Federal complaint record · Kia Sorento · model year 2016

2016 Kia Sorento

Owners submitted 1,239 federal complaint reports about this model year, placing it at the 84th percentile for complaint intensity within its 2014 to 2018 midsize suv cohort. The largest reported component group is engine. Sample sizes and limitations are shown below.

Engine · 44% · group n = 719Other · 11% · group n = 176Powertrain · 8% · group n = 123Structure · 7% · group n = 107Electrical · 7% · group n = 106
1,239
Complaint records on file
66,000
Median mileage at the reported problem · 423 complaints reported mileage
44%
Of classified component reports name engine · group n = 719
84th
Complaint-intensity percentile in a cohort of 40 model years

Engine · 4 in ten classified complaints

Where this record concentrates

All failure files
Component group 01 · Engine44%

Engine reports

Kia Sorento · model year 2016

Reports in this group719
Share of classified reports44%
Component groups on file6
Open the failure files

Adjacent model years · same badge, different data

The complaint signal has a shape

Compare model years
2015
0.6complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
746 matched incidents
This car
2016
1.1complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
1,239 matched incidents
2017
0.9complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
788 matched incidents

The line compares submitted complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years, not failures per 1,000 cars. Vehicle-years use compiled US sales, a 0.25 prior-calendar-year plus 0.75 current-calendar-year model-year allocation, and the shipped survival curve. Rates appear only where estimated vehicles in operation are at least 5,000.

From the record · recurring narrative clusters

What recurring complaint clusters describe

How clusters are built
Engine damage · 141 reports

Reports describe engine damage or oil consumption

Cluster 1 of 32016 Kia Sorento
Stalling or shutdown · 140 reports

Reports describe the vehicle stalling or shutting off while driving

Cluster 2 of 32016 Kia Sorento
Fire or smoke · 139 reports

Reports describe smoke, burning smells, or fire

Cluster 3 of 32016 Kia Sorento

Cluster summaries paraphrase recurring symptoms reported to NHTSA. They are aggregate descriptions, not individual verbatim reports.

Records through 2026-07-19Published 2026-08-02 · Updated 2026-07-19

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NHTSA consumer complaint records can reveal recurring patterns across published model years. MotorCensus summarizes those records as one complaint-signal index, with a 95% interval and sample size, updated with each data snapshot.

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