2012 Kia Forte problems
Owners have filed 407 complaints with NHTSA about the 2012 Kia Forte. Engine is the most reported problem area, at 41% of complaints. Next are brakes (13%) and air bags (9%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 407 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Engine 41% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 34 and 34
- Injuries and deaths
- 26 and 4
- Typical mileage
- 80,000 miles 249 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 33 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 21 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 21 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 45 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 35 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 43 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 28 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 11 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 10 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 1 |
| 200k+ miles | 1 |
What the data shows
Of the 249 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 80,000 miles. For engine specifically, the median reported mileage is about 100,000 miles (108 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 34 complaints mention a crash; 34 complaints mention a fire; 26 injuries reported; 4 deaths reported. Its complaints are more severe on average than those of 85% of model years in our database.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2012 ranks 9th most-complained-about out of 15 model years of the Kia Forte with enough data (109 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 4 safety recall campaigns.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
The car was involved in a serious frontal impact and the front seat airbags did not go off. The passenger was killed and the driver was seriously injured. Kia was informed and the airbag control module was tested and found to be not working.
This is a correction to a complaint filed last week. I checked no on the fatalities question. The kia was in a serious fatal frontal impact but the airbags did not deploy. Kia tested the airbag control module and it had no fault codes and did not record any crash data. Kia has the module now. The other cars airbags worked and the drunk driver survived...updated 10/15/15 ...updated 12/29/15 the data showed that there were no stored or diagnostic fault codes. There was no crash record recorded by the acu.
I rear-end a SUV at 50 miles per hour, hit my nose and mouth on the steering wheel. The front end is severely damage, the engine caught fire, fluids were leaking but neither air bag deployed.
Previously, there was a recall for under body rust. I had that fixed. However, the rust problem extends to the paint job and little orange dots of rust have been on the vehicle in many places.
The contact owns a 2012 Kia Forte. The contact stated that the brake lights failed to illuminate, and while inspecting the lights in the rear of the vehicle, the contact became aware that the socket where the brake light bulb was located was melting from the light overheating. The vehicle was taken to the dealer did not diagnose the cause of failure. The brake lights were not repaired.