2005 Kia Optima
This year drew an ordinary 144 complaints for a Kia Optima — the model's median is 230. What they were about is the unusual part: 61.8% of them mention door, against 2.1% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 144 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 230 |
| Involving a crash | 7 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 0 |
| EPA combined | 21.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- door — 61.8% of this year's complaints, against 2.1% across the model's other years (29.9×).
- unlock — 34.7% of this year's complaints, against 0.4% across the model's other years (87.8×).
- open — 42.4% of this year's complaints, against 2.2% across the model's other years (19.4×).
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
DRIVERS SIDE DOOR LOCKING MECHANISM MALFUNCTION. MECHANISM WILL NOT ALLOW THE DOOR TO UNLOCK, THEREFORE THE DOOR CAN NOT BE OPENED. DRIVER MUST CLIMB OUT OF PASSENGER SIDE.
THE DRIVERS DOOR WILL NOT UNLOCK, YOU CAN NOT OPEN THE DRIVERS DOOR. FOR THE DRIVER TO GET OUT OF THE CAR YOU HAVE TO GO OVER THE CONSOLE TO GET OUT THE PASSENGER DOOR. THIS IS A SAFETY ISSUE!!!!! TRIED TO UNLOCK WITH WILL NOT WORK.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Kia Optima 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 2005 Kia Optima? What happened to yours?
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