This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
On multiple occasions our headlights will turn on by themselves without the car being on: for example while we are sleeping in the middle of the night we get a call from our neighbor that our car lights are on. Also while driving at night they will turn off by themselves. On all occasions the light are in AUTO mode, meaning the lights should turn on/off themselves when necessary but only when the key is in the car and the car is
My vehicle is consuming a lot of oil. At my previous oil change I mentioned this to the dealer as I had to put in 5 quarts of oil. The oil canister light came on which I believed was just warning me to my upcoming oil change but my dipstick indicated otherwise when I checked. The light would only come on when I made turns in the road. It did not stay on consistently. As I was driving my engine sounded bad and I was worried something more was wrong which is why I checked the oil. When I brought it in for the oil change, the service advisor said they would check for leaks which was not located. I asked them to set my oil change for 3k miles instead of the 5k miles they have been setting it as I was worried about engine damage. The oil canister light came on recently once again (still only when I take turns on the road) with still 1100 miles left in the current oil change and when I checked there was no oil in the engine reflected on the dipstick. I gradually added oil and had to add 5 quarts of oil once again. I set up an appointment for further investigation but I fear that by the time they run their tests my vehicle will surpass any warranty. I-??m currently at 77700 miles. This much oil consumption is not normal and I shouldn-??t have to keep a constant stock of oil available to fill up every 2k miles. I understand a little bit of oil but having to add 5 quarts of oil at a given time is way too much.
The exterior paint of the vehicle is peeling off to the point where the metal of the car is visible. The vehicle has the Special White Pearl SWP paint code, and it is peeling off in different areas all across the vehicle. Also, the dash has cracked, in both the driver and passenger's side. The use of those foil accordions to protect the dash has been in use since purchased back in 2018, but it still cracked.
I had the anti-theft update installed in August which was supposed to prevent the car from being stolen by lengthening the alarm and making it so the car would not start without the key. My car was still stolen in November.
- San Lorenzo, CA, USA
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I recently found out via social media that my 2018 Kia Sorento is under recall. I have received zero communication from Kia corporate in regards to next steps to fix my current recall. To make matters worse, my husband just blew at right at 100,000 and Kia refused to offer us any financial assistance since it was -??no longer under warranty.-?? My husband and I spent $5347 out of pocket and an additional $500 on rental cars while our car was being serviced. Again, Kia received to take any blame and refused us any financial assistance. In May of 2022, my husband-??s 2013 Kia Optima-??s engine blew and we were out of a vehicle for 12 weeks. Kia refused to supply us a rental so we had to borrow family member-??s cars while our car was being serviced. Kia did financially assist us with the 2013 Kia Optima-??s engine because it was under warranty. Kia has no clue how to create a dependable, working engine and doesn-??t have any decency to take initiative of their faulty engines. My husband and I are now in extreme car debt with my 2018 Kia Sorento, owing $8400 and we just spent an additional $5347 on a brand new engine. As of yesterday, 10.3.2023, my car battery was fried and needed to be replaced. This costs my husband and I an additional $200. I-??m reaching out because I firmly believe Kia owes us financial assistance and I demand for Kia to be held accountable of their corrupt customer service.
The cruise control has been fixed once. It was not fixed. Same problem still happening. Sometimes it works, more than not it does not. Sometimes you can-??t shut it off. They also have not come up with a fix for the new hitch recall problem that results in fires.
My 2018 Snow White Pearl Kia Sorento is experiencing paint failure on the hood and rear hatch. The manufacturer notified me that they identified this as a problem with 2011-2014 models and, at this time, are not offering a remedy for a 2018 model.
The car makes a loud noise like I hurt a bump, the engine light comes on. I brought the car to the Kia dealer and They told me everything was OK. I took the car home and continued to experience the same problem but this time the car decelerate even if I am driving in the freeway. At that time I cannot accelerate. I brought again the car to the same Kia dealer.They told me they drove the car 19 miles and did not have any problem ! I went and took the car and believe what I was told but this time the wheel blocked and I could not turn, the engine turn itself off. The oil engine and battery lights come on in red and the engine light in yellow. It is very scary and unsafe I had to tow this car to the dealers without my concerns being addressed.
