2012 Kia Rio
This year drew an ordinary 54 complaints for a Kia Rio — the model's median is 36. What they were about is the unusual part: 18.5% of them mention gas, against 4.5% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 54 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 36 |
| Involving a crash | 3 |
| Involving a fire | 9 |
| Recalls | 1 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 31.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- gas — 18.5% of this year's complaints, against 4.5% across the model's other years (4.2×).
- put — 18.5% of this year's complaints, against 6.9% across the model's other years (2.7×).
- low — 14.8% of this year's complaints, against 3.8% across the model's other years (3.9×). Owners wrote it as: low, dry, son, occupants.
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
THE CONTACT OWNED A 2012 KIA RIO. THE CONTACT STATED WHILE HER SON WAS DRIVING AT 30 MPH, WHITE SMOKE APPEARED AND FLAMES STARTED FROM THE ENGINE COMPARTMENT. FIRE IN THE ENGINE COMPARTMENT THE VEHICLE WAS DESTROYED THE DRIVER PULLED OVER TO THE SIDE OF THE RO…
The GDI 1.6L engines are manufactured with a flaw that affects piston rings and makes oil consumption go up which in turn can make the engine run dry and damage the engine, which if you're in a bad location could be dangerous. My car has been dealing with the…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 23V652000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Kia Rio 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 2012 Kia Rio? What happened to yours?
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