A dad-of-two feared him and his family would become "fatalities" when their car suddenly went into "limp mode" on the M6.
Stuart Corrigan, 46, a dad-of-two from Haydock, St Helens, said he was driving his family home from his son's football game in Wolverhampton late on Tuesday, November 9 last year when his car, a KIA Sportage, went into "limp mode." Stuart said the car "completely shut down," leaving him, his wife and their two kids stranded on the smart motorway without any of the car's systems working, including the lights.
Stuart said the car managed to limp into a recovery bay, and using the phone there the family managed to call the AA to have the car taken off the roadside, and as far as Knutsford services where the car was left until the family upgraded their recovery service. Stuart then called a taxi for his family, all the way home to Haydock.
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The dad, who bought the car on finance in November 2020 and has since been paying for a service plan, told the ECHO: "We were driving down to the midlands one Tuesday evening to watch our son play football and I realised that no one whatsoever had been in touch with me about the car, as we'd had it for a year and it hadn't been serviced.
"I phoned [KIA support] at about 4.30pm, and the woman on the phone said it was strange as I wasn't listed as the vehicle's registered owner.
"Then, literally six hours later I was driving us back from Wolverhampton after the football with my wife and son and the car just went into limp mode and completely shut down on the M6 motorway. We were on the smart motorway and it was absolutely bouncing down with rain.
"There was no street lighting and it was pitch black, luckily we managed to get into one of the new little laybys.
"To be honest, it was pitch black at night, it's a black car, the whole power went in the car and luckily we limped into one of the recovery bays but if I'd have been stranded in lane one when it was that busy I couldn't say what would've happened.
"It was frightening. We had two children in the car with us and I told [KIA later on] that they could've been looking at four fatalities here easily."
Stuart said he hasn't seen his car since soon after the breakdown, when he took it to several KIA outlets to have the car fixed, with a majority of them telling him there was nothing they could do. Eventually, KIA Bolton took in the car, though it stayed with them for weeks before being sent down to KIA Altrincham, where it has remained since.
He said: "I'm not at fault for this. I've got a partial element of blame which I understand as it is the driver's responsibility to service the vehicle, but I purchased the service plan which showed willingness to get it serviced. And I contacted them as soon as I could to see if it needed one and unfortunately it broke down on the motorway.,
"The whole ordeal just kept going on and on. All they've said is that it was my fault, that I should've got it serviced."
A spokesperson for KIA told the ECHO: "KIA UK is aware of this case, and offered goodwill towards the repair at the end of June, which the customer accepted. We are working with the repairing dealer to further investigate this situation and hopefully bring it to a resolution soon."
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