California Court Allows Kia Telluride Windshield Defect Class Action to Proceed Into 2022

Sanchez v. Kia America, Inc. (Case No. 8:20-cv-01604-JLS-KES) continued in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in December 2021. The proposed class action alleges that 2020 Kia Telluride windshields are defective because they crack more easily and more frequently than non-defective windshields; it had survived initial dismissal motions and was proceeding toward class certification.

The lawsuit was brought on behalf of purchasers and lessees of model-year 2020 Kia Telluride vehicles across ten states: California, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. The plaintiffs alleged that Kia America knew about the windshield defect—an alleged tendency to crack under conditions that would not normally cause a properly manufactured windshield to fail—but failed to disclose the condition to buyers or lessees when the vehicles were sold or leased. Claims included breach of the implied warranty of merchantability and various state consumer protection statutes.

The Kia Telluride had been a commercial success since its 2019 launch, earning strong safety and quality ratings and rapidly becoming one of the higher-selling three-row SUVs in the U.S. market. A widespread windshield defect claim against such a high-profile vehicle attracted significant industry attention. For Kia, a finding of liability would potentially require replacement of thousands of windshields—either through a voluntary recall or as a result of a court judgment—at significant cost.

For auto glass shops, the Telluride litigation carried operational significance on multiple levels. First, shops that had already replaced Telluride windshields under standard chip-and-crack service were likely to encounter customers with repeat windshield damage, raising questions about whether the replacement glass or the vehicle structure was the cause of the recurring failures. If a defect in the original OEM windshield specification was confirmed, it would suggest that replacement parts meeting the same specification could exhibit the same failure mode.

Second, the litigation outcomes often influence whether OEMs eventually initiate formal NHTSA recall campaigns. If the class action produced a settlement or adverse judgment, plaintiffs' counsel and consumer advocates would have additional ammunition to push NHTSA to open a defect investigation. Shops that maintain thorough records of Telluride windshield replacements—including part numbers, dates, and photos of damage patterns—would be well-positioned to contribute to any such investigation or to support customer claims.

The case would continue into 2022 and beyond, ultimately resulting in a class certification covering 2020–2023 Telluride owners across the named states. The December 2021 status—with the lawsuit proceeding and the court allowing class discovery to move forward—was a signal to the industry that the Telluride windshield story was far from resolved as the calendar year closed.