2021 Kia Sorento complaints

September 2022 recall for tow hitch harness has produced NO information for repair. Neither the dealer nor the manufacturer has made any progress in correcting potential fire problems associated with this tow hitch.

Vehicle jumps when put in reverse and sometimes turns off when put in parked.

Our issues include not shifting into second gear with no warning lights on the dash to indicate a faul. It goes completely in to neutral at all speeds without any warning. Never recovers until stopped and turned off. Again, nothing happens, no sounds , no lights, no flashes. Just no transmission at all. My wife was almost rear ended on when it stopped functioning in traffic. Someone is going to get killed.

The contact owns a 2021 Kia Sorento. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle stalled. The RPM was fluctuating, with several unknown warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer; however, the dealer was unable to duplicate the failure. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was unknown. The VIN was not available.

My 2021 Kia Sorento is waiting on a new transmission with no ETA. Thank goodness after it started driving rough and rocking back and forth while in park we took it to a Kia dealership. Dealership said we. needed a new transmission. I’m just glad we caught it before we had total engine failure going down the road like the recall states.

Vehicle shut off on interstate while slowing for a wreck and almost caused our own ACDA crash. Entire gauge cluster flashed and started back up after stopping in the roadway for approximately 5 minutes without restarting. The vehicle was able to be driven home and was taken to a local Kia dealership where after 3 days has not been able to replicate the issue.

The contact owns a 2021 Kia Sorento. The contact stated while driving and coming to a complete stop, the auto Start/Stop feature failed to engage upon releasing the brake pedal. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact restarted the vehicle manually. The contact stated that the failure had been reoccurring while at a complete stop. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where an unknown software update was completed under an unknown recall; however, the failure reoccurred increasingly. The contact stated upon releasing the brake pedal while at a complete stop, the vehicle would turn on temporarily. The contact stated she would manually restart the vehicle. The dealer was notified of the failure and informed the contact to bring the vehicle to their location for test driving. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure referred the contact to the dealer. A case was opened. The failure mileage was approximately 34,000.

The transmission has failed there has been a recall involving the transmission on this car. My car has been in the shop for a month because it needs a transmission replacement.

I received the recall notice essentially telling me not to drive this vehicle and park it away from my home or other vehicles. When i contacted KIA I was told all they are currently doing is a reimbursement of up to 40 dollars a day for a rental while they figure out how to fix this. Rentals here are over 100 dollars a day and when I told them that I was told the additional money would be on me. My car is still under warranty but they expect me to pay for their issue. Due to this I am still driving a car they recommend parking and will continue to do this. If they were actually concerned about this they would fund rentals and not make me pay for them up front and for over half the cost. When I contacted my dealer they directed me to the manufacturer, no help at all. I am only still driving this car because it would be too expensive for me to fund a rental for an unknown length of time.

Vehicle suddenly displayed the message "Stop Safely Immediately" and then lost all traction to the wheels. This happened as I was entering a busy street and could have resulted in an accident. I had to coast to the side of the road where the car would not drive. I took the vehicle to my Kia Dealer and they performed a software update as part of a recall. The update or "fix" only prevents the immediate loss of traction and does not address the underlying cause. My car is now back at the dealer with a failing transmission.

The contact owned a 2021 Kia Sorento. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V703000 (Trailer Hitches) however, the part to do the recall repair was unavailable. The contact stated that the manufacturer exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The contact stated that after being parked for about 3 hours when someone informed them flames were coming from near the fuel tank. The fire department was called to put out the fire. The vehicle was towed and deemed totaled. A fire report was made. The contact's spouse burned their hand attempting to remove items from the vehicle before it completely burned. Medical attention was not needed. The contact stated that a nearby tree became charred by the fire as well as the ground surrounding the vehicle. The dealer was not made aware of the issue. The contact stated their insurance was going to contact the manufacturer however they were unsure if their insurance had done so as of yet. The approximate failure mileage was 20,000. The contact stated that they were not aware of the recall until after the vehicle caught on fire. Both the manufacturer and the insurance company were notified of the chain of events. The insurance company deemed the vehicle a total loss. The contact is still waiting to hear back from both of them about the cause of the fire.

