2007 Kia Rio
This year drew an ordinary 46 complaints for a Kia Rio — the model's median is 36. What they were about is the unusual part: 17.4% of them mention doesn, against 4.5% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 46 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 36 |
| Involving a crash | 11 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 1 |
| EPA combined | 29 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- doesn — 17.4% of this year's complaints, against 4.5% across the model's other years (3.9×). Owners wrote it as: doesn, wires, recent, board.
- middle — 6.5% of this year's complaints, against 0% across the model's other years (32.6×).
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
I JUST RECENT HAD THE BATTERY PUT IN MY CAR. AN NOW THE AIR BAG LIGHT STAYS ON FOR THE DRIVER ON THAT DASH BOARD. AN DON'T KNOW WHY IT'S ON. THE CAR HAS BEEN DRIVEN IN THE PAST FEW MONTHS. SO WE ARE SCARED TO BE OUT ON THE ROAD AN IT DOESN'T PROTECT US IF WE G…
ELECTRICAL ISSUES, CONSTANTLY BROKEN AIR CONDITIONER, ENGINE PROBLEMS, SPARK PLUG ISSUES, COIL ISSUES, 3 BATTERIES IN 2 YEARS, LOSS OF POWER IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FREEWAY.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 12V244000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Kia Rio 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 2007 Kia Rio? What happened to yours?
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