Federal complaint record · Kia Optima · model year 2013

2013 Kia Optima

Owners submitted 1,372 federal complaint reports about this model year, placing it at the 81th percentile for complaint intensity within its 2011 to 2015 midsize sedan cohort. The largest reported component group is engine. Sample sizes and limitations are shown below.

Engine · 35% · group n = 651Steering · 11% · group n = 212Other · 10% · group n = 188Electrical · 8% · group n = 146Structure · 7% · group n = 126
1,372
Complaint records on file
82,000
Median mileage at the reported problem · 767 complaints reported mileage
35%
Of classified component reports name engine · group n = 651
81th
Complaint-intensity percentile in a cohort of 50 model years

Engine · 3 in ten classified complaints

Where this record concentrates

All failure files
Component group 01 · Engine35%

Engine reports

Kia Optima · model year 2013

Reports in this group651
Share of classified reports35%
Component groups on file6
Open the failure files

Adjacent model years · same badge, different data

The complaint signal has a shape

Compare model years
2012
0.5complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
916 matched incidents
This car
2013
0.7complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
1,372 matched incidents
2014
0.3complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
578 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
Fire or smoke · 203 reports

Reports describe smoke, burning smells, or fire

Cluster 1 of 32013 Kia Optima
Stalling or shutdown · 179 reports

Reports describe the vehicle stalling or shutting off while driving

Cluster 2 of 32013 Kia Optima
Steering effort · 166 reports

Reports describe steering effort or control concerns

Cluster 3 of 32013 Kia Optima

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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