Vehicle transmission completely failed immediately after long (~4 hr, 224 mile) highway drive. During drive vehicle hesitated slightly when downshifting to accelerate. After arriving at destination, vehicle showed a check engine light and would not consistently accelerate. After sitting for ~36 hrs, vehicle would not shift into any gear (drive or reverse). Had to have vehicle towed. After unsuccessfully attempting to update and flush transmission, and consulting with Kia engineers, Future Kia in Fresno, CA informed me that the dual clutches in the transmission had “melted and fused.” Failure occurred the day after a transmission software update by the Kia dealer in Carson, CA.

10/25/2022 started the suv at a Wal-Mart parking lot and as I drove out of the parking lot onto a street my suv made a motorcycle sound then it started to loss power with my foot still on the gas pedal. Suv came to a complete stop and was towed home. 11/03/2022 Picked up suv from Kia dealership. Drove 43 minutes home and parked inside garage. An hour later started the suv to go pick up kids from school. The suv wouldn't reverse out of the garage. I restarted the engine 4 times then it finally reverse out of the garage then when I put it on drive. There was no power to drive. I restarted the engine again 2 more times then it finally drive and I parked it back inside the garage. 11-04-2022 I attempted to drive suv to Kia dealership for help. I made it onto the freeway with a speed of 74 mph for about 8 minutes then my suv started to loose power with my foot still on the gas pedal. I almost got rear ended by a big rig before I can even put my hazard light on and pulled safely to the side of the freeway. My suv was towed into Kia dealership that same day. 11-12-2022 Picked up the suv from Kia, drove it 43 minutes then stopped at Chevron to top off gas. When restarted the suv my engine light came on the dash board. I drove it back to my house. I notified Kia asap with a picture of my dash board and it's been in my garage since yesterday. Today is 11/13/2022. All incidents are not able to be duplicated by the dealership's mechanic everytime they had the suv. No actions were taken.

On Aug. 24, 2022 I was out shopping at a few different places. My car at this point had never given me any issues, still practically brand new with barely a little over 10000 miles on it. I got in it and started it up. I go to put it into gear and it would not go. I tried again and again then noticed a check engine light on. I turned it off then started vehicle again. I tried putting in reverse, it would not move, drive, it would not move. I called dealership and they sent over service tech along with wrecker driver. The service tech duplicated the same issue I had. He drove me back to dealership to put me in a loaner. Next day he said the wrecker driver said it started and drove just fine however the check engine light was still on so service tech said they were going to look into it. Finally by Sept. 1, 2022 I was told it was ready to be picked up. Was told that the engine computer needed a software update for transmission and it cleared out the light. I picked up vehicle on Sept. 2 and along the way home all of a sudden my car went from 70 mph to a sudden halt! I managed to move off the freeway after almost being rear ended and stopped the car. Frantically I called dealership but they were already closed for the day. Once my fiancé showed up he was able to get it to go into drive but the max speed was around 15 mph which he drove to our house which was about another 7-8 miles as I followed in his vehicle. Had car towed to dealership next day on Sept. 3. Finally on 16th of

The contact owns a 2021 Kia Sorento. The contact stated while driving approximately 5 MPH and attempting to merge onto the highway, the vehicle failed to accelerate as needed. The contact stated that she pulled off the highway ramp, turned off and restarted the vehicle several times before the vehicle started operating normally. The contact stated no warning light was illuminated. Additionally, the contact stated that the Start/Stop function had started to fail to operate as designed. The vehicle would shut down at a stop sign or traffic light; however, as the brake pedal was released and the accelerator pedal was depressed, the vehicle would cycle between shutting the engine off and on. The contact had taken the vehicle to a local dealer, where the failure could not be duplicated. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired. The contact researched online and related the failure to NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V760000 (Power Train). The manufacturer had been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 40,000.

