Kia pulls 56,000 cars for brake fault check

South Korean car maker Kia is pulling 56,000 Kia cee'd cars, produced exclusively in Slovakia, for a service check-up due to a possible brake cylinder fault, the company said Tuesday.

"We are calling on owners of Kia cee'd with the electronic stability programme (ESP) made between April 1, 2008 and March 30, 2009 to have it checked as the system might need to be repaired," Kia Motors Sales Slovakia said in a statement.

The possible defect concerns 56,000 vehicles sold in central and eastern Europe, of which some 35,000 might need to be repaired, said the sales company for Kia Motors Slovakia - the world's sole producer of Kia cee'd cars.

Kia Motors, which launched production in Slovakia in 2006, employs some 2,700 people in its plant near Zilina, northern Slovakia.

Kia, which makes the Kia cee'd, Kia Sportage and Hyundai ix35 models at its Slovak plant, produced more than 150,000 cars there last year, down from 201,000 in 2008.

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