down start, stop, lock, and unlock rather than an accidental touch on any of them!.FazolisNeverFailsVersion: 6.2.1

Needs big improvement, could be great.The idea of this app is awesome IF it will execute the command. Oh wait, it’s not a command when it only works 1/2 the time, more of a “request”, isn’t it? 5/10 the app tells me they are “experiencing server/ communication issues”. My remote start/ climate schedule setting only works 1/2 time. I have it set to start and heat up at 8 am to get kids off to school. Often I will check my notifications to see if it has started and by 8:05 am it still has not started so I have to do it myself anyway. If the app is not working, I cannot heat up the car- only start it. I can’t remote start, enter vehicle to adjust heat settings bc then the car will not let me lock the door without smart key IN the vehicle. So if the app isn’t working, there is no good way for me to heat up the vehicle. This definitely would have impacted my purchase of this vehicle if I had known these things. Very disappointing! If they do charge for this app and service in time, I am definitely NOT purchasing! That’s really funny to me they are trying to get already customers to buy MORE..Lindsey .CVersion: 6.1

Features on app don’t all workI have a 2022 Kia Sorrento. The features of the app were working fine up until about 3-4 months ago. I’ve been in touch back and forth with the Kia Connect team for over a month now and they can’t figure out what’s wrong with the app. Specifically starting the car and heating up the seats. This is a feature that is supposed to be available with the Ultimate Package (the most expensive one for this vehicle) yet it doesn’t work. The only way to get it to work is by going online and the settings are not even saved, so you have to go to the website (not app), log in and then select the feature each time one by one and then start the car. Inconvenient, over priced…not worth it. What’s worst is that this was a feature that influenced us to buy the car. We were highly sold on the “convenience” of this app and features..CharPen&)7Version: 6.4

Great but has potential for improvementsMy favorite features of this app are: 1) the remote start and schedules 2) the map of my car location and being able to remotely enter POI’s 3) getting notified that I forgot to lock my doors. I am a working mom and constantly on the move. Between kids and work I just go go go all day and being able to preplan my days is important to me. I also have the memory of a goldfish so being reminded to lock my car is super nice. Improvements I feel can be made: 1) can we get more schedules? I feel like two is nice but I don’t have just two standard schedules. 2) can we have a setting to auto lock the car after two minutes of the car being off and the doors open then close? An optional feature that can be set by the user... 3) $25 plus tax is a lot of money to pay just for the remote start function of a vehicle, I understand that developers need to be paid and there is an associated cost for development itself but $25 is outrageous when you remember that I just purchased a $30k+ vehicle. 4) I know in iOS 14 there will be widgets available, are you planning to make one? It would be nice to have functions like lock and start on my home screen. 5) the interface could use a little more color, it’s a personal preference I know but this always seems so clinical and sterile when I open it. Buying a car should be fun and the experience after should be fun too. Over all I love my Soul and the functions the app provides. 😊.Zeriahs.mommyVersion: 3.12.1

Does what says, but slowlyWe have used the app for two months on a Niro EV and it works. The primary functions we use are to check and set the charge times (once in a while), remote start/preheat (a lot!), and lock the doors (rarely). We looked at other functions such as the valet alert, scheduling charging time, location, and manuals but haven’t needed them. Our biggest complaint: connection speed. When we looked at the location finder the car appeared on a map within seconds. The functions we use most frequently, however, require about 30 seconds to a minute to initiate and confirm. Not a deal breaker and when you think about what has to happen to connect wirelessly to the car via cellular it isn’t unreasonable. What do we like most? Preheating the car! We live in the Chicago area. It’s 17 degrees Fahrenheit today. We are fortunate to also have a garage (detached) and preheating the car with the garage door closed is wonderful! In the end, if this is the only function that ever works the app is really useful for us..J_AtwellVersion: 3.7.2

Seems to get worse with every updateI’ve been a user for about 3 years now. App used to work fine. Every upgrade brings bunch of issues. Commands the app says are complete are not. I’ve walked out to my car that I got confirmation had the climate control running only to find that to not be the case. Yesterday about 2 hours after I parked the car I got an alert that the doors were unlocked. These alerts used to come within a few minutes. After 2 hours the car could be rummaged thru or gone! When I used the app to lock the doors it said the command was completed. Walked out the next morning to a car that as unlocked all night. My car used to show up at the top of the app, now it’s blacked out for some reason. People just need the basics to work, please! Edit: received a message from the devs to fill out a huge questionnaire to report these issues. Got to the point on the 2ND page of info you don’t need where you “needed” my VIN and decided, nope, I just reported them to you above. Just fix it, please..So all the nicknames are takenVersion: 7.4

