2019 Kia Forte
This year drew an ordinary 146 complaints for a Kia Forte — the model's median is 134. What they were about is the unusual part: 29.5% of them mention transmission, against 10.4% across the other years of this generation.
First year of a new generation. The Kia Forte was redesigned for 2019. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 146 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 134 |
| Involving a crash | 11 |
| Involving a fire | 4 |
| Recalls | 2 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 34 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- transmission — 29.5% of this year's complaints, against 10.4% across the other years of this generation (2.8×).
- rpms — 10.3% of this year's complaints, against 1.7% across the other years of this generation (6.1×). Owners wrote it as: rpms, dealership said, ivt.
- happening — 6.8% of this year's complaints, against 1.5% across the other years of this generation (4.6×). Owners wrote it as: happening, took kia.
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
I BOUGHT MY CAR BRAND NEW IN APRIL 2019. I HAD IT'S 15,000 MILE CHECK UP ABOUT 2 WEEKS AGO AND THEY SAID EVERYTHING WAS FINE. RIGHT AROUND THAT TIME I NOTICED THAT WHEN I [VIN], MY CAR WOULD JUMP. THE RPM WOULD BOUNCE BETWEEN 1-2 RPMS AND WHEN I BROUGHT IT INT…
WHILE THE VEHICLE WAS AT AN INTERSECTION, THE CONTACT RELEASED THE BRAKE PEDAL TO DEPRESS THE ACCELERATOR PEDAL AND THE RPMS INCREASED TO 4; HOWEVER, THE VEHICLE FAILED TO MOVE. THE CONTACT PLACED THE VEHICLE IN PARK, TURNED THE VEHICLE OFF, RESTARTED THE VEHI…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 18V771000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING Fixed free of charge.
- 20V459000 POWER TRAIN 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 2019 Kia Forte? What happened to yours?
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