This is with regards to a major safety incident that could have been fatal for my wife and others on 2/2/2022. My wife parked her 2018 Kia Sorento on our driveway picked up her belongings and closed the door of the car. As she was about to enter the house it felt to her that the car was still running. So, she went to the car again opened the drivers side of the door and reached out and pressed the "Start/Stop" button thinking if the car's engine is still "ON" it will turn it "OFF". As soon as she hit the button the car started rolling backwards and my wife got entangled in the door. She got knocked down to the ground sustaining a concussion on her head and deep bruises on her legs and shoulder. The car went to neighbor's front yard across the street and was stopped by the curb and the snow bank on neighbor's yard. After I tended to my wife I went to fetch the car I double checked and saw that the gear shifter was in "Parking" position. The mystery is how the car moved backwards while the car was in "Parking". It's not a steep hill and the way car rolled it felt to my wife as the car was in "Neutral". There is no warning lights or any other failure indications. We took the car to local Kia dealer for thorough inspection but they couldn't find anything. We are quite scared to drive the car. I am hoping a very through investigation of the car and get to the bottom of the issue. We complained to Kia, they reached out once after almost a month and now radio silence on the issue.
2 Recent incidents: SUV was parked on a driveway with slight incline overnight in park and ended up at the bottom end of driveway in the morning. With car running on a friends driveway with an incline, I had car in the park mode and was going to depart car to quickly knock on door and car very slowly proceed backwards while in park mode. I called KIA dealership on 12/22/2021 where I purchased car they stated they never heard of this & could be icy driveways..I stated they were not iced over at the time and I-??m very concerned for everyone-??s safety with this situation. They dealership service department stated it will be a diagnostic charge due not any service or engine lights -??on-?? at this time.
My 2018 Kia Sorento keeps going into limp mode. It can-??t be duplicated by any shop so I keep paying for diagnostic and not having anything repaired besides things that could -??possibly be the problem-?? but aren-??t covered by the warranty like a positive battery cable or a software update. Now I-??m $1000 out of pocket and had the most terrifying experience of my life and the car is still not repaired. Driving 75mph down the freeway, the car violently tried to stop and shut off and turned back on all on its own. It went into limp mode. Felt like a grenade went off. Still nothing can be found as to what the problem is! It is not safe and I refuse to put my children back in this car.
I Was driving down the road, my car suddenly began slowing down even as I pressed the accelerator Down more, as I started to pull over I heard a tapping noise and a sound almost like a chains rattling the vehicle shutoff immediately after. I tried restarting the vehicle, vehicle did not restart. As I got out the vehicle I smelt a burning smell but saw no fire. I had the vehicle towed to my house.
My son was traveling down a highway between 45-55 mph when he overcorrected and made full impact of the front of the car with a solid snow bank in the middle median. The radiator was slammed backwards, the front end was demolished with around $12,000 in damage to the vehicle. There is no reason we can find that the air bags did not deploy. We bought this vehicle because of the safety rating but now I am concerned that we have issues with our air bags. Will they protect us if this should ever happen again?
Sunroof spontaneously shattered when driving on the highway at 63 mph. There was no road debris that caused this - in looking at the remaining attached glass, it appears to have broken upwards, not as if something broke it from the outside, but from the inside, like it bubbled upwards. It is the front panel of a panoramic sunroof, and the fabric was open and the sunroof was vented open at the time.