Getting betterWell I just left a positive review recently and now have to change it. Apparently there has been ANOTHER update and now my car won’t start. It also says it’s just my heated steering wheel that will turn on and not my seat? And why is the rear defrost not a separate option? I rarely need th defrost period. This needs to be fixed It’s definitely working much better now than it did the first few months. I’ve had my Telluride for 8 months now and it was a royal pain at first. It is still frustrating how long it can take to actually start the vehicle, but as I said, it is definitely better. Apparently I’ll have to start paying for this once my year is up but no one has ever been able to tell me a cost. I say another post that said $20-$30 a month. That would be insane to have to pay! Don’t force people to pay for an app and not give them the option of a keyfob for remote start! Come on, Kia! I paid a pretty penny for this vehicle and shouldn’t have to be sucked dry to remote start my car..Momof5kVersion: 3.6.0

New update is mehThe app is okay. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I have perfect WiFi connection where I mostly use the features of the app, but sometimes app will say “cannot process your request, make sure doors are shut….” blah blah blah. I can usually get it to work the 2nd or 3rd time. However, I have to say the newest update is just, in layman’s terms… Ugly and not very user friendly the way the previous layouts were. Going to the dashboard, you used to be able to clearly see if your doors were locked or if your engine was on or not. now, it’s not easy to tell anymore. I’m sure there was a reason for the update and the layout change, I just think the developers maybe forgot that the app needs to be functional and clear for the everyday joe. It is what it is. I’ll probably continue paying for the service, even tho it doesn’t work half the time. When it does work it is very convenient. However, the new update and everything for me is just lackluster and frankly, disappointing….DdominickVersion: 6.1

Shows Potential . . .As a free service that is still in the trial period, the App (and service behind it) are quite useful and cool to have. The rating I have given is based on the more long-term view of the system which is definitely not free but instead costing up to several hundred dollars per year for the top tier plans. Overall, the system is quite slow and just not responsive enough. I understand that there is a need to go through remote servers and connect to the vehicle’s modem but even then things just feel sluggish and because of that, somewhat buggy. Generally, the feature set and User Interface are decent - I like the way the maintenance reminder is set up and service checklist but it does not seem to communicate with the vehicle as I reset the service reminder in my Telluride and days later it still did not recognize the reset in the App. I set up a Geofence alert when leaving my house to test it out and still have not received a text notification a week later. It appears there is no way to remove this Geofence setup in the App. Also, there is no indication of what the Valet notification does on making it active. Sliding to “Active” state simply changes the slider from gray to green (after 2 minutes to recognize the input). Overall, my wife and I will continue to use as a “nice to have” for remote starting the vehicle to warm it up a bit while paying the bill at a restaurant but after the free trial period runs out - no thanks. If Kia is able to drastically improve overall system feel and responsiveness and lower the price at least in half, they may have a continued subscriber in the future. They had better work quickly though as the free year runs out in 4 months!.Danny-MariaVersion: 4.3.1

Long Time Kia FanI really like this app and the features it offers. The remote start when it’s bitter cold is probably my favorite. But as many others have mentioned, it needs a few additional features. First and foremost, the OPTION to stay logged in. Before anyone responds that auto -logging us out is a security feature, we, the owners, should be the ones who decide on our security features, not someone else. Not to mention, I’m pretty sure most of us have our phones locked all the time now, so I see no need for this auto logout business. Second, I too vote for widgets for things like remote start (at the least). Again, I really like the app but it’s not the quickest when loading and then having to deal with logging in all the time, is just annoying. These things are the only reason for my four star rating. Add the things above and I’d definitely change it to five..Grouchy&FluffyVersion: 7.11.0

Great app! But the geofence notifications are a painRecently got a new KIA as my old one clocked out. Put the geofence alerts on just in case due to all the recent theft although my new vehicle is equipped with the immobilizer. Drove to work the next day and EVERY 5 MINUTES I received an alert that my vehicle was out of the geo fence. And there is NO WAY to change the frequency on this. If possible, I need this to changed to only once OR give the users options on how often they want to be notified - my previous car had LoJack and I was only notified once when I left the geo fenced area - not every few minutes. It keeps interrupting my music and changes the screen from apple car play which is frustrating when I am driving with the GPS. I turned it off but will turn it on again once this is fixed. Hopefully that will be soon. Will change this rating once it is fixed..Phoenix_ForeverVersion: 5.8

Slight issueSo I’ve used the UVO app before and I loved it. However my issue with this app is it doesn’t sync properly. My odometer is not synced and it doesn’t show me the status of my car or the battery (I have a 2022 niro) nor does it give me ANY of the options to remote start or unlock. I have to physically go onto the website to do all of that. I’m not completely sure why the app doesn’t update and do this. It’s really weird. I’m hoping that the review will trigger someone to help me problem solved so I can update the review honestly. That would be amazing. (: other wise I’ve always loved these apps they’ve been amazing I love the remote start feature and the remote lock/unlock. Being able to remotely adjust the climate of ny car is amazing as well. I love all of that. I just want to be able to do it directly from the app and be able to see the battery of my car without having to log onto the website. I’d love to be able to do it from the app itself..Nurse LillyVersion: 5.1

