KIA Forte vs Nissan Sentra

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	KIA Forte	Nissan Sentra
Complaints on file	3,611	8,318
Model years covered	2009–2024	1982–2026
Worst model year	2017	2015
Best model year	2024	2023
Crashes reported	381	867
Fires reported	202	170
Injuries reported	228	550
Deaths reported	21	16
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Engine & Cooling
Share of complaints involving harm	23%	19.3%

KIA Forte by year

1 317 214 406 272 645 326 203 432 190 217 103 95 42 102 46

09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 1,179 32.7%

Electrical System 322 8.9%

Other & Unspecified 322 8.9%

Airbags 294 8.1%

Brakes 219 6.1%

Transmission & Drivetrain 216 6.0%

Lights 178 4.9%

Steering 162 4.5%

Nissan Sentra by year

1 1 4 6 9 46 40 49 45 77 81 89 130 158 177 138 76 74 236 309 372 240 235 224 155 215 233 81 212 201 260 871 526 501 407 341 287 360 320 216 142 34 64 49 26

82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 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 1,362 16.4%

Transmission & Drivetrain 1,296 15.6%

Electrical System 850 10.2%

Airbags 796 9.6%

Brakes 622 7.5%

Other & Unspecified 598 7.2%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 426 5.1%

Steering 343 4.1%