Not so long ago, Kia was derided as the laughingstock of the auto industry. The brand was at the bottom of J.D. Power’s annual Initial Quality Study in the early and mid-2000s (IQS). Owners of Kias loathed their cars since they had just the most basic features and frequent issues like Sportage engines that would just stop operating.
Then, in the 2010s, things started to change. For the first time in close to 30 years, J.D. Power’s 2016 IQS ranked Kia as the top brand instead of a luxury brand like Lexus or Acura. Since then, Kia has remained among the top three. What changed for someone to go from the bottom to top in such a short period of time?
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Has Kia’s dependability increased?
Kia had a reputation for producing inexpensive, subpar cars in the early 2000s. Since then, Kia’s reputation for dependability has significantly increased, and it is now one of the most dependable models and a superb choice for drivers searching for a low-maintenance vehicle.
We’ll discuss Kia reliability information in this evaluation, including typical annual repair costs and typical breakdowns. In order to preserve your Kia in excellent condition for as long as you intend to own it, we also offer guidance on extended warranty protection.
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What year Kia shouldn’t you buy?
Customers have experienced a number of issues with the Kia Sorento since it has been advertised and sold by Kia. These models share costly issues with one another. The following model years should be avoided: 2004, 2006, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2016.
Common difficulties include those with the engine, the electrical system, the airbags, the seat belts, the lights, and the body or paint.
Engine failure is the most serious problem that these Kia Sorento models have. When most consumers have traveled an average of 62,000 miles, something happens. They could end up costing you more money in repairs, so we advise avoiding them.
Which Year Models of Kia Sorento Are Safe to Buy Used?
Production of the Kia Sorento has been going on for approximately 20 years. Not all of the models that are released, like many other cars in its market class, are flawless right out of the factory. Some people have flaws. Despite this, you have a selection of others. This is particularly true if you want to stay away from those already listed.
The following list of reliable Kia Sorento model years includes:
- Kia Sorento 2003
- Kia Sorento from 2005
- 2007 Sorento Kia
- Kia Sorento 2008
- Kia Sorento from 2009
- Kia Sorento 2010
- Kia Sorento 2015
- Kia Sorento 2017
- Kia Sorento from 2018
- Kia Sorento for 2019
- Kia Sorento 2020
- Kia Sorento 2021
The years 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 are among the safest Kia Sorento model years to purchase. Compared to the earlier mentioned model years, these have minimal complaints.
The worst issues with many of them were engine issues, a broken air conditioner compressor, electrical issues, light issues, and AC/heater issues. Most of them are also inexpensive to fix minor problems. However, they are among the minority of car owners.
The worst car troubles in early generations include crankshaft problems, frequent lighting system failures, and broken parts. It’s important to remember that these issues only occur in cars with more than 90,000 miles on the odometer.
A few owners are also affected by the problems. They are less likely to happen in a Sorento with little mileage and good maintenance. The models from 2007 to 2010 and 2015 to 2021 are the least problematic. The year 2016 is an outlier; it is less dependable than the other years in the following years.
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Which Kia Sorento Years to Avoid
The aforementioned Kia Sorento model years should easily accommodate your family’s needs and daily driving requirements. You need a dependable automobile in addition to one with excellent handling, a luxurious interior, and lots of attractive amenities. Here, we go into greater detail regarding the model years that weren’t chosen.
Steer clear of the following Kia Sorento model years:
- Kia Sorento from 2004
- Kia Sorento from 2006
- Kia Sorento from 2011
- Kia Sorento 2012
- Kia Sorento 2013
- Kia Sorento 2014
- Kia Sorento 2016
These model years frequently experience issues with their engines, electrical systems, lighting, seat belts and airbags, and body and paint. These affect everyone, and numerous users have noted concerns that are essentially the same.
You should steer clear of the 2011 Kia Sorento the most. It tops the list for having the most owner complaints. It is most likely to experience brakes issues, drivetrain issues, airbag and seat belt issues, and engine issues.
An engine failure at 77,000 miles cost the most money of all issues reported for the 2011 model year. Fixing this issue will cost $4,600. Other serious issues include an airbag problem that cost $2,000 to fix at 92,000 miles and a door issue that cost $400 to fix at 94,000 miles.
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The 2016 Kia Sorento is another vehicle you should completely avoid. In comparison to other models with lower mileage, it has more issues and costs more to repair. The most common issues are with the engine, then the steering, body/paint, and lights.
The engine has experienced the worst reported failure at 62,000 kilometers. Repairing this cost $6,100. Other owners reported having to pay up to $600 to fix wiring that rodents had gnawed. At 22,000 miles, one user’s car stalled while accelerating.