Has PotentialOverall, the app is pretty good for being free, but no way I’d pay the monthly fee for it after the free trial. At least not until the kinks are worked out. I deducted 2 stars due to 2 features not working. We’ve had our 2022 Sorento PHEV for 4 weeks now. The Est Combined Range is always at 0. Not that big of a deal, as I don’t think I’ll be using the app to see how far we can go, but if the feature is on the app, it should work. The other issue is with the Take 360 Surround Image. This feature has also never worked from day 1. I get the same error message every time: “Sorry we could not capture the surround view images, please try later.” I’ve tried under various conditions. Indoors, outdoors, different locations, etc. Same failed result every time. All of the other features work, although there is a 30-60 second delay when refreshing the vehicle status. Hopefully these issues will be corrected in future updates..CyafordVersion: 4.10.1

Kia’s app platform needs improvementI am an active app user for all sorts of equipment, now including my first EV. This fact alone, sets up a set of expectations for both platform logic as well as effectiveness. Kia’s platform design works well enough, but it’s not use repetition focused. Clearly it was built without user satisfaction in mind. A single example explains: Try setting a schedule for charging as an example. 1st problem is understanding that you have to set a departure routine on a day-to-day basis before being given an option to set a charging schedule. Oh, and by the way, try to delete the times or, like most scheduling platforms, simply go back one step to make a change or an override. I haven’t figured that one out yet without starting over after deleting. The problem is that the platform design is not intuitive, and/or there is no way to stop, ask questions, or be given hints that are in the steps. The positives are features are nice, especially ones that prepare the car for use. Sometimes you have to learn as you go what the capabilities of the settings are, and that’s OK, but it’s almost like you need a manual for the app that is a longer discussion of how to get various features to work, or how to use the features and why. PT.TarzianVersion: 7.3

Cool app, if all the features workedI just bought my first Kia, and at first, I was impressed. I can lock, unlock and start my car with my phone? Cool! I thought this app was new and so they just hadn’t worked out all the kinks. But here it looks like it’s been live for over 4 years! What? And you haven’t managed to fix all the problems in that amount of time? For some weird reason, both the charge and remote start schedule screens contain the exact same information, and every time I try to adjust anything on those screens I get the error “invalid schema request”. So now, it is stuck on the first charge schedule I set up. Also, the locations screen is completely useless, no info in there about charging stations, etc. When you click on “contact us”, a blank screen pops up. Very limited and basically useless info in the help sections. Literally nothing in the “manuals” or owner materials screen either. Why have all these functions if you are not going to set them up?.LusitajtzgzshVersion: 4.3.1

1 YearI have had this app for nearly a year now. It’s still slow. 🐢 Faster to go outside and start the car as opposed to using the app (useless). I spent hours on the phone last year “there’s a lot of work on the backend and we’ll be pushing an update soon.” ❌ People still complaining about how slow the apps is. Now, since the last update, I can’t access the finance section. Neat. UPDATE: Love the new update!!! Simpler layout makes it easier to read and use. So far... so far... it seems faster for remote start. Finally, the heated and cooling seat options for remote start. Vehicle status right at the top! So far so good! Apple shortcuts next😅? App responds better now. Nice touch with the watch, but if I have to sign in on my phone just to use the watch app, I might as well just keep using the phone app. I get security and all that, but it kinda defeats the purpose..Iav8imcVersion: 4.8

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Kia Access Negative Reviews

Kia app let downThis is the second year in a row I’ve given TV is all a chance in the winter so I could start my car and know it’s running. Well, not the case. More than half the time I would get a pop up telling me my vehicle hasn’t been moved in a while or could be out of range (neither being true). Maybe once every couple days my car would auto start and it was a toss up if the temp would run as set or have a mind of its own. I think it’s obvious at this point that I spent a big majority of time saying choice words when getting into my car when it’s -20 degrees and the heat wasn’t even running. The app would stall and I’d have to try several times to get it up and running again. Being that the auto start is part of the highest tier package, Kia needs to do some serious work on this app and follow thru with it being personalized to each vehicle because, spoiler alert, it’s not worth the price you pay for a hit or miss situation. So all in all, I’ve wasted a lot of money hoping that the app would improve substantially, but it did NOT. I’d give no stars if I could. And this seems to be a “Kia” pattern as I had a horrible experience buying my car and I’ve heard other people had the same experience. It’s sad for all the money we are investing into what gets us everywhere we have to go. Step up your game Kia. I hope one day I can actually recommend and encourage ANYONE to buy a Kia or its products, but not until MAJOR improvements have happened..SorentoProblems101Version: 7.24.0

