2005 Kia Sportage
This year drew an ordinary 68 complaints for a Kia Sportage — the model's median is 111. What they were about is the unusual part: 19.1% of them mention fuel, against 2.2% across the other years of this generation.
First year of a new generation. The Kia Sportage was redesigned for 2005. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 68 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 111 |
| Involving a crash | 6 |
| Involving a fire | 2 |
| Recalls | 3 |
| EPA combined | 21 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- fuel — 19.1% of this year's complaints, against 2.2% across the other years of this generation (8.9×).
- frame — 10.3% of this year's complaints, against 3.3% across the other years of this generation (3.1×). Owners wrote it as: frame, rotted, unsafe drive.
- big — 8.8% of this year's complaints, against 2.5% across the other years of this generation (3.5×). Owners wrote it as: big, saying, may 2005.
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
REAR SUBFRAME ROTTED OUT. (,UNSAFE TO DRIVE). KIA SPORTAGE 2005 LOOK LIKE 30 YEARS OLD.
TOOK CAR TO HAVE SOMETHING UNRELATED TO THIS CHECKED. WAS TOLD THAT THE FRAME IS RUSTED AND ROTTED REALLY BAD AND IS UNSFE TO DRIVE. THE VEHICLE WAS STATIONARY AND REMAINS STATIONARY FOR FEAR OF IT COMPLETELY BREAKING OFF AND CAUSING A CATASTROPHE TO MYSELF, M…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 05V318000 PARKING BRAKE
- 05V120000 ELECTRONIC STABILITY CONTROL Fixed free of charge.
- 05V212000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Kia Sportage 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 2005 Kia Sportage? What happened to yours?
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