Kia Service Book

This article is for you who own a Kia or are considering buying one. The service itself is rarely what annoys. It's the documentation: who registered what, where it is and whether you can find it on the day the warranty or the sale price depends on it.

How often does a Kia need to be serviced?

A Kia follows the manufacturer's own instructions. Typically, the car is recalled after driving kilometers, somewhere between 15,000 and 30,000 km, depending on the model, engine and year. If you drive a few kilometers a year, it is instead an annual interval, usually every year or two. The Kia app can remind you when the next inspection is approaching.

You can choose your garage, so you decide where your Kia is serviced. Pay attention to which spare parts and oil are used: with some manufacturers, the warranty is void if original or OE-approved parts have not been used.

How service is registered today

For many years, the registration was a stamp in the paper service book, and that solution has a built-in weakness: a service book that is at home or lost leaves gaps in the history that cannot be closed afterwards. You still get an invoice after each inspection, but very few people keep them for twenty years, and a pile of invoices rarely provides an overview.

Today, the garages register online, and this applies to both Kia's own workshops and the independent workshops.

Kia's own service book

If your Kia is serviced at a Kia workshop, the inspection will be documented within the manufacturer's own framework. This is Kia's documentation of Kia's work, and it is based on Kia's own network of workshops.

This gives two limitations that are worth knowing. An independent workshop that works on your car cannot count on being able to look up what has been done on it before. And you cannot retrieve the history yourself and put it on the table in front of a buyer or a warranty department. The history exists, but you do not have the key to it yourself.

Is it a requirement to use Kia's own service book?

No. Many garages and car owners have got that impression, but it is not Kia's own system that is the requirement.

The requirement is the documentation. If you end up in a warranty case, you must be able to show that the service intervals have been complied with and that the work has been carried out according to the regulations with approved parts and oil. Where that documentation is located is not the decisive factor. That you can find it is.

Why your Kia service history matters

Kia is known for a long factory warranty, for many years up to 7 years or 150,000 km. At the same time, it is a long period to be able to document service. A warranty that runs for seven years is only worth something if you can still show the history in the seventh year.

If the car is to be sold, a coherent history is what moves the price, because it gives the buyer the assurance that the car has been maintained. The odometer reading is stored with each registration, so a history with dates and mileage is also the best protection against tampering with the odometer. And in the workshop, troubleshooting becomes shorter when you know what has been changed and when.

If the history is scattered or has gaps

This is common, especially on older cars and on cars that have changed owners or workshops several times. Part of the history may lie with Kia, some with an independent workshop, and some may be lost along with a paper service book.

In the Digital Service Book, your Kia can be searched for on the number plate. The lookup covers registrations from the manufacturers' own service books, Kias included, and from the workshops that are connected. If there is service that is not included, previous inspections from a paper service book or old invoices can be entered, so that the history accumulates on the car instead of being stored in three systems and a folder.

When your Kia changes hands

Add the car to your own account while you have it. Your own car's history is free for you as the owner, and the service that is carried out in the future is collected on the car. Then you will have the documentation on the day the car is to be moved on. If you are considering a used Kia that you do not own yet, you can buy a service certificate on the number plate before the purchase.