2018 Kia Niro problems
NHTSA has received 85 complaints about the 2018 Kia Niro, and 22% of them involve drivetrain & axles. Next are electrical system (21%) and engine (21%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 85 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Drivetrain & axles 22% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 7 and 0
- Injuries and deaths
- 6 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 10,000 miles 27 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 | 15 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 0 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 2 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 1 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 1 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 0 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 3 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 4 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 1 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 0 |
| 200k+ miles | 0 |
What the data shows
Of the 27 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 10,000 miles.
Safety-related details: 7 complaints mention a crash; 6 injuries reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2018 ranks 3rd most-complained-about out of 7 model years of the Kia Niro with enough data (48 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 3 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.
Purchased the vehicle with safety tech package which includes aeb (auto emergency braking) and vehicle did not stop even when I applied full brakes to prevent a collision. The main reason I purchased this vehicle was for this safety feature.
Driver heated seat shorted out and caused burn to leg. System has not been repaired, will wait to hear from Kia Customer Affairs prior to decision to repair. I was injured by this and have concerns about the safety of the vehicle, will this happen again if a new grid is installed. Kia dealership confirmed that the grid showed high resistivity but also claimed since nothing is melted I couldn't have been burned. The vehicle has only been inspected by the dealership currently.
Both the right passenger door handle and rear drives side door handle have come off, in both cases a passenger was opening the door to enter the vehicle when the door handle failed and came off. The last incident back door occurred 9/7
I was driving on the freeway. After slowed down and stopped completely, suddenly it lose power to run. Trying to step deeper the gas pedal, but no reaction at all. After turn off and turn on engine few times, it can run again, but this time, the real problem occur. The engine sounds so loud..it's hybrid car supposed to so quiet (that's what sounds usually). Later on, I found out how to still can drove it, but with high risk suddenly lose power on the street.