2016 Kia Optima
Complaints about this year name windows far more often than the other years of this generation — 9% of them, about 22× the usual rate of 0.4%.
First year of a new generation. The Kia Optima was redesigned for 2016. 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 | 751 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 205 |
| Involving a crash | 26 |
| Involving a fire | 19 |
| Recalls | 5 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 28 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- window — 14.6% of this year's complaints, against 4.2% across the other years of this generation (3.5×). Owners wrote it as: window, windows, four, regulator.
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.
Also unusual this year
- window — 10% of complaints, 13× usual
What owners wrote
3 of the 4 windows have had failures in the window regulators and the windows do not work.
My car has now been broke into twice because of the "kia boys" I have now had to replace two windows, and clean my car out from glass.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 18V907000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 17V007000 AIR BAGS
- 16V705000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 16V231000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 23V594000 LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES Fixed free of charge.
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 2016 Kia Optima? What happened to yours?
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