Model years › Kia Seltos

2021 Kia Seltos

Complaints about this year name engine far more often than the model's other years — 66% of them, about 3× the usual rate of 24.4%.

NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.

What the complaints were about

• engine failure — 9.6% of this year's complaints, against 0% across the model's other years (48×). Owners wrote it as: engine failure, email, diagnosed engine.
• engine engine — 14.7% of this year's complaints, against 4.8% across the model's other years (3.1×). Owners wrote it as: engine engine, cooling, engine cooling, disconnect.
• stalling — 10.7% of this year's complaints, against 2.8% across the model's other years (3.8×). Owners wrote it as: stalling, experiencing, affairs, consumer affairs.

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.

Also unusual this year

• piston — 21% of complaints, 52× usual
• oil — 44% of complaints, 3× usual
• stalled — 12% of complaints, 31× usual

What owners wrote

while driving 35 MPH in traffic, the vehicle started to sputter and jerk before the vehicle slowed down and stalled. The contact stated that the vehicle failed to restart. The vehicle was towed to the residence. The vehicle was towed to the local dealer, where…

This car was recalled for issues with oil piston rings receiving incorrect "coating" when made. Our car passed inspection to verify the recall issue didn't exist however the car was two quarts of oil LOW. After going through Kia's required oil consumption test…

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.

Recalls for this year

• 21V259000 ENGINE Fixed free of charge.
• 25V099000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.

Own a 2021 Kia Seltos? What happened to yours?

Loading comments…

How this was worked out

Every year of the Kia Seltos 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.

Every year of the Kia Seltos →