2010 Kia Optima
This year drew an ordinary 75 complaints for a Kia Optima — the model's median is 230. What they were about is the unusual part: 37.3% of them mention hard, against 12.7% across the other years of this generation.
Last year of its generation. This Kia Optima ran from 2006 to 2010, so it had the whole run for its faults to be found and fixed. Last years are usually the most sorted of a generation.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 75 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 230 |
| Involving a crash | 7 |
| Involving a fire | 2 |
| Recalls | 1 |
| EPA combined | 25 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- hard — 37.3% of this year's complaints, against 12.7% across the other years of this generation (2.9×). Owners wrote it as: hard, jerks, jerk, braking.
- slowing — 20% of this year's complaints, against 4.7% across the other years of this generation (4.2×). Owners wrote it as: slowing, slowing down, enough, car jerks.
- running — 9.3% of this year's complaints, against 2.6% across the other years of this generation (3.6×). Owners wrote it as: running, stopping, car just, available inspection.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
The car lurches or jerks when slowing down or stopping at about 20 mph . Lurch or jerking is enough to jerk to the driver . Has anyone got answer to why the Kia Optima 2010 does this.
THE CAR HAS A LURCHING ISSUE WHEN IT SLOWS DOWN TO 20MPH WHEN THE CAR LURCHES WITH A HARD DOWN SHIFT TO 1ST GEAR. THIS PHENOMENA IS ESPECIALLY ACUTE WHEN THE CAR IS COLD OR WHEN YOU FIRST START DRIVING IT.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 13V114000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Kia Optima was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2010 Kia Optima? What happened to yours?
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