These are all fake 5 stars.STAY AWAY FROM KIA! Nothing but greedy. I mean they charge you $15/mo if you want to simply remote start your car on a cold morning. Keep in mind this is only $150 a year if you do it annually. It’s pathetic. And oh, you want to be warned that you 12V starter battery is low? Sorry that will be starting at $6/mo. Yes, that is right. Kia says “screw you, we would rather leave you stranded if you don’t cough up $6/mo.” What is in the next update? $15/mo if you want your side airbags to work? The brand is so unbelievably pathetic. But don’t worry! They will make sure you know when service is ready all for free, so you can go in and get ripped off at their dealerships. I have loved kia for so long through their rise to glory the past 2 decades. My Sorento was awesome, but after purchasing my wife’s new Kia Niro, they have officially lost my business. Stay away from companies like this, because once they realize they can gouge money from you, they are just going to keep doing it. Also I am highly skeptical of the 4.6 stars due to the poor quality of this app and the terrible lag time. Also the sheer lack of features for the price you pay each month. Seriously, it is $6-$20/month. I am the go to car guy in my vast community of friends and never will I recommend kia until they remove this monthly cost to access features that should already exist on a $30,000 purchase. The greed is unrivaled and I am severely disappointed..ChocaCookieVersion: 5.2

Communication is KeyAs I mentioned before, communication is key—especially when it comes to technology. I want to start by acknowledging that I understand things happen and no system is perfect. That said, Kia failed to communicate a major outage with their app to customers. I only learned about the widespread issue through a Facebook group, where many others were sharing similar experiences. From what I was told, the system went down around February 9, 2025. According to my local dealership, a fix was finally rolled out in early May. Naturally, everyone rushed to have the system reset. After waiting weeks, I was finally able to get mine done today, May 30, 2025. I then called Kia Connect customer service to request an extension on my free trial to cover the months I couldn’t use the service. The representative I spoke with mentioned that corporate is still figuring out how they will compensate affected customers—but she was extremely dismissive, which didn’t inspire confidence. Frankly, Kia should have notified customers about this issue directly. The lack of transparency is frustrating. Based on how this has been handled so far, I’m not sure I’ll continue using the app—especially if Kia doesn’t honor the full year subscription or make it right for paying customers. Kia, please do better. Your reputation is already shaky, and this situation—one that could have easily been avoided—only makes things worse..IknewyouwerethereVersion: 7.15.1

You have to pay for this garbageI own a Tesla, and the family car is a Kia Telluride. I honestly wont part with my Tesla because the FREE app it comes with does everything I could ask and more - starts my car, warms it, heats seats, locks and opens doors, tells me my mileage - I could go on. When I started using Kia connect when I first got my Telluride, I was shocked at how awful the app was. Remote start works for about a minute, it’s impossible to open or lock doors, couldn’t figure out how to heat seats, etc. Then one day, I tried to log in and was informed my subscription “expired.” I now have to pay $200 for an AWFUL APP. No wonder it’s not allowed in Massachusetts! It’s a fraud. I agree with the others - I paid $4k over sticker for my truck, and now I’m expected to pay for an app? I won’t buy another Kia. It’s just ridiculous. **ADDENDUM** I received an email message from Kia that says that every other company charges for their app. NO THEY DON’T. Just untrue. And the rep didn’t address that the app doesn’t always work. It’s honestly a counterintuitive and terrible app. I have ZERO PROBLEMS with my Tesla App. I rely on it and I love it. It’s far and above more useful than this terrible Kia app, and both facts (that you have to pay for it and that it’s awful) will absolutely deter me from buying another Kia. And like I said above, Massachusetts won’t even allow the app in their state, that’s what a ripoff this is. My Telluride is fine, but not enough to overcome terrible policy and and terrible app..Kathy125Version: 6.13.1

Cool IdeaThe application is a cool idea however I have found that it can turn into more of a hassle than a positive. First of all in a modern world we as the consumers are princesses and expect the doors to unlock the minute we press the button not a minute or two later. The major problem I have had besides the long delay waiting for the doors to lock or unlock it a problem with connection, I have locked my keys in the car a few times on purpose one being at an amusement park, when leaving for the day I tried to unlock my car and after a few minutes I got a notification that the car hasn’t been driven in a couple days and to start the car to connect. The 2nd time was river rafting, locked my keys in the car and when we got back hit the unlock button on my phone and nothing after waiting about 5 minutes I tried again this time I got a message that it could not connect to the server and two options, retry and cancel after clicking retry a hand ful of times I tried cancel which killed the app every time I clicked it. I tried calling the uvo number on the door window after a few minutes being on hold gave up and called for a family member to go to my house and bring my spare key. I have learned not to trust or rely on this application. Definitely not one that I would subscribe to after the first “free” year is done..Brian ValenzuelaVersion: 4.6.1

