2025 Kia Sorento
This year drew an ordinary 68 complaints for a Kia Sorento — the model's median is 242. What they were about is the unusual part: 17.6% of them mention transmission, against 3.2% across the model's other years.
Generation 4 of the Kia Sorento, which began in 2021. 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 | 68 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 242 |
| Involving a crash | 5 |
| Recalls | 3 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 24 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- transmission — 17.6% of this year's complaints, against 3.2% across the model's other years (5.5×).
- unable — 19.1% of this year's complaints, against 4.3% across the model's other years (4.5×).
- gear — 19.1% of this year's complaints, against 5.5% across the model's other years (3.5×). Owners wrote it as: gear, shifting, message, reverse.
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
There is an electronic glitch with the gear shifting system where it will randomly / sporadically not allow shifting from reverse to drive and provides the error message "gear already selected." This has happened numerous times and resolves itself after 1-2 mi…
The transmission is not shifting gears correctly. The engine revs loudly and hesitates for a few seconds before shifting. There were no warning lamps. The vehicle has not been inspected yet. This causes a dangerous situation when driving and accelerating in tr…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 25V006000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 25V548000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
- 26V046000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 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 2025 Kia Sorento? What happened to yours?
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