all vehicles · every Sportage year · method

Kia Sportage 2023

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

1.83 per 1,000

4.9 times this nameplate’s own median · from 243 complaints filed in the first three years, of 304 ever. 95% lower bound 1.60.

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
2008	0.46	15
2009	0.24	9
2011	0.79	28
2012	0.38	16
2013	0.38	13
2014	0.24	9
2015	0.31	15
2016	0.19	13
2017	1.12	86
2018	0.54	42
2019	0.21	18
2020	0.48	42
2021	0.20	18
2022	0.27	30
2023	1.83	243

What owners describe

Phrases over-represented in these complaints compared with the same component on every other vehicle. Counts are complaints containing the phrase.

Electrical System 85 complaints

check system	20	24%
safely	14	17%
system stop	10	12%

Unknown Or Other 69 complaints

sunroof	14	21%
shattered	10	15%

Engine 67 complaints

system	28	42%
check system	14	21%
information redacted	12	18%
safely	11	17%
system stop	10	15%
appeared	10	15%

When it breaks

62% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 16,800 miles, from 40 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

No NHTSA investigation covers this model year.

That is not a clean bill of health, and not a criticism of the agency: investigations open for many reasons and complaint volume is only one of them.

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:

11461210 · 11467505 · 11467545 · 11479273 · 11482460 · 11482537

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.