The Recall Desk

Vehicle

Kia Spectra

1 recall affects this vehicle. Sorted by severity, then date.

1–1 of 1

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.

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
  • PE15031 Preliminary Evaluation · air bags:frontal

Complaint clusters with no matching recall

  • 2009 · airbags — 72 complaints, median 74,000 mi
    Includes 2 alleging a death and 1 alleging a fire. Unverified owner allegations from complaint filings — not confirmed by any agency.
  • 2008 · airbags — 67 complaints, median 72,000 mi
    Includes 1 alleging a death. Unverified owner allegations from complaint filings — not confirmed by any agency.
  • 2006 · airbags — 55 complaints, median 70,000 mi
    Includes 1 alleging a fire. Unverified owner allegations from complaint filings — not confirmed by any agency.
  • 2007 · airbags — 54 complaints, median 90,000 mi
    Includes 1 alleging a death. Unverified owner allegations from complaint filings — not confirmed by any agency.
  • 2005 · airbags — 39 complaints, median 63,533 mi

Technical service bulletins

95 manufacturer service bulletins across 5 model years. A TSB is repair guidance to dealers, not a safety recall.

Third-party reliability score

  • 2009: 3.9/5 · 114 complaints · most complained-of: airbags
  • 2008: 3.8/5 · 137 complaints · most complained-of: airbags
  • 2007: 3.7/5 · 162 complaints · most complained-of: airbags
  • 2006: 3.8/5 · 118 complaints · most complained-of: airbags
  • 2005: 3.7/5 · 103 complaints · most complained-of: airbags

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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