Transmission quit engaging and had service light that said to stop vehicle immediately on September 24, 2022. The vehicle was then towed off to nearest dealer for inspection/diagnosis. Software update was applied on September 30. We picked car up on Oct 01 and drove home with no issues. On Oct 02, I started noticing car was not shifting properly from 2nd to 3rd gear. I had to delicately drive in a certain manner to get it to shift to next gear. Oct 03 engine light came back on, had vehicle towed back to dealer. Oct 04 received call from dealer and after diagnostic was completed, they said they had ordered a new transmission for us with an unknown ETA. Safety of us and others was put at risk due to the transmission behaving erratically. No warning lamps, or messages had been received prior to transmission disengaging initially on Sep. 24. However, there were some symptoms prior to that incident, so I had a strong notion that it was only a matter of time until we were going to experience a transmission issue.

On Oct 5th, 2022, I was driving home from work on Interstate 75, when I heard a chime from my dashboard. When I looked at the dashboard there was a message to “stop safely immediately,” and the check engine light came on. I happened to be at my exit and took the next exit off the highway. Whiling getting to the off ramp the vehicle randomly shut off. I stopped the suv with the brake with no incident. Thankfully no one was behind me. However, the car wouldn't turn on. After several tries the car turned on again. I immediately drove it to kia which was about 2 miles away for immediate service. They did a multi-point inspection, checked fluids. The tech came back saying the vehicle need a software update. They did a software update and returned the suv. I was told everything should be fine. Within a day of the update the check engine light came back on. This time when I accelerate the RPMs are going up but the speed is not increasing. The Sorento hesitates to accelerate from a stop. The vehicle has issues shifting in the lower gears until it JOLTS forward. I returned the Suv to Kia where now I am told it needs a new transmission. I was given no indication as to when this fix would happen. I ask for a rental car they have none. Tech at Kia says its okay to keep driving this suv. Did I miss something? As of Oct 22, they want to recheck transmission fluid which they have already checked. I have been given the run around with no fix for the problem insight.

As I was taking off from stop sign car dropped into lower gear jerking car and lowered speed. Did this twice almost causing an accident. Knowing something was very wrong we proceed to Dealership. SUV stalled out 3 times on the way. Third time it stalled out was in front of service writer in front of dealership.This car has been very dangerous to drive from the delivery to now. It hesitates when you give it gas at stop and vibrates as you pic k up speed. This car is very dangerous to drive. Has been in shop for a week tring to figure out the problem. I have complained to service department about this ever since I have owned the car. Thanks for any help. I know I,m not the only one with this problem. Pat McGrath.

Drivers Side Airbag Illuminates intermittently, A/C smells like dried urine, has stuttered while driving on 2-3 occasions phone charging pad does not actually charge phone instead just maintains whatever battery life is already in phone before placed on pad.,these are all issues within the first 30 days of purchasing certified pre owned Kia Sorento on 8/15/22

Kia has been chasing transmission problems on this vehicle for several Months and now the transmission has completely failed.

Refill inverter coolant notice comes up after routine oil change and downhill control turns on without me turning it on I have to shit my vehicle off in order for the brake control to turn off, available for inspection upon request. This notice interferes with me seeing the digital speedometer. Coolant was checked by dealer no leaks found, was told to wait patiently until a fix is available. No prior issues until I took it in for an oil change with the dealership.

As my vehicle was in drive and I was actively driving, an error displayed on the dash stating to "stop safely immediately." The vehicle would neither accelerate nor decelerate and would not generate any RPMs. The check engine light came on, went off hours lately and the vehicle appeared to perform normally thereafter. Nonetheless I had the vehicle towed to the dealership and was told they were unable to duplicate the error although. I was told that although they could download the code for the error, it was unlikely that Kia would replace the faulty sensor that needed replacing as it was located on the side of the transmission. I was told to video the issue if it ever happened again. 7 days later, the exact same thing happened while I was in the middle of an intersection with my children. I leased this vehicle in May of 2021 and this issue occurred in July 2022 with 7800 miles on the odometer. There were zero issues with this vehicle prior to this and I have all service records and video footage of the incident.

