Federal complaint record · Kia Forte · model year 2017

2017 Kia Forte

Owners submitted 300 federal complaint reports about this model year, placing it at the 65th percentile for complaint intensity within its 2015 to 2019 compact sedan cohort. The largest reported component group is engine. Sample sizes and limitations are shown below.

Engine · 36% · group n = 157Other · 11% · group n = 49Electrical · 11% · group n = 46Lighting · 10% · group n = 43Fuel system · 7% · group n = 30
300
Complaint records on file
40,000
Median mileage at the reported problem · 135 complaints reported mileage
36%
Of classified component reports name engine · group n = 157
65th
Complaint-intensity percentile in a cohort of 39 model years

Engine · 4 in ten classified complaints

Where this record concentrates

All failure files
Component group 01 · Engine36%

Engine reports

Kia Forte · model year 2017

Reports in this group157
Share of classified reports36%
Component groups on file6
Open the failure files

Adjacent model years · same badge, different data

The complaint signal has a shape

Compare model years
2016
0.1complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
132 matched incidents
This car
2017
0.3complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
300 matched incidents
2018
0.2complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
134 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
Stalling or shutdown · 51 reports

Reports describe the vehicle stalling or shutting off while driving

Cluster 1 of 32017 Kia Forte
Fire or smoke · 32 reports

Reports describe smoke, burning smells, or fire

Cluster 2 of 32017 Kia Forte
Warning indicators · 24 reports

Reports describe warning lights before service

Cluster 3 of 32017 Kia Forte

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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