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	3,596	8,300
Model years covered	2009–2024	1982–2026
Worst model year	2017	2015
Best model year	2024	2023
Crashes reported	378	865
Fires reported	201	167
Injuries reported	228	548
Deaths reported	21	16
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Engine & Cooling
Share of complaints involving harm	23%	19.2%

KIA Forte by year

1 317 214 404 272 644 325 202 432 188 216 101 95 42 97 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 1,175 32.7%

Electrical System 321 8.9%

Other & Unspecified 320 8.9%

Airbags 292 8.1%

Brakes 218 6.1%

Transmission & Drivetrain 215 6.0%

Lights 178 4.9%

Steering 160 4.4%

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 81 212 201 260 871 526 501 404 341 286 360 320 214 141 34 59 47 22

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 1,360 16.4%

Transmission & Drivetrain 1,295 15.6%

Electrical System 847 10.2%

Airbags 796 9.6%

Brakes 621 7.5%

Other & Unspecified 595 7.2%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 426 5.1%

Steering 342 4.1%