2008 Kia Sorento
This year drew an ordinary 217 complaints for a Kia Sorento — the model's median is 242. What they were about is the unusual part: 15.2% of them mention pedal, against 5.4% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 1 of the Kia Sorento, which began in 2003 and ran to 2010. 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 | 217 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 242 |
| Involving a crash | 15 |
| Involving a fire | 9 |
| Recalls | 3 |
| EPA combined | 17 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- pedal — 15.2% of this year's complaints, against 5.4% across the other years of this generation (2.8×).
- acceleration — 14.7% of this year's complaints, against 5% across the other years of this generation (2.9×). Owners wrote it as: acceleration, figure, figure out, motors.
- accelerator — 7.4% of this year's complaints, against 2.4% across the other years of this generation (3×). Owners wrote it as: accelerator, accelerator pedal, slowly.
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
WHILE DRIVING APPROXIMATELY 40 MPH, THE VEHICLE [VIN]. THE CONTACT DEPRESSED THE ACCELERATOR PEDAL AND THE VEHICLE SLOWLY [VIN] TO 20 MPH. THE SERVICE ENGINE AND ESC SENSORS ILLUMINATED INTERMITTENTLY. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT DIAGNOSED OR REPAIRED. THE [VIN] WAS N…
ESC OFF LIGHT COMES ON AND SENDS THE TRANSMISSION INTO A "LIMP" MODE. THIS CAUSES EXTREME LOSS OF ACCELERATION. DEALERSHIP REPLACED THE ABS CONTROL MODULE, BUT IT DID NOT FIX THE PROBLEM. DEALERSHIP CAN NOT FIGURE OUT WHY THE VEHICLE IS DOING THIS.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 20V088000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 11V473000 AIR BAGS
- 13V114000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Kia Sorento 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 2008 Kia Sorento? What happened to yours?
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