Federal complaint record · Kia Sorento · model year 2004

2004 Kia Sorento

Owners submitted 220 federal complaint reports about this model year, placing it at the 20th percentile for complaint intensity within its 2002 to 2006 midsize suv cohort. The largest reported component group is engine. Sample sizes and limitations are shown below.

Engine · 28% · group n = 96Powertrain · 12% · group n = 42Suspension · 9% · group n = 32Electrical · 8% · group n = 28Structure · 8% · group n = 28
220
Complaint records on file
86,250
Median mileage at the reported problem · 186 complaints reported mileage
28%
Of classified component reports name engine · group n = 96
20th
Complaint-intensity percentile in a cohort of 33 model years

Engine · 3 in ten classified complaints

Where this record concentrates

All failure files
Component group 01 · Engine28%

Engine reports

Kia Sorento · model year 2004

Reports in this group96
Share of classified reports28%
Component groups on file6
Open the failure files

Adjacent model years · same badge, different data

The complaint signal has a shape

Compare model years
2003
0.6complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
305 matched incidents
This car
2004
0.3complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
220 matched incidents
2005
0.4complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
307 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
Brake performance · 26 reports

Reports describe braking performance concerns

Cluster 1 of 32004 Kia Sorento
Fire or smoke · 20 reports

Reports describe smoke, burning smells, or fire

Cluster 2 of 32004 Kia Sorento
Stalling or shutdown · 18 reports

Reports describe the vehicle stalling or shutting off while driving

Cluster 3 of 32004 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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