Kia Optima

Which Kia Optima years should you avoid?

Going by 7,534 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, the Kia Optima years to avoid are 2013, 2008, 2015, 2012 and 2016.

• 20131,387 complaints, 7.3× a typical Optima year, most often about the engine.
• 20086.3× the usual share of fires, crashes and deaths for a car of its age (4 fires, 20 crashes, 8 deaths).
• 20151,010 complaints, 5.3× a typical Optima year, most often about the engine.
• 2012920 complaints, 4.9× a typical Optima year, most often about the engine.
• 2016760 complaints, 4.0× a typical Optima year, most often about the engine.

2 more years cleared the same bar; they are marked in the table below.

How this is worked out: each year is compared with a typical year of the same model, which takes most of the difference in sales out of it, and its share of serious failures is compared with every other car of the same model year, because older cars were complained about differently. A year needs 25 complaints to be judged at all. Complaints are unverified owner reports. Full method →