2015 Kia Forte
This year drew an ordinary 258 complaints for a Kia Forte — the model's median is 134. What they were about is the unusual part: 7.4% of them mention changed, against 2.2% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 2 of the Kia Forte, which began in 2014 and ran to 2018. 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 | 258 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 134 |
| Involving a crash | 16 |
| Involving a fire | 20 |
| Recalls | 1 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 29 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- changed — 7.4% of this year's complaints, against 2.2% across the other years of this generation (3.3×). Owners wrote it as: changed, local mechanic, problem car.
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, MY CAR JUST SHUT OFF AND WASN'T WORKING. I WAS UNABLE TO START IT AGAIN. NO OIL LIGHTS, NO ENGINE LIGHTS, OR ANY OTHER WARNING LIGHTS CAME ON PRIOR TO IT DYING. THE DEALERSHIP IS TELLING ME THERE IS NO OIL IN THE MOTOR AND I AM NOT UNDERSTANDING…
while the vehicle was in for service, the local mechanic informed the contact that the engine sounded rough. After performing a diagnostic test on the vehicle, the mechanic informed the contact that the engine was faulty. The vehicle was later towed to the loc…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 20V750000 ENGINE 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 2015 Kia Forte? What happened to yours?
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