I’m a bit more than hesitant to consider claims that the problem couldn’t be duplicated as evidence of a hoax. I had a Kia Sodona with a less dangerous, though significant problem that also couldn’t be duplicated. Five or six times it was into the shop to fix an intermittently functioning speedometer, and since it couldn’t be duplicated Kia took the position that there was no problem with the car. Since it was my wife that drove the car and I never witnessed it, at first I wasn’t convinced they were wrong. She hated the car from the day she drove it home. But after driving 30 to 35 thousand miles a year for 5 or 6 years, her mileage was only at 24,000 after 15 months, with no change in her driving habits. Seems the odometer didn’t work when the speedometer went dead. Sufficient to convince me it was real. Eventually, it also convinced Kia Motors. They bought the car back from me at full original purchase price.
The rest of the evidence that it was a hoax is no more than circumstanial, or even contradicted by the CHP.
It may have been a hoax. But the evidence seems weak at best.
