Kia Niro 2018

Safety complaints filed by owners in the first three years, per 1,000 sold.

0.61 per 1,000

0.8 times this nameplate’s own median · from 17 complaints filed in the first three years, of 73 ever. 95% lower bound 0.32.

Against its own model years

The model year carries far more information than the badge, so this is the comparison that matters.

Model year	Per 1,000	Complaints
2017	0.88	24
2018	0.61	17
2019	0.76	20
2020	0.38	8
2022	0.80	22
2023	1.20	39

What owners describe

No phrase appears often enough in these complaints to describe them reliably.

When it breaks

62% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 15,000 miles, from 26 complaints that recorded one).

Failures cluster early, which is the signature of how the car was built rather than of wear. A low-mileage example has not yet passed the risk window.

What NHTSA did

1 investigation covering this model year, 1 of which list a recall campaign.

Pedestrian alert sounds

What owners and forums say

Not built yet. This panel is meant to carry community sentiment beside the filed-complaint data, so the two can be compared. Showing something weaker here would defeat its purpose.

Check this yourself

Example records behind this page:

11058078 · 11081995 · 11083238 · 11099431 · 11123599 · 11128443

Limits of this figure. It counts safety complaints filed with the federal government, which is a floor on failures and not a census: problems that only cost money are under-reported. Complaint rates also reflect how likely a brand’s owners are to file, which cannot be separated from how often the car fails. Sales are calendar-year and the denominator for this nameplate is automated checks only, not verified against an external source.