2008 Kia Spectra
This year drew an ordinary 136 complaints for a Kia Spectra — the model's median is 118. What they were about is the unusual part: 7.4% of them mention buy, against 2.1% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 136 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 118 |
| Involving a crash | 23 |
| Involving a fire | 3 |
| Recalls | 0 |
| EPA combined | 26.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- buy — 7.4% of this year's complaints, against 2.1% across the model's other years (3.4×). Owners wrote it as: buy, same thing.
- red — 7.4% of this year's complaints, against 2.8% across the model's other years (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: red, per.
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 VEHICLE SHUT OFF WHILE DRIVING 40 MILES PER HOUR. THE VEHICLE HAS BEEN REPAIRED SEVERAL TIMES BUT THE FAILURE CONTINUED TO OCCUR. THE DEALER OFFERED THE CONTACT A NEW VEHICLE INSTEAD OF REPAIRING THE ONE HE OWNS; HOWEVER, THE NEWER MODELS EXPERIENCED THE I…
TAKATA RECALL WAS RUNNING THE PAPER ROUTE FOR THE TELEGRAPH AND A DEER RAN OUT IN FRONT OF MY VEHICLE INSURANCE SAID LOSS CAUSE BUT AIR BAGS NEVER WENT OFF AND SOME HOW ENDED UP IN SALVAGE...
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Kia Spectra 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 Spectra? What happened to yours?
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