I need some help to see what my options are on a problem.

I have a 2013 Kia Sorento that I bought in 2016. I had to have some A/C maintenance done on it last week. A friend of my dad owns a repair shop, so I left it with him. On his way to the shop, the Kia just dies. They tow it to the shop, and are unable to find anything wrong. There are no computer codes either. After the repairs he drives it back to his out with no problems, and I drive it home no problem.

Yesterday, after it sitting for a few days, I take it out, and it dies on me. The first time, I start it up again, and it goes a little way before completely dying.

This morning I have it towed to the Kia dealership. When they call me, they tell me its the engine, and I’m just going to have to have it replaced. The quote on that is about $8100, which is probably more than the car is worth. And it’s about $2k more than have left to pay on it. I went afterwards to find out what exactly was wrong with the car, and they never tried to get to that much detail. Just that the engine is gone.

This starts my wife doing the internet search thing, and we come across these: cars.com. The middle one seems the most relevant, which says this:

Summary
Kia Motor Company (Kia) is recalling certain 2011-2014 Optima, 2012-2014 Sorento and 2011-2013 Sportage vehicles. Machining errors during the engine manufacturing process may cause premature bearing wear within the engine.

Consequence
Bearing wear may result in the engine seizing, increasing the risk of a crash.

What Owners Should Do
Kia will notify owners, and dealers will inspect the engine assembly, and replace the engine if necessary, free of charge. The recall began June 20, 2017. Owners may contact Kia customer service at [no phone numbers allowed]. Kia’s number for this recall is SC147.

At the current time, I can’t tell you what the history is of the car getting looked at for this. I know I took the car to the dealership to have the oil changed, and I remember them looking at some of the recall stuff, but I don’t know about this one.

It just seems that having the engine fail at this point is not right. What I don’t know is if that recall is something I can pursue, and what’s the best way to go about pursuing it. It’s kind of obvious the mechanics there aren’t going to do much about it unless forced, but my car is sitting on their lot and I will have to hire a tow company to movie it.

Any suggestions on how to proceed would be great. Fighting these kinds of fights is not my forte; it takes a lot more energy out of me to do these things than I know other people spend.