My vehicle was in my garage and I noticed a crack in my windshield. Nothing hit my windshield and there are no knicks in the glass. The crack starts all the way at the top of the windshield and the crack is spreading very quickly. I bought this vehicle used on 7/12/22 and I only put 789 miles on it since purchasing it.

The transmission failed; it is at the dealership awaiting a replacement transmission, and, if needed and if possible, I would authorize for it to be inspected. While in a parking garage, the instrument cluster displayed a "Safely Stop Immediately" message and a check engine light, and the vehicle began to lose momentum and roll to a stop, regardless of accelerator input. The problem was was replicated and confirmed by a Kia dealership. The vehicle has not been inspected beyond the service department at the dealership.

While driving car dropped to 20 miles pe hour pressed gas harder and rpm stayed at 2 and car failed to accelerate, Loss of driving power. It intermittently will drop rpms and lose speed with no warning no light or indicators. This is the 2nd transmission the original failed on 09/11/21 with only 12,000 miles on the car and had to be replaced. this transmission only has 14, 00 miles on it and is a replacement from the Valley Kia dealer. This car is unsafe to drive you dont know if you press the gas pedal it will actually accelerate or stall.

I have a 2021 SX with 6000 miles sitting at the dealership with a failing transmission. yesterday September 2, 2022, my vehicle lost 100% of power and I was left at a traffic light with no power. The dashboard said, "Stop safely immediately". The engine light came on and thank God I was not on the highway. Got towing service to Kia Dealer in Houston. It is a very dangerous situation for any driver to lose all power suddenly. I went to the internet and this is a common problem with this model. It is related to the DCT transmission.

Vehicle is not shifting properly. The vehicle is hesitating on shifting up and have a very hard down shift. When vehicle was brand new this was mentioned to the dealer and they said it was "normal" for these "new" transmissions. This issue has now since gotten way worse. When sitting at a stop sign and needing to accelerate to get out onto the roadway and wheel is slightly turned on "dry" roads the traction control light will come on and vehicle will not accelerate. This is a very BIG safety concern as myself and my kids use this car daily! This problem has been made aware to dealer but only to be told its "NORMAL" this is not normal its a big risk of possibly getting myself or others into an accident. The vehicle is going to be relooked at with another dealer 8/30/22 as it has gotten worse and im concerned of the safety of myself that this vehicle may malfunction causing as accident. I have also looked at other reports of these 2021 Sorentos and seeing a pattern with the transmission issues of them.

Car fails to shift gears. Will not allow to switch to manual and get stuck in first gear. Car has less than 12,000 miles

Vehicle went into limp mode suddenly while driving on the road and would only go 10 mph. We were able to pull vehicle aside and within a minute the car would not move. Check engine light came on with a warning message to pull vehicle to the side of the road. We were able to drive the vehicle home 7 miles after waiting about 1 hour after the issue and the next day drove it to the dealership. Car has been at dealership since 8/8/22 and service advisor and Kia engineer have yet to figure out what went wrong. We have no eta as of today when we will get car back. This issue is concerning as the vehicle came to a complete stop with traffic around us.

On my way to the grocery store less than a mile from my home an alarm and dash alert popped up "SAFELY STOP IMMEDIATELY." The vehicle was stuck in first gear and the rpms revved up. Almost immediately I lost power and it was stuck in neutral even though it was in drive. Then the engine shut down. When I restarted it I could not move. This is extremely dangerous and should never happen. The vehicle has 17,802 miles on it and now my wife and I are afraid to drive it. After sitting for about 20 minutes I was able to start it and return home. It has not moved since. We called the dealer and they were backed up for over a month on service. This is a new vehicle? Upon investigating this issue I found just on one website over 43 reports of the same incident. One person said that a dealership has an entire row of these vehicles with the same problem and transmissions are on backorder. It's been 3 days and still waiting for a reply from my local dealer. This is not safe!

