2009 Kia Sedona
This year drew an ordinary 48 complaints for a Kia Sedona — the model's median is 107. What they were about is the unusual part: 22.9% of them mention since, against 8.8% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 48 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 107 |
| Involving a crash | 3 |
| Involving a fire | 2 |
| Recalls | 5 |
| EPA combined | 18 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- since — 22.9% of this year's complaints, against 8.8% across the model's other years (2.6×).
- gas — 14.6% of this year's complaints, against 3.7% across the model's other years (4×).
- back dealer — 8.3% of this year's complaints, against 0.7% across the model's other years (11.8×).
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
THE LOW BEAM HEADLIGHTS WOULD NOT ILLUMINATE. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO AN INDEPENDENT MECHANIC, WHO WAS UNABLE TO DIAGNOSE WHY THE HEADLIGHTS FAILED. THE MECHANIC REPLACED THE LOW BEAM HEADLIGHT BULBS. THE FAILURE HAD SINCE RECURRED NUMEROUS TIMES. THE HIGH BE…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 20V088000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 16V389000 LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES Fixed free of charge.
- 16V387000 SUSPENSION Fixed free of charge.
- 13V114000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING Fixed free of charge.
- 13V550000 SUSPENSION Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Kia Sedona 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 2009 Kia Sedona? What happened to yours?
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