The Recall Desk

Vehicle

Kia Forte · 2011

3 recalls affect this vehicle. Sorted by severity, then date.

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1–3 of 3

  • Severity pendingNHTSA·23V652000·2023-09-25

    Kia Recalls Multiple Models Due to Electrical Short Fire Risk

    Kia is recalling 1.7 million vehicles because an electrical short in the brake control unit may cause an engine compartment fire.

    Product
    KIA — KIA SORENTO, RIO, OPTIMA HYBRID, SOUL
    Category
    Vehicle
    Distribution
    Distributed nationwide
  • Severity pendingNHTSA·18V363000·2018-06-01

    Kia Recalls 507,587 Vehicles Due to Air Bag Control Unit Short Circuit Risk

    Kia is recalling 507,587 vehicles because the air bag control unit may short circuit, preventing frontal air bags and seat belt pretensioners from deploying in a crash.

    Product
    KIA — KIA FORTE, SEDONA, OPTIMA, OPTIMA HYBRID
    Category
    Vehicle
    Distribution
    Distributed nationwide
  • Severity pendingNHTSA·16V070000·2016-02-05

    Kia Recalls 2011 Fortes for Transmission Fluid Leak Risk

    Kia is recalling 2011 Fortes because a defective transmission cooler hose may leak fluid, potentially causing the vehicle to stop moving and increasing crash risk.

    Product
    KIA — KIA FORTE
    Category
    Vehicle
    Distribution
    Distributed nationwide

NHTSA crash-test safety rating

Federal 5-Star Safety Rating from crash testing. This is a separate government program from the recall(s) above — a high star rating says nothing about whether a specific recall has been fixed, and a recall says nothing about crash-test performance.

  • 20114/5

    2 trims tested for 2011; overall ratings can differ by trim.

    View on NHTSA.gov

Source: NHTSA New Car Assessment Program (NCAP), a federal crash-test program — not a recall record.

Wider context for this vehicle

Beyond the official recalls above. These are third-party figures derived from NHTSA complaint data — useful signal, but not part of our verified recall record.

Federal investigations

  • AQ25001 Audit Query · engine and engine cooling:engine:hard parts internal/mechanical
  • PE19004 Preliminary Evaluation · electrical system:12v/24v/48v battery:cables
  • RQ17003 Recall Query · engine

Complaint clusters with no matching recall

  • 2014 · steering 63 complaints, median 61,000 mi
  • 2010 · engine 60 complaints, median 100,000 mi
    Includes 4 alleging a fire. Unverified owner allegations from complaint filings — not confirmed by any agency.
  • 2014 · airbags 52 complaints, median 90,000 mi
  • 2019 · powertrain 46 complaints, median 7,450 mi
  • 2017 · electrical 43 complaints, median 32,850 mi
    Includes 2 alleging a fire. Unverified owner allegations from complaint filings — not confirmed by any agency.

Technical service bulletins

636 manufacturer service bulletins across 15 model years. A TSB is repair guidance to dealers, not a safety recall.

Third-party reliability score

  • 2024: 4.2/5 · 24 complaints · most complained-of: electrical
  • 2023: 3.7/5 · 60 complaints · most complained-of: steering
  • 2022: 4.1/5 · 26 complaints · most complained-of: engine
  • 2021: 3.8/5 · 67 complaints · most complained-of: engine
  • 2020: 4.0/5 · 74 complaints · most complained-of: powertrain

This is ProblemsByVin’s own published heuristic (1 worst – 5 best), not an official rating and unrelated to our severity scale.

Data on this panel comes from ProblemsByVin, derived from US NHTSA owner complaints and recalls, and licensed CC BY 4.0. It is not published by a federal agency and is not part of our verified recall record.

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