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Owner-Reported Problems · NHTSA

2018 Kia Sorento — Problems & Complaints

NHTSA has 255 owner complaints on file for this vehicle. Every report below was filed by a real owner with the US government's road-safety agency.

255

Complaints

filed with NHTSA

Involved a Crash

owner-reported

Involved Fire

owner-reported

11 / 1

Injuries / Deaths

across all reports

Years to Avoid

Kia Sorento — Complaints by Model Year

Years flagged AVOID have at least twice this model's average complaint count — the strongest public-data signal of a bad year.

2011 Kia Sorento AVOID

1,519 complaints

2012 Kia Sorento

880 complaints

2013 Kia Sorento

981 complaints

2014 Kia Sorento

987 complaints

2015 Kia Sorento

751 complaints

2016 Kia Sorento AVOID

1,252 complaints

2017 Kia Sorento

804 complaints

2018 Kia Sorento

255 complaints

2019 Kia Sorento

428 complaints

2020 Kia Sorento

136 complaints

2021 Kia Sorento

20 complaints

2022 Kia Sorento

189 complaints

2023 Kia Sorento

122 complaints

2024 Kia Sorento

42 complaints

2025 Kia Sorento

75 complaints

Problem Areas

What Owners Complain About Most

Engine 107 reports

Exterior Lighting 41 reports

Unknown Or Other 37 reports

Electrical System 30 reports

Steering 26 reports

Fuel/propulsion System 13 reports

Air Bags 10 reports

Structure 9 reports

In Their Own Words

Recent Owner Reports

Exterior Lighting ODI 11292183 12/30/2019

CAR HEADLAMPS SHUT OFF WHEN CAR IS IN MOTION, FIRST NOTICED WHEN DRIVING AT NIGHT AS LIGHTS WERE IN AUTO SETTING AND THE DASHBOARD SHOWS THE LIGHT SETTING CHANGE AND THE LIGHTS OUTSIDE CHANGING AS WELL WITH NOTHING BEING TOUCHED. LIGHTS HAVE COMPLETELY SHUT OFF ABOUT 5 TIMES WHEN DRIVING.

Back Over Prevention ODI 11707524 12/29/2025

1. at night when i toggle hi beams the light black out and i have to jiggle the toggle 2. My HECU assembly is out, I have about 7 lights on my dash.

Firerelated ODI 11499324 12/29/2022

The contact owned a 2018 Kia Sorento. The contact received notification of an unknown NHTSA Campaign Number regarding the Trailer Hitches however, the contact stated that while the vehicle was unoccupied in a parked position, he noticed that the rear end of the vehicle inadvertently caught fire. The contact then stated that the fire started to spread igniting the whole vehicle…

Unknown Or Other ODI 11445224 12/28/2021

2 Recent incidents: SUV was parked on a driveway with slight incline overnight in park and ended up at the bottom end of driveway in the morning. With car running on a friends driveway with an incline, I had car in the park mode and was going to depart car to quickly knock on door and car very slowly proceed backwards while in park mode. I called KIA dealership on 12/22/2021 w…

Engine ODI 11707059 12/26/2025

Excessive oil consumption

Same Vehicle

Recalls & Crash Tests

Complaints are one half of the picture — see the official recalls and NHTSA crash-test stars for the 2018 Kia Sorento, or check your exact car by VIN with the free VIN lookup.

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Problems Checker

Any year, make and model: open the Car Problems Checker. Data: NHTSA (US DOT, public domain), cached up to 7 days.

Questions

FAQ

Is the 2018 Kia Sorento reliable?

Owners have filed 255 safety complaints with NHTSA for the 2018 Kia Sorento, most often about engine. Compare the complaint counts across model years above — a year with far more complaints than the model's average is the strongest 'avoid' signal in public data.

Which Kia Sorento years should I avoid?

The rule of thumb used by analysts: a model year whose complaint count is well above the model's own average (we flag 2× or more) usually had a real manufacturing or design problem — not just noisy reporting. Use the year-by-year strip on this page.

Where do these complaints come from?

Directly from NHTSA, the US government road-safety agency. Any owner can file a Vehicle Owner Questionnaire; NHTSA publishes them as public domain data. We cache each lookup for up to 7 days.

Do complaints mean a recall is coming?

Sometimes. NHTSA opens defect investigations when complaint patterns emerge, and investigations can end in recalls. Check the recalls page for this vehicle to see what has already been recalled.