2012 Kia Forte
This year drew an ordinary 289 complaints for a Kia Forte — the model's median is 134. What they were about is the unusual part: 8% of them mention related, against 1.9% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 1 of the Kia Forte, which began in 2010 and ran to 2013. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 289 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 134 |
| Involving a crash | 20 |
| Involving a fire | 21 |
| Recalls | 4 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 28 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- related — 8% of this year's complaints, against 1.9% across the other years of this generation (4.3×). Owners wrote it as: related, contact related, related failure, engine however.
- new engine — 6.9% of this year's complaints, against 1.9% across the other years of this generation (3.7×).
- vin included — 6.6% of this year's complaints, against 1.9% across the other years of this generation (3.5×). Owners wrote it as: vin included, who diagnosed.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
while driving 45 MPH, the vehicle briefly jerked before returning to normal functionality. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic, who diagnosed a failure with the camshaft. The vehicle was not repaired. After inve…
while his son was driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle stalled. The contact's son restarted the vehicle; however, the vehicle shuddered while driving and was pushed to the residence. The contact replaced the battery, but the vehicle failed to restart.…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 20V750000 ENGINE Fixed free of charge.
- 18V363000 AIR BAGS
- 17V773000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
- 23V652000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Kia Forte was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2012 Kia Forte? What happened to yours?
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