KIA Optima vs Hyundai Sonata

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 Optima	Hyundai Sonata
Complaints on file	10,387	22,302
Model years covered	2001–2020	1987–2026
Worst model year	2013	2013
Best model year	2005	2025
Crashes reported	505	1,151
Fires reported	647	851
Injuries reported	315	740
Deaths reported	22	21
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Engine & Cooling
Share of complaints involving harm	14.3%	12.4%

KIA Optima by year

231 168 190 306 180 214 218 188 166 99 781 1,263 1,889 791 1,403 1,079 355 334 321 211

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 3,400 32.7%

Electrical System 944 9.1%

Other & Unspecified 847 8.2%

Steering 756 7.3%

Airbags 573 5.5%

Body & Structure 565 5.4%

Brakes 534 5.1%

Transmission & Drivetrain 506 4.9%

Hyundai Sonata by year

4 18 25 41 43 46 7 93 37 74 68 187 378 293 407 249 288 217 1,422 906 554 612 415 4,627 2,280 2,657 1,082 1,667 998 1,001 552 214 276 184 142 140 75 21 2

87 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 5,119 23.0%

Steering 2,378 10.7%

Airbags 2,068 9.3%

Electrical System 2,008 9.0%

Other & Unspecified 1,329 6.0%

Brakes 1,259 5.6%