1) Automatic Braking: Twice, Car has auto braked in the middle of a 4-way intersection when a car was stopping at the light. Car has auto braked in the middle of the 3rd lane (fast lane) on the highway during rain. Car has auto braked multiple times when reversing out of a parking spot. In one of those incidents, I have to drive forward in order for the car to move; turning it off and on does not reset the vehicle. The auto-braking while driving especially on the highway causing rapid decceleration could result in another vehicle rear-ending me. 2) MANY transmission issues: jerky transmission, car moving backwards while in drive (usually uphill, doesn't have to be steep), car stalling in park or when going up steep hills, traction control kicking on and engine downshifting (even though the roads were dry).

I have owned this vehicle for about 1 yr & 7 months now. it's been great but all of a sudden last Friday, the dashboard started producing an engine overheat warning with an alarm sound when I was driving under normal conditions. So then I pulled out of the highway and went to the nearest parking lot, and checked the engine. The coolant color was normal & max level. no sign of leaking. Then we resumed driving and nothing happened. later on the way back home... the same thing happened. The alarm sounded for a while and the temperature indicator reached red at the max level then it went away. it was already too late for us to reach out to either dealership or KIA, so I was going to get in touch later. The next day afternoon, I got a diagnostic appointment for the coming Wednesday with the nearest KIA dealership and went out to take care of a few other stuff. The alarm sound with the temperature gauge reaching the red max level happened again after merging into the highway, and it went off after a while. This occurrence has happened 3 times already and I'm a bit worried that it may happen again and something else may happen even though the engine and other fluid levels were fine based on the visual inspection. Not sure if this is fixable...

My 2021 Kia Sorento with 15,500 miles suddenly displayed a “stop safely immediately” warning with no other lights or indicators as to an issue. My husband and I were trying to find a safe place to stop when the vehicle suddenly stopped accelerating and would not shift out of first gear and the RPMs increased to over 5000. We then lost all drivability in the middle of the road and couldn’t move at all. The dealership said a sensor was dirty and “cleaned it” and sent us on our way. Less than a week later, with my four year old daughter in the car with me, the same thing happened again but the “stop safely immediately” warning displayed briefly, disappeared, and then the car again lost all drivability in the middle of a busy highway.

Vehicle randomly losses power when trying to accelerate from a stop. This creates a risk of being rear ended or struck while attempting to merge into traffic. Power loss is 100%. May last from a couple seconds to several minutes. No warning lights come on. The vehicle is currently at the dealership awaiting diagnosis which I was told could take several weeks due to a “backlog of vehicles awaiting repair and a shortage of repair technicians”. Dealer refused to offer a loaner car and Kia will not provide a loaner or rental vehicle until the car is diagnosed by the dealer.

Vehicle randomly looses power to the wheels while driving vehicle. This has occurred while in drive and reverse. Engine check light is lit (not blinking) and message appears on instrument panel of "Stop Safely Immediately" at time of occurrence. This first started on 7/4/2022. This occurred while in heavy traffic which put myself in a dangerous position as it did for other drivers around me. Vehicle is at the dealer service department for the third time. They are having difficulty recreating the issue. On first visit technician found history code P1C2D03 described as "Incorrect Gear Ratio". Transmission software was updated, I picked up car on 7/7/2022 and did not make the 4 mile trip home before it occurred again. The last occurrence was on 7/27/2022. Problem occurred while backing out of driveway.

Hello Sir / Madam, I bought this used 2021 Kia Sorento with Vin Number [XXX]. Greenway Kia Orlando, Has Verified with me and given me a print out saying This Recall has been repaired successfully by them in March of 2022 before they sold it to me. They even said that Documents have been submitted to NHTSA and NHTSA is not updating in to their system Since 3 months. Can you please help me on this subject. Recall has been repaired and I have the repaired invoices and proofs that they provided to me. INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).

Vehicle slams into gears, jerks forward when accelerating, hesitates a long time when reversing then changing to drive(extremely dangerous), and when in park and not turned off yet it surges or revs slightly and you can feel it trying to go forward. At first these things were rare but then became occasional and now after a year they have become constant. Dealership says I need a new transmission and they may have my car for two months or more! Have also had a dead battery twice already with nothing left on or plugged in.

