2006 Kia Sorento
This year drew an ordinary 242 complaints for a Kia Sorento — the model's median is 217. What they were about is the unusual part: 29.3% of them mention steering, against 3.7% 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 | 242 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 217 |
| Involving a crash | 12 |
| Involving a fire | 8 |
| Recalls | 1 |
| EPA combined | 16 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- steering — 29.3% of this year's complaints, against 3.7% across the other years of this generation (7.8×).
- bolt — 38.4% of this year's complaints, against 14% across the other years of this generation (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: bolt, crankshaft, pulley, crank.
- headlights — 31.4% of this year's complaints, against 12.3% across the other years of this generation (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: headlights, tail, bulbs, tail lights.
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
DRIVING ON HIGHWAY WHEN HEARD A POP AND POWER STEERING WENT OUT AND BATTERY AND BRAKE LIGHT CAME ON. HAD IT TOWED TO AUTO REPAIR SHOP TO FIND OUT THE CRANK SHAFT PULLEY BOLT HAD BROKEN OFF INTO THE ENGINE. AUTO REPAIR SHOP UNABLE TO GET BOLT OUT SINCE IT BROKE…
I TOOK MY 2006 KIA SORENTO TO KIA TO HAVE TIMING BELT REPLACED AND AT THAT TIME THEY TOLD ME THAT THE CRANK SHAFT PULLEY BOLT WAS STRIPPED, AND THE CAR WAS NOT SAFE TO DRIVE, BECAUSE THE CRANK SHAFT BOLT COULD NOT BE TIGHTENED.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 09V130000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING Fixed free of charge.
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 2006 Kia Sorento? What happened to yours?
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