2005 Kia Sorento
This year drew an ordinary 307 complaints for a Kia Sorento — the model's median is 217. What they were about is the unusual part: 34.2% of them mention power steering, against 13.7% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 1 of the Kia Sorento, which began in 2003 and ran to 2010. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 307 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 217 |
| Involving a crash | 17 |
| Involving a fire | 5 |
| Recalls | 0 |
| EPA combined | 16 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- power steering — 34.2% of this year's complaints, against 13.7% across the other years of this generation (2.5×). Owners wrote it as: power steering, belt, broken, belts.
- crank — 32.6% of this year's complaints, against 12.8% across the other years of this generation (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: crank, shaft, crank shaft, timing.
- broke — 13.7% of this year's complaints, against 4.5% across the other years of this generation (3.1×). Owners wrote it as: broke, half, find out, found out.
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
WIFE WAS DRIVING AWAY FROM HOUSE, HEARD SCREACHING SOUND, THEN LOST POWER STEERING WHILE DRIVING NEARLY ENDING UP ON SIDEWALK. WHEN I CHECKED UNDER HOOD, I SAW A BOLT SITTING ON LOWER PART OF ENGINE COMPARTMENT, CRANKSHAFT PULLEY NOT MOVING, BUT BOLT THAT HOLD…
DRIVING ON HIGHWAY WHEN CRANKSHAFT PULLEY BROKE OFF CAUSING BELTS TO SHRED AND COME OFF. LOST ALL POWER STEERING AND ENGINE SHUT DOWN!
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Kia Sorento 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 2005 Kia Sorento? What happened to yours?
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