Terrible app. Don’t pay for it.Latest review: the app has become pointless as its use now requires payment. Paying for an app that barely functions is absurd. I’m not exactly sure how Kia can get away with charging for a poor service like this and take away the ability to use so many features. Updated review: after update 6.1, there are still all the same issues as before and then some. The remote start feature works worse now and sometimes doesn’t even start it. Scheduling still doesn’t work at all. The temperature is still changed to Celsius any time the remote start works. What a shame that Kia forces this kind of poor service on to us, as it’s the only source of some of these features. Original review: This app is absolutely horrible at everything it does. Here’s a list of stuff that doesn’t work: - The remote start scheduling doesn’t work. - The remote start (not scheduled) changes the degrees to Celsius even though my preference is set to Fahrenheit. - Sometimes while hitting the remote start button, it thinks you are hitting the lock button. - You cannot perform functions while another task is in progress. - It logs me out every time. - It’s incredibly slow flipping between different tabs in the app. I cannot believe they make you pay for these functions. Make the app work before making people pay..Grim GhostVersion: 6.13

ZERO STARS10/23: Doesn’t deserve one star. Absolutely terrible. Update 11/15: Everything everyone has said about it lagging, timing out and commands not going through is 110% true. Don’t waste your time or money on this app or their service. I even reached out to customer service on several occasions, after countless failed attempts to have commands go through, and was completely disappointed and displease at their level of customer satisfaction. They opened a ticket, and 3 weeks later told me the same thing that was already discussed in my initial call. I honestly don’t know what they did those three weeks because there was no update. 11/18: Well, here’s another unimpressive update. I went ahead and cancelled the subscription. On the 10/23 I was asked to hold off on the cancellation because I no longer have the card I used to pay and they were trying to figure out how to refund me. Well, on the 15th when they finally got back to me— they provide me an alternative option to receive my refund. Well I asked them if they would refund me from the day I initially called to cancel and they said yes. Well today I got a receipt for the refund, and they lied. I had to wait to hear back from them for 3 WEEKS, and that was totally on them because they asked me to hold off on the cancellation, and then had me cancel and didn’t refund me those three weeks they had me waiting. Their customer service is unbelievably disappointing. The UVO representative has failed to call me back after he says they have “a meeting that day and he’ll get back to me with an update after they discuss it in the meeting. “.3667322Version: 4.1

DifficultOverall we give the car a nice review on the looks. The technology is not the greatest. For example, toggling between the HVAC system and the radio is very clunky. For example, you are at a stop and need to quickly turn down the radio but find that you are on the HVAC screen. Now you’ve turned down the air conditioning instead of the radio all while trying to be safe. In the reverse, you can turn up the HVAC system, while trying to turn up the radio this makes no sense and is one of the biggest drawbacks from the car and honestly one of the reasons why we will not keep this car longer then probably a year. In addition that hatch on the back of the car is so difficult to operate and has almost closed on people more than once because of its automatically starting to close while you’re operating it. In addition to, in addition to the HVAC and radio system, many of the other electronic systems are not intuitive to use. The car handles fine and we find it does have enough power to get where we need to go. It is a nice style. We appreciate the styling amenities that came with this particular grade car. We don’t understand why a $50,000 car does not have seat saving controls. Also, this is a very silly thing, but we don’t understand why in this price level of car that the Siri radio doesn’t come with the ability to do some of the latest series features that have been out for 10 years such as being able to save your favorite artist or song and have it automatically tell you that that song is our artist is playing somewhere on the dial. This is common technology, and when I spoke to the Siri person, they were surprised, but said yeah this car specifically does not have that feature. That is it in a nutshell please excuse any grammatical errors. I am dictating this into the form that you sent..DjfhuejrnfnkVersion: 7.22.0

Should not be a few to access basic featuresThis app was barely tolerable during the free trial period. The constant lags and failures to connect and just general issues with the functionality of this app have been terrible since we bought our new Carnival. I lived with it while it was free, but now they want to charge a monthly fee just for the joy of waiting minutes to *hopefully* execute a remote unlock or start command?! I have owned other brands with similar apps that function much better and never charged for the service. It’s ridiculous that Kia wants up to $20 a month for halfway working app just to access basic features on a car I already paid $40,000+ for. This terrible app and subscription scheme is rapidly turning me off of a brand that I used to love. Kia executives, please hear me—you make great vehicles! Over the last couple decades I have been continuously impressed by the strides your company has made in terms of quality and reliability. Please do not destroy your credibility with nickel-and-diming your consumers to death. It might increase revenue in the short term, but I know I’m not the only customer who is disappointed enough with this experience to steer well clear of you in the future if this doesn’t change..Anti-T3CH dropoutVersion: 5.6