Transmission failure—car stopped driving mid-drive. Thankfully I was driving on a suburban street at low speeds, but it could have been dangerous in another circumstance. The car was towed to a Kia dealership and they claimed it was fixed after a week, however they could not successfully start the car when I went to pick it up and I had to leave it at the dealership. Additionally, the paperwork I was given that detailed the service did not match the records the service department had. After several weeks and despite attempts to contact them, I have received no updates. The check engine light came on after the initial failure.

Vehicle stuck in high RPM until I parked and restarted vehicle. Additionally continues to rock back and forth while parked and jumps forward significantly upon braking and acceleration.

Transmission started slipping after 25,000 miles, very scary in traffic. Got home and transmission completely failed.

Wet clutch went out causing the car to stall and stutter, that has been replaced and now it is struggling to shift into 2nd gear. Jerry shifting and high rpms.

Fuel tank door won't open. It supposedly locks and unlocks with the doors but it gets stuck locked, couldn't get fuel. Had to find something like a coat hanger to stick in and jimmy it open.

Car jumps when going into reverse, going into a stop and coming off a stop. Hesitates off of stops. Feels like it goes into neutral when going around bends. When I’m park, it rocks back and forth and rpm’s go down. It’s been happening since I bought the car a year ago.

Car suddenly stopped going while driving on interstate, almost like the car went into neutral while driving. It started back again after a few seconds and thankfully I was coming down a slight incline and was able to keep coasting while trying to get off of interstate. I pulled over and it seemed to be fine again so I continued home and when driving up my driveway it did it again and I could not get it to go forward to pull into garage. I was able to put it in reverse and back up and then after that it went into drive and pulled forward but then I tried reverse again just to see what it would do and then it would not reverse and would just rev up like it was in neutral again. I have called 5 Kia dealerships this morning and nobody seems inclined to look at it or to assist me with this matter.

We have been having a few issues with our sorento. 1. There will be times when the car wont accelerate or go past the current speed. The first time this happened, we were traveling on the highway and it was difficult to pull over to safely pull over. We had to restart the car completely and let it rest then restart it. The second time this happened, was right after it was "fixed" by the dealership and I was able to safely pull over and restart the car. 2. The second issue is the car will jerk violently when shifting in reverse or down shifting to a stop while driving in automatic. When we originally took the car in for this issue (not even a full year after purchase), a transmission leak was said to be the problem and fixed. This worked for a few months then the issues started to gradually return. The car will also jerk forward and back while sitting in park. While this issue isnt as dangerous, the hesitation in the movement of the car could put myself or my family at risk if the car will no accelerate or decelerate in time. No warning light or problem indication is given when this problem arises. .\

Transmission down shifts hard when coming to a stop or putting it in reverse. Car has been to the Kia dealership were we where told this normal. We had a expert look at the car and his diagnosis was there is something wrong with it. You can here the Transmission making a clunky sound when coming to the stop. People in parking lots have noticed this as well.

While driving the car displayed a notice in the dash stating “stop safely immediately” . We stoped the car in on the edge of traffic. After we restarted the car we shifted into Drive but the transmission wouldn’t allow the car to move. The car had reduced RPMs and wouldn’t move in drive or reverse. Ultimately had to have it towed to a nearby dealer.

Unknown. I was driving down the express way, when I heard a big bang. Glass all through my car. I looked up and noticed that my sunroof had exploded. This is very dangerous and really scary while doing 70+ down the freeway! Something needs to be done. Doesn't seem like kia warranties their glass and insurance companies want to charge the deductible for something that wasn't even anyone's fault.

Transmission has to be replaced. Car shut off, redlined when gears switched, struggled between gear shifts, would not start.

The contact owns a 2021 Kia Sorento. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle inadvertently shifted into neutral. The check engine warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic to be diagnosed. The contact was informed that the transmission needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 11,978.