Coscienzios

Model years to avoid

Kia Forte

What it says about you

Opinion

Cheap, warrantied, and considerably better looking than it needed to be. Solid decision.

Not measured, not from the data, and offered in fun. Everything below this is not.

16 model years on record, 2,402 complaints filed.

The years to look at closely: 2014 (steering). Everything else drew a normal number of complaints for this model.

What owners report, and when

Faults that dominated the complaints of more than one model year. Not the same question as which year to avoid — a car can have an ordinary number of complaints every year and have most of them be about the same thing.

  • open 2017, 2018, 2020 peak 25.4% of that year's complaints
  • maintained 2013, 2014 peak 8.7% of that year's complaints

Every year

  1. 2024 0 recalls 24 complaints
  2. 2023 3 recalls 59 complaints
  3. 2022 1 recall 25 complaints
  4. 2021 2 recalls 67 complaints
  5. 2020 0 recalls 71 complaints
  6. 2019 2 recalls 146 complaints
  7. 2018 3 recalls 134 complaints
  8. 2017 3 recalls 300 complaints
  9. 2016 1 recall 1 complaints
  10. 2015 1 recall 258 complaints
  11. 2014 steering 439 complaints
  12. 2013 5 recalls 195 complaints
  13. 2012 4 recalls 289 complaints
  14. 2011 3 recalls 161 complaints
  15. 2010 3 recalls 232 complaints
  16. 2009 0 recalls 1 complaints

What does a Kia Forte say about you?

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Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints — compared against itself rather than against other cars, so popularity and age do not decide the answer.