Common Kia Sorento Problems
One of the greatest warranties for cars is offered by Kia. But that doesn’t mean you should be any less critical, especially when it comes to reliability concerns. The most typical Kia Sorento issues, spanning all model years, are listed below:
- Engine issues – The Sorento’s engine frequently fails, which is a common dependability problem. The engine failure, which was primarily reported in 2011, 2016, and 2017 models, was caused by a leaky head gasket, which mixed engine oil and coolant. These liquids when combined can seriously harm engines.
- Frustrated owners reported that the Sorento’s doors won’t open when reached from the outside, which is more unpleasant than dangerous. Additionally, defective door handles made users of the child-lock feature even more irate. Owners of 2011 Sorentos make up the majority of the complaints.
- Burning out of headlight bulbs: Numerous customers noted that the headlight bulbs on Sorento models from 2002 to 2009 were particularly prone to premature failure. Additionally, several stories claimed that additional headlamp component parts were also melted. There should have been a recall for this dependability problem, but there wasn’t one. Owners were required to purchase replacement bulbs for between $100 and $600.
Kia Sorento Problem Counts by Year
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Is Kia known for its quality?
Significant advancements achieved by Kia in recent years have helped to restore its reputation. Today, a Kia model is recognized as a trustworthy and useful family vehicle.
Despite not being known for luxury, the brand has advanced significantly in terms of dependability. One of a Kia’s strongest qualities is its lengthy warranty time; the majority of Kia models come with a ten-year powertrain warranty and a five-year bumper-to-bumper warranty.
Kia outperforms the industry standard in this area, which is a three-year and five-year warranty. With extremely few mechanical faults reported by owners in the first three years of ownership, Kia gets a RepairPal score of 4.0 out of 5.0.
According to reports, a well-maintained car might last up to ten years with minimal maintenance.
How did Kia get its reputation?
I wasn’t certain Kia would take the risk. I was going to drive 400+ miles home to North Carolina in a Sorento SX Limited that had just been pulled off the assembly line, visit the factory in West Point, Georgia, an hour southwest of Atlanta. Giving a newly constructed car to a magazine writer calls for faith in your productno break-in miles, no making sure I get a flawless vehicle. Yet Kia concurred. It’s a brave play that makes it clear it has a message to make.
I questioned whether there was a tipping point when a businessman in Korea banged his fist on a desk.
During its formative years in the early 2000s, Kia was the brunt of jokes. The J.D. Power Initial Quality Study (IQS), which tracks owners’ grievances after three months of driving, consistently placed its vehicles in the bottom. Kia was ranked 30th as recently as in 2005. It occupied 37th place at the bottom a few years prior. Its cars, like those made by fellow Koreans Hyundai and Daewoo, were renowned for having low MSRPs and not much else. Early in the new millennium, the mechanic who serviced my 1991 Saab, a model of dependability, also had a successful side business keeping Kias on the road. “He informed me, “I have a stack of Sportage engines out back.” “They frequently detonate.
But for the previous two years, Kia has topped the IQS survey, closely followed by Hyundai and Genesis, Kia’s corporate brothers. However, reputations have momentum. I just heard Paul Varghese, a comedian, make a ton of jokes about Kia. Setup: “Sir, we upgraded you to a Kia,” the rental desk employee remarked. (The crowd laughs.) The joke: “What was I upgraded from, shoes?
Everyone at Kia is aware of this and is actively attempting to change these attitudes, both in Seoul and in the Georgia facility.
I was a driver of the Kias that defined that era. The Amanti from the middle of the 2000s had the air of a Mercedes E-Class copycat. The Sedona was constructed with as much cast iron as a Tahoe, making it weigh that much. But in 2006, change began. Designer Peter Schreyer was hired by Kia from Audi. It was a significant poach, and when he arrived, the cars began to appear better because his resume included the renowned Audi TT. Sales and IQS numbers increased throughout the entire company in 2009 as a result of the Soul’s unexpected success. Kia’s market share increased from 1.62 percent in 2005 to 3.53 percent in 2018. This kind of expansion is unheard of in the market, and Schreyer’s goal of improving Kias’ appearance contributed to it. primarily to distinguish them from Hyundai vehicles in terms of appearance.
Hyundai, sure. Hyundai acquired a bankrupt Kia back in 1998, and it now owns around one-third of the business. Consider the vehicles with any name as siblings rather than twins. In terms of shared engineering, Hyundai and Kia enjoy a good deal of freedom to market and design their vehicles differently. Not every Hyundai has a Kia equal, and the opposite is true. The Veloster and Soul are not available in Kia or Hyundai versions. In general, I’d say Kia’s designs lean younger and sportier, but perhaps I’m just falling for the hip-hamster-based advertising. Along with the introduction of anthropomorphic hamsters, Kia has also progressively become more upscale. According to Kia spokesperson Neil Dunlop, charging more for its vehicles demonstrates a purposeful separation between cost and value. “According to him, it’s not about being at the low end of the price range. This implies that, although not always, current Kias are still somewhat more affordable than their rivals. About $45,000 buys the Cadenza Limited. A fully equipped Lexus ES 350 costs only roughly $3,000 more than a less expensive ES. Kia uses pricing to communicate that, you know, we’re not all that different from Lexus.
