2023 Kia Forte
This year drew an ordinary 59 complaints for a Kia Forte — the model's median is 146. What they were about is the unusual part: 11.9% of them mention requesting, against 1.5% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 3 of the Kia Forte, which began in 2019. 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 | 59 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 146 |
| Involving a crash | 10 |
| Involving a fire | 4 |
| Recalls | 3 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 31 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- requesting — 11.9% of this year's complaints, against 1.5% across the other years of this generation (7.9×). Owners wrote it as: requesting, immediate, investigate, hazardous.
- accident — 16.9% of this year's complaints, against 6.2% across the other years of this generation (2.7×).
- towards — 6.8% of this year's complaints, against 1.4% across the other years of this generation (4.8×).
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
Issue seems to be with the steering of the car. It is very stiff and difficult to maneuver. Steering needs to be hold tightly to keep car in the lane, else car keeps on going towards the right side. I took the car to service center as well and they also acknow…
Vehicle was involved in an accident. No air bags were deployed. Vehicle was declared a total loss. Have reached out to KIA manufacturing regarding issue.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 22V906000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
- 23V649000 SUSPENSION Fixed free of charge.
- 24V244000 SUSPENSION 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 2023 Kia Forte? What happened to yours?
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