Extremely DisappointedThe app was working fine for the initial free year. Literally as soon as I paid for the first month subscription, I haven’t been able to use ANY of the remote features. I mainly get the message ‘Remote request error! Your remote request failed to complete’ even though all conditions are met. I called customer service a few days ago and they were able to get it to work remotely. Next day I tried and it’s back to not working again. Today’s error message was ‘please start or move your vehicle. It may be in a low coverage area or may not have been started in a few days’. I just got home from work 10 min ago and parked in the my driveway, where I’ve parked the entire time I’ve owned the car. We’re going on week 3 of not being able to warm up my car in the dead of winter using a service that worked absolutely fine for an entire year parking in the same spot outside my house for no apparent reason. Please fix this immediately or reprogram the vehicles to maintain whatever climate control you have it set to when you turn it off when starting using the remote start via the key fob. 72 is not a useful temp for extreme cold or heat!.MarzvirgoVersion: 5.1

Doesn’t Deserve One Star!!This feature worked great for all of three weeks when I purchased my new Optima. I was really enjoying the schedule feature as it made the daily process automatic. For the past two weeks it’s just a waste of space on my phone. As others have stated, the remote start was heavily touted during my sales experience and it wasn’t until afterwards I learned it only worked through the app and only last week did I hear about a monthly subscription to use it when my warranty expires. What a waste of time and money for Kia Motors to put such useless equipment on cars that can’t be accessed by the consumer without the hassle and added expense of a monthly subscription. But that’s a mute point because the App doesn’t work!! It constantly reads that my car is unlocked which it isn’t (every attempt to lock it from the app so it reads properly is returned with an error, failure to communicate)...I keep getting the start your car error but I drive my car daily...it will not remote start unless I’m standing 3-5 feet away from the car (a wall can’t be in between)...I even took it back to the dealership last week and they’re clueless as to how to make it function properly!! Again, what a waste, fool me once...first and last Kia that I’ll ever purchase!!.CRuthGAVersion: 3.5.0

Great Idea- Horrible Product!I have now had my 2020 Telluride for close to a year and just got an email letting me know that my trial UVO is coming to an end. I was shocked when I looked at the pricing to continue!!! 25 DOLLARS A MONTH FOR A SYSTEM THAT IS ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE! I thought it was a joke! The remote lock and start function is just plain pathetic. Kia should be embarrassed to put out such a poor product. When you use it to try to lock or start your car the amount of time it takes to execute the function is an excruciating 2 minutes plus! Often times it doesn’t even work! I’ve tried it in many locations! It you forget to lock the doors and also want to start it, it takes nearly 4 minutes to accomplish both! If you don’t think that’s a long, time out 4 minutes and see. By that point I could easily go out, start my car, and come back in! My brother has a Subaru and his system is nearly instantaneous. I really believe Kia is crazy for asking customers to pay 25 dollars a month after the trial to get such a poor system. (You can’t even start the heat or ac in my car) It’s also very wrong to use it as a selling point to sell cars. The system should be free until they can make it better. Even then, 25 dollars a month is ridiculous..KindnessfirstVersion: 3.10.0

App is surprisingly buggyThe app consistently says my estimated combined range is 0 miles and for some reason it often reverts to an older reading of my battery charge level. The dashboard on the actual car gives the correct readings. Surprising that these kinds of issues persist on version 5 of the app, especially if you have to pay for a monthly subscription to use it. UPDATE: The app now shows my estimate combined range. It seems like I had to drive a certain number of miles with gas for this to happen, even though the range estimate always appeared on the dashboard in the car. What continues to be an issue is incorrect readings (battery charge, gas tank level, and range) that seem to reflect older values. This happens when the app cannot connect with the car because it is in area with poor Verizon coverage. For some reason the app doesn’t display the most recent reading when it last connected with the car but reverts to one before that. Finally the display of the gas tank level alternates between green and white/red. Weird. UPDATE 2. After the latest app version, the EV Drive History stopped recording the drivetrain energy usage..JCinWoodsideVersion: 7.11.0

2023 Kia soul breakdownPurchase my Kia soul Feb 2023 with like 9 miles it’s been sadness my car turn off turn on idle didn’t work took in to dealer and they said they fix it in March 2023 it still does the same sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t. The heater I complain about it they say it works but it doesn’t it takes 20 minutes before heat starts coming out. The small shelf about the compartment where you hook your phone to heats up like fire something wrong. Now my seatbelt in the passenger doesn’t work which means can’t have no one sit in front with me. I’m 62 yrs old I brought this car so I can have peace of mind no all I have is heart ache. Also weird I was in my driveway started my car and the warning light came on the one with a triangle and a exclamation inside the triangle what the heak scared me it’s the California proposition 65 one mind you I was in the driveway. Also today my red lights started flashing on my dash warning I was going like 5 miles an hour in a mobile home park. I love Kia but I hate this one why can’t I get help. It’s only a couple months old. I brought a new car so I wouldn’t have to deal with break downs. Something is wrong and dealers at Kia want nothing to do with me they are mean..Horrible 2023 Kia soulVersion: 6.5

