Federal complaint record · Kia Sorento · model year 2020

2020 Kia Sorento

Owners submitted 130 federal complaint reports about this model year, placing it at the 14th percentile for complaint intensity within its 2018 to 2022 midsize suv cohort. The largest reported component group is engine. Sample sizes and limitations are shown below.

Engine · 35% · group n = 66Other · 18% · group n = 34Electrical · 10% · group n = 19Powertrain · 9% · group n = 17Driver assistance · 5% · group n = 10
130
Complaint records on file
19,000
Median mileage at the reported problem · 25 complaints reported mileage
35%
Of classified component reports name engine · group n = 66
14th
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 · Engine35%

Engine reports

Kia Sorento · model year 2020

Reports in this group66
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
2019
0.6complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
417 matched incidents
This car
2020
0.3complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
130 matched incidents
2021
0.6complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
228 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 · 22 reports

Reports describe smoke, burning smells, or fire

Cluster 1 of 32020 Kia Sorento
Engine damage · 13 reports

Reports describe engine damage or oil consumption

Cluster 2 of 32020 Kia Sorento
Warning indicators · 10 reports

Reports describe warning lights before service

Cluster 3 of 32020 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

Published model-year records · free · no login

Check the next car before the test drive

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.

Browse all Kia records How the index works