Chevrolet Cavalier vs KIA Sorento

Both cars' complete complaint records, side by side.

Read the totals carefully. NHTSA publishes no sales figures, so the car that sold more collects more complaints regardless of quality. The rows worth weighing are the proportions — the share of complaints that involved harm, and which part dominates.

Measure	Chevrolet Cavalier	KIA Sorento
Complaints on file	6,452	14,049
Model years covered	1982–2005	2003–2026
Worst model year	1997	2012
Best model year	2005	2009
Crashes reported	554	481
Fires reported	167	655
Injuries reported	369	372
Deaths reported	21	11
Most complained-about part	Electrical System	Engine & Cooling
Share of complaints involving harm	17.2%	10.8%

Chevrolet Cavalier by year

1 17 10 4 21 27 14 71 70 77 178 237 310 392 748 751 473 337 447 356 254 867 428 362

82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05

Complaints filed with NHTSA, by model year. Bar colour is the FaultScore grade: A B C D F ungraded

What breaks

Electrical System 1,252 19.4%

Engine & Cooling 839 13.0%

Brakes 717 11.1%

Fuel & Propulsion 652 10.1%

Steering 415 6.4%

Airbags 346 5.4%

Transmission & Drivetrain 332 5.1%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 322 5.0%

KIA Sorento by year

421 341 457 382 224 319 79 3 2,077 1,209 1,298 1,380 965 1,635 1,040 340 632 191 367 290 208 57 126 8

03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

Complaints filed with NHTSA, by model year. Bar colour is the FaultScore grade: A B C D F ungraded

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 4,231 30.1%

Electrical System 1,391 9.9%

Other & Unspecified 1,284 9.1%

Transmission & Drivetrain 1,172 8.3%

Body & Structure 940 6.7%

Lights 865 6.2%

Airbags 721 5.1%

Brakes 706 5.0%