There's gasoline leaking from the rear driver side from the bottom of the vehicle, this has been a problem for a few days. Just like any other responsible car owner, I take it to a shop; since I no longer trust mark Kia's (my local Kia dealership) service department since being scammed by them is a normal occurrence, I take it to a pep-boys near the dealership. The gentleman and his manager explained to me that the fix is doable however after literally speaking to every Kia dealership (including mark Kia) as well as all of their distributors, they learned that the part to fix the problem doesn't exist at this time (as in not sold yet). I was also informed that the fuel assembly in general shows no wear and tear as well as any damage that would conclude user error. In addition, they informed me that the 2017 model has the same issue and as a result was recalled, my research concluded this. I called mark Kia and asked them if they were aware of a potential recall, apparently, a tsb could either exist or be in the works that address the issue, instead of trying to work with me on a solution, as usual, the scammers were not helpful. As a result, my car is currently sitting in a pep-boys lot located at 101 S mcclintock dr tempe, AZ due to Kia negligence and I demand Kia to look into this matter since I rely on my car for work; without my car I don't make any money. Please contact the pepboys below 101 S mcclintock dr tempe, AZ 85281 (480) 968-8473
On 8-23-19 at approx. O805hrs I arrived at my destination and parked my Kia Sorento. I had driven the Kia Sorento from my residence to vancouver, wa and during this travel period the Kia Sorento functioned as usual with no indication of mechanical, electrical or functionality of the vehicle. I parked the Kia and entered the building. At approx. 0840 a co-worker indicated the Kia had smoke coming from the Kia's engine compartment. I exited the building to see a small haze of smoke coming from the engine compartment, which began to increase. I used a fire extinguisher in an attempt to neutralize the fire, which only suppressed it for a short time and I didn't open the engine hood due to potential exposure to fire or explosions. The engine fire continued to increase in size and I attempted with another fire extinguisher, which wasn't effective due to size, heat and accessibility of the full engine compartment. Vancouver fire later arrived and extinguished the engine fire continued within the Kia's engine compartment.
I was driving back home I had too work in rodeo California half the way everything was going great I had my 3 children with me my car didn't gave me any warning no check engine light.,no white smoke, I was passing the dodger stadium when suddenly my 2018 Sorento just shut down almost got hit I was about too enter the 710 and nooooo I didnt even got a chance to get out the I-5 South I checked the water it was full oil was ok no smoke no over heating ones the car shut down I try too stop since when passing dodger stadium in going down hill the damm breaks didnt work god was on my side I stop the car the dash board turn on and off the engine how ever never turned back on. I waited for 5 hours for Kia roadside service 60 minutes turned up too be 5 hrs its funny I got that 2018 because I didn't want to be having problems like this one I thought hey a new car would be great for the family...nope I should had never got that car love my Chevrolet Silverado nothing like Chevy
Our car has a third row with two seats in the back and we put 2 people on each row. We had a steel trailer hitch cargo carrier hanging on the back of the car. We have used this device many times with our other 2007 Kia Sorento with no problems of any kind. We had four large tubs with lids and each of the 4 kids would get a tub to hold their suitcases. These tubs were connected to the cargo carrier with bungie cords. We had planned to spend the night in las vegas and after a 5-hour drive, we arrived at the hotel & we noticed that the tub on the bottom starboard side had been burned significantly. Upon further investigation, we learned that the exhaust pipe was part of the bumper system and that it had heated the one tub and the cargo carrier to such high temperatures as to cause a fire inside the tub. It had melted the tub to the cargo carrier and burned a big hole in the side of the tub. The suitcase inside the tub had a huge black hole in the side and all of its contents were burned or scorched. Since the fire was no longer burning, we decided to not call the las vegas fire department as the threat was over. The next day, before we left las vegas, we went to home depot and found some materials and crafted an aluminum shield to block the exhaust from hitting the cargo carrier. Then we were able to reach our destination in seal beach ca. When we took the cargo carrier off the car, we saw that several of the bungie cords had been melted right to the cargo carrier. Through our assessment, we determined that the damages done to the cargo carrier, the bungie cords, the tub, the suitcase and all of its (mostly brand new) contents to be about $1547.15. This did not count the cost to build a deflector so we could continue our trip. It in no way counts the discomfort and trauma my family suffered from this event.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Olney, MD, USA