Would be a great feature if it worked consistentlyThe app is awesome when it works, has a bunch of great features like Find My Car which I’ve had to use multiple times when I go to the city. Or the remote start or door locks, having all your vehicles information in the palm of your hand is also great. The problem is that the app doesn’t always work. Many times the app won’t even load, or will shut down due to a “problem with our servers” I live in Michigan and the winters here can be quite the ordeal, the app is nice to get my car started so it will warm up and defrost before I head out to leave, but again that’s only when the app works which during the morning hours seems to be about a 50/50 shot. Throughout the day the app does seem to work better, I don’t know if Kias servers just tend to get overloaded in the mornings or what but it is super frustrating when trying to get ready for work and wanting your car to be ready by the time you get out there. (I know, first world problems) but still, I do pay for this product and would be happier if I could use what I pay for on a more consistent basis..Catie K.Version: 6.2.1

Out for your dollar.I own a 2022 Kia Prestige with all the bells and whistles. I am beyond grateful for my car, it drives beautifully and every passenger enjoys the perks the mpv provides. However, the software updates are ridiculous. The fact that no information is given at the time of purchase that you will need to pay $170 to update software is crazy, especially since it happens often. When the software requires updating your entire gps system and app go down. It typically takes more than a week for service and then hours for the service. Shuttle service is provided, a nice offer, however at the time of purchase I bought all the extra warranties and service to have a loaner for convenience. That happened once while my carnival needed a week long service due to the engine not starting and diagnostics needed done. I am grateful for the customer service at Kia who works hard to please me and all customers. My suggestion would be at the time of sale OR in the manual there be a qr for download the updates BEFORE it is outdated and locks the consumer from accessing the conveniences we have paid much money for, especially since the app is an additional monthly fee..TrishCullumSavedByGodVersion: 7.3.1

Lied to!When I purchased my vehicle. I was told that I can start my car, lock or unlock my car and control the temperature settings in my car. This app doesn’t do any of it! Either the app doesn’t work or I was straight up lied to by the Salesman at Dean McCrary Kia in Mobile Al. It’s awful funny that my brother bought a car from the same dealer a couple of weeks later and his seems to work. This is the second time I’ve been screwed over by this dealership in my lifetime. I will not go back to them. I was also told that my first oil change would be free if I completed the survey that was sent to me. After completing it,I was told that because I didn’t give them a perfect survey, I don’t get the free oil change. Also was supposed to fix my door where the detail person scratched it with a razor blade… they attempted to fix it but it was a horrible job, they told me who to call to set up an appointment to get it fixed and I’ve called several times with no return calls. When I call the dealership or the salesman and leave a message… they will not respond to my calls either. You should not have this much hassle when you buy a brand new car!.Dynaynay829Version: 6.5

Kia Sportage 2024I am not impressed with this at all and I’m certainly not gonna pay for it when the subscription runs out. You can’t start your car from far. It takes over a minute or more for the app connect to the car. I can take my actual remote and start my car faster. The only downfall is that I would have to go outside and start the heat myself. Where as in my 2011 Kia, my automatic start that I’ve had installed turned on the heat with the start as long as the heat was left on from previously being in the car. I also had to turn off every single email notification that I got from Kia ‘s app. There’s nothing like going into your email and seeing that you have 30 emails. The car was started, the car was turned off. Your doors are unlocked. There’s an update. There’s this there’s that. I simply wanted to buy a car and drive it.. I don’t want to receive email notifications galore. I will say that Kia upped at one with the 2024 Kia Sportage. I’ve only had it for a couple weeks. I will say, it doesn’t feel like the engine is capable of handling the size of the Kia Sportage. They definitely made it bigger..AngelicvonVersion: 6.15

ConfusingIts been 5 months since our new 2024 Sportage purchase and dealer helped us set up and download everhing. It took 3 visits and 2 people to show us how to setup the dashboard. We are retired elderly. It took us about 2 months to read manual and figure out how to set up our car. Mostly my husband drives. I drove it once last month and had to pull off the road 3 times to adjust the AC so it blew cool air. I still cant get it to play the radio station I like when I turn it on. Today we went on our first trip and thought we would try out the wifi. NOTHING! Dealer said we had 1 year of the top level of Kia Connect which included a wifi hot spot and he helped us set it up. But today we learned that doesn't mean we can actually use wifi because it was only a 3 month trial. Crazy! What good is having a wifi hot spot if it doesnt work? I cant see any reason to pay for Kia Connect since it doesn't include a working wifi. After searching online for Kia Connect information it wants me to sign in. I did that online and found out about the 3 Kia Connect levels and we dont need any of them but I could not find any account menu after signing in to cancel our subscription. So I tried the app the dealer helped us set up but can't figure out how to sign into this app because it was all this was set up 5 months ago and we havent used it. Can Kia Support please explain if our one year of "free" Kia Connect will expire on its own or if I need to cancel it? Or does it revert automatically to Kia Lite? Does Kia Lite cost anything? If Kia Support doesnt answer these questions here, I will go back and ask our dealer. I am not happy because the dealer messed up my phone number and it took weeks of straightening out our Kia account access. The car is nice but all these confusing kia apps, services, and online sign ins to get information are driving us nuts..SandimacdVersion: 7.4