This price strategy is a reflection of changes that go beyond quality. On the production floor, I questioned whether there was a specific time, a pivotal event, when a Korean executive thumped his fist on a conference table and declared a mandate to defeat Lexus in the IQS. It took a few weeks for Kia, who was writing from Korea, to respond and confirm that such a choice had been made: “Yes, the Hyundai Motor Group, which also includes Kia, decided to prioritize quality over quantity more than ten years ago. It appears that nobody wants to claim the glory. However, when I got back to Georgia, Kia was more than happy to demonstrate how it actually achieved that improbable aim of going from worst to first.
The brutal reality of industrial manufacture collides with theories and ambitions at West Point, just like it does at any auto factory. Numerous things can go wrong at this point. Kia’s plan is to ambush them quickly. Just to identify paint flaws, this plant has 39 codes (No. 14: “thin coat; No. 39: “mottle). Additionally, a panel only receives paint if it passes a series of previous quality checks.” According to Ted Arnold, senior manager of quality assurance, if even one hair enters a die, “it might manifest in metal. Even with thousands of tons of force, one hair can completely wreck an operation.
Arnold has experience in the field; he was formerly employed at an Alabama Mercedes plant. Although West Point employs 3,000 people, he appears to know everyoneat least, everyone who works this day shift. Every day, from Monday through Friday, the line is open. When a shift changes, the new employees smoothly continue producing automobiles behind those who are about to clock out. “According to Arnold, a number of individuals in this area used to work in the textile sector. “Consequently, we had access to a skilled work force. The $22 million Kia Georgia Training Center, which has welding, robotics, electronics, and quality-control labs, is where every worker at the facility spent at least 40 hours. Additionally, more than two-thirds of those workers have been to Korea for additional training. Like in every modern auto plant, robots stamp and weld panels, but the Sorento, Optima, and Hyundai Santa Fe cars made here exhibit a surprisingly high level of human artistic talent. For instance, take stoning. Every tenth door panel that comes through is manually rubbed with fine stones to check for flaws.” According to Arnold, any high points will appear as brilliant silver and any low points as darker silver. The entire batch is rubbed if anything is off. as well as the previous batch. “He claims that since it’s simpler to correct here, we want to catch anything before it gets to the paint. I assumed that laser-eyed Terminator robots would perform this kind of work on a global scale. However, Honda’s Marysville facility also carries out this activity. Even on the scale of Hondas and Kias, human hands are still used in the process of shaping metal for quality control.
The car receives four gallons of gas, just enough to test it and move it around while traveling to the dealer, once any identified issues are repaired (my loaner Sorento had only one, resolved earlier, noted as some sort of residue on one of the seats). While a technician sits behind the wheel tapping buttons on the dash, validating all the connections, a diagnostic computer fires the car’s electric synapses. Check: front-seat coolers. Driving the vehicle into what seems to be a Hollywood green-screen room allows a Kia employee to calibrate the surround-view cameras by tapping targets on the dashboard touchscreen. After the alignment, the vehicle undergoes a high-speed four-wheel dynamometer test to check the efficiency of the engine and transmission. The driver next makes a circuit of the test track outdoors to inspect the antilock brakes, steering, acceleration, suspension, and even the hill-holder feature of the brakes. Back inside, the Sorento pulls into a leak-testing area that resembles a particularly vicious car wash.
However, the issue remains: Doesn’t everyone do this? No, not all of them. I’ve witnessed McLaren dyno test each supercar costing over $200,000. But Honda only conducts spot checks in Marysville. With every vehicle, Kia does this. After the tour is complete, I get into my 13-mile-old Sorento. I question Arnold about whether I should ease into it by traveling a few hundred miles slowly. He claims that there is no specific break-in period because they started driving it on the dyno test as soon as the oil was warm. So, as I drive onto the highway’s on-ramp, I floor it, releasing the 3.3-liter V-6’s full 290 horses. The Sorento has some vigor. However, this design has been used before. It was released in 2011, therefore it is dated. Instead of eight or nine speeds, the transmission has six. Electronic lane keeping is absent. Additionally, I have to unscrew a plastic cap when I stop for gas. The Sorento is fundamentally a charming companion, but minor features serve as reminders that it needs an overhaul. The cabin is well-designed, with real knobs for the HVAC and music, and it is quiet while driving. The Sorento is a capable and well-built vehicle that aims to calm rather than excite. The latter, which Kia is currently capable of doing (see: Stinger), is not the goal of midsize crossovers.
I would go almost a thousand miles before Kia took back the Sorento. There were countless scenarios that could have gone wrong along the way. But it didn’t.