2017 Kia Sorento
Complaints about this year name headlights far more often than the other years of this generation — 12% of them, about 4× the usual rate of 3.1%.
Generation 3 of the Kia Sorento, which began in 2016 and ran to 2020. 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 | 795 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 217 |
| Involving a crash | 12 |
| Involving a fire | 32 |
| Recalls | 4 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 22 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- switch — 7.9% of this year's complaints, against 2.8% across the other years of this generation (2.9×).
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
- night — 11% of complaints, 4× usual
- turn off — 8% of complaints, 3× usual
- switch — 8% of complaints, 3× usual
What owners wrote
Headlamp Multifunction Switch set to "AUTO", while using the Turn Signal (either direction) the Headlights will suddenly TURN OFF... while driving at night this is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS AND DISORIENTING... ALMOST CAUSED AN ACCIDENT. To correct this, I had to jig…
When in "auto" mode for headlights, the lights occasionally turn off while driving. I have to switch to "on" to get them to work again. Very dangerous obviously. Also, sometime the lights do not turn off, or turn on in the middle of the night when the vehicle…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 18V907000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 17V586000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
- 16V862000 TRAILER HITCHES Fixed free of charge.
- 22V703000 TRAILER HITCHES 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 2017 Kia Sorento? What happened to yours?
Loading comments…