2018 Kia Forte
This year drew an ordinary 134 complaints for a Kia Forte — the model's median is 146. What they were about is the unusual part: 8.2% of them mention trunk, against 3% across the other years of this generation.
Last year of its generation. This Kia Forte ran from 2014 to 2018, so it had the whole run for its faults to be found and fixed. Last years are usually the most sorted of a generation.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 134 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 146 |
| Involving a crash | 13 |
| Involving a fire | 3 |
| Recalls | 3 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 28 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- trunk — 8.2% of this year's complaints, against 3% across the other years of this generation (2.8×). Owners wrote it as: trunk, latch.
- care — 6.7% of this year's complaints, against 2.3% across the other years of this generation (2.9×).
- accelerating — 6.7% of this year's complaints, against 2.3% across the other years of this generation (2.9×). Owners wrote it as: accelerating, lanes.
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
Hi, I am reaching out due to the recall notice ever since my wife and I have owned our vehicle the trunk has always randomly opened or refused to open with or without the key or vehicle latch being engaged.
the trunk door latch would not securely latch when closed. The contact was on the way to the dealer to have the vehicle diagnosed. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 82,734.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 22V031000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 21V622000 LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES Fixed free of charge.
- 21V260000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING 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 2018 Kia Forte? What happened to yours?
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