2019 Kia Sorento
This year drew an ordinary 419 complaints for a Kia Sorento — the model's median is 217. What they were about is the unusual part: 11.2% of them mention ongoing, against 3.6% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 3 of the Kia Sorento, which began in 2016 and ran to 2020. 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 | 419 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 217 |
| Involving a crash | 10 |
| Involving a fire | 19 |
| Recalls | 2 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 22.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- ongoing — 11.2% of this year's complaints, against 3.6% across the other years of this generation (3.1×). Owners wrote it as: ongoing, diagnose, earlier, answer.
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
back up camera/infotainement screen went black while backing up twice in driveway. About 10 minutes later infotainment center restarted it's self and prompted me to verify safety while driving. Kia case manager emailed directly due to open case regarding ongoi…
electronic functions of vehicle was unresponsive. unable to turn off radio. unable to change volume. unable to control A/C. unable to answer calls. all buttons unresponsive Dealership called on date with no answer. message left. Dealership informed at next in…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 22V703000 TRAILER HITCHES Fixed free of charge.
- 23V639000 BACK OVER PREVENTION 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 2019 Kia Sorento? What happened to yours?
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