Love the car, the app meh..So I’ll start by stating I love my Kia. It’s a great car. My complaints with the app are first and foremost it’s a subscription after a year. My Ford I had for 7 years and I had the ford access app. I could remote start, lock/unlock my doors, and check the location without a yearly membership. I totally understand it takes money to keep those services running, but the cost of cars these days is way overblown. The cost of the app should be implied it’s included. You cannot do remote unlock or remote start unless you pay $15/m of $150/yr. Second, I cannot even get the app to connect to my driver profile in my car. I’m expected to pay for an app that doesn’t do its most basic function? My car shows in the app. I show “connected” on my car but for my driver profile it always says “log I to the app to connect” I am logged into the app AND Kia connect is connected in my car. Yet….im supposed to trust paying $15/m for basic features? I just can’t get behind that. The car itself, absolutely drives like a dream though..BarleypopmakerVersion: 7.1.1

Are these reviewers bots?It’s a miracle this app is rated so high. Have these folks never used a Tesla or Rivian app? Or are they bots? The app experience alone is enough for me to reconsider a Kia in the future. But paired with the software issues of the car, I will never get one again. The UX of the app is awful. Poor customization of climate controls, icon button overload, too technical for a consumer yet without real customization to charge limits. To need to wait 30 seconds for an update of my car status is insane, and it’s so hard to tell if my climate is on or off at any time. Not to mention connectivity issues. My first few months of having my EV9, it lost connection to the app requiring me to go to the dealer to fix. The dealer said they did it and it still didn’t connect. I ended up fixing it myself by researching on Reddit and had to pull a fuse then reconnect it. Kia is a mess end-to-end, and this app is just one end of that mess. I hate this app and this at so much. They need to hire some real UX designers because it’s clear this app was designed and built by engineers. It’s trash..XtrachrispyyyVersion: 7.22.0

Climate Control Option GONEThis app was previously a 5/5 for me due to the convenience — however, with the latest software update, the climate control option has disappeared (despite it still being advertised as an option). We are in the middle of winter season so I would like to ideally like to have my car warm and toasty before getting into it. Instead, the app would only turn on the car engine with its original cooling/heating settings — but we normally turn off the heat in the car after it gets too hot and never turn it back on towards the end of our ride, meaning when we start the engine, no heat is blowing and there’s no way to set the temperature of the car like the previous app versions. Not only that, but the climate control option is now only available via remote start scheduling, which is really dumb. I don’t want to have to make a schedule every time I need to leave the house at various times just to have the car started with the heat hopefully on. Please fix this!.Plzz fix dis!Version: 7.9

Kia UVO remote start and lock packageI am very disappointed that out of the 30 day. UVO only works maybe three times a month for me and when it does work I have to turn off my Internet and stand within 100 feet of the vehicle to even try to get the car to lock when I know it’s locked but it says unlocked. I press the option to lock sometimes it locks sometimes it doesn’t lock, if it locks I will then attempt to start it most often it will not start with that command I am very disappointed because I pay a monthly fee for the service and have absolutely NO POSITIVE EXPERIENCE TO GIVE AS FEEDBACK! I have contacted Customer Service multiple times regarding this that was how I learned that I needed to shut off the Internet customer service is wonderful each person I encounter is friendly and helpful. It is discouraging and I believe this will be my last month that I subscribe to this service based on the past six months of lack of usage for something I pay a monthly expense on!.Jennabell73Version: 5.4.1

Not at all reliableIve used or attempted to use the app since April 2019 and haven’t gone even one week with reliable functionality. At times it connects and locks/unlocks and completes remote start functions fine. More often I am experiencing problems that seem based in the lack of robust UVO network. I’ve experienced many problems with infotainment screen not displaying time at all, complete loss of GPS and zero voice navigation availability after using app to start vehicle. A soft reset inside the vehicle does not correct the issue. If this happens I have to shut off vehicle let it set for at least 30 minutes and restart NOT using app for resolution. I live in an area where the network signal is suppose to work fine for the weather widget but it doesn’t work regularly. Customer service has not explanation or recommended reasons why system doesn’t function reliably or why network is not robust and dependable. The fact that new vehicle is only getting free app access for one year is really poor especially given I can go a week without experiencing problems..Lydz1974Version: 3.7.0

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