Kia Sportage

Which Kia Sportage years should you avoid?

Going by 4,722 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, the Kia Sportage years to avoid are 2008, 2017, 2012, 2013 and 2020.

• 20084.2× the usual share of fires, crashes and deaths for a car of its age (24 fires, 2 crashes).
• 2017404 complaints, 2.8× a typical Sportage year, most often about the engine.
• 2012392 complaints, 2.7× a typical Sportage year, most often about the engine.
• 2013381 complaints, 2.6× a typical Sportage year, most often about the engine.
• 20202.5× the usual share of fires, crashes and deaths for a car of its age (13 fires, 11 crashes).

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

Too new to judge: 2025 and 2026. Complaints take a few years to arrive, so a new model year looks better than it is.

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 →