June 23, 2026 - After six years of litigation a federal judge declined to dismiss the class action lawsuit involving cracked windshields on Kia Telluride SUVs allowing the case to continue.

The complaint alleges that specific 2020-2023 Telluride windshields contain a flaw causing them to chip crack or shatter under normal conditions.

Two separate class actions Margaret Ritzler v. Kia and Yandery Sanchez v. Kia were combined yet numerous nationwide allegations were eliminated during the process.

The ongoing lawsuit now covers these states along with the listed Telluride model years.

California: 2020-2022 Kia Telluride
Georgia: 2020-2023 Kia Telluride
Indiana: 2020-2023 Kia Telluride
Iowa: 2020-2022 Kia Telluride
New Mexico: 2020-2023 Kia Telluride
North Carolina: 2020-2022 Kia Telluride
Pennsylvania: 2020-2023 Kia Telluride
Tennessee: 2020-2023 Kia Telluride
Texas: 2020-2023 Kia Telluride
Virginia: 2020-2023 Kia Telluride

Kia maintains the class action should be rejected entirely asserting that plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate a shared defect in all Telluride windshields and citing reports from both its own expert and one retained by the owners.

The company informed the court that the owners expert performed no tests to verify tensile stress levels in Generation II windshields whereas Kia testing showed those levels fell within acceptable limits even by the plaintiffs expert standards.

The manufacturer adds that the mounting angle curvature and thickness of the windshields fall squarely within typical ranges for comparable vehicles.

Kia insists there is nothing distinctive about the Telluride windshield curvature and that available data on thickness indicates the Gen II versions are ordinary.

Per the motion to dismiss cracked windshields do not pose an unreasonable safety risk and even if they did Kia lacked knowledge of any such risk at the time of initial sales.

Kia further notes that plaintiffs have identified no case where a cracked windshield led to an accident or injury.

The judge however highlights one owners statement that visibility through the glass was sometimes very difficult.

Ultimately Kias position resulted only in the dismissal of express warranty claims for three plaintiffs while the remaining allegations will proceed.

Judge Josephine Staton explained that all evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs with facts interpreted accordingly for the vehicle owners.

The class action was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California under Sanchez et al. v. Kia Motors America Inc.

The plaintiffs are represented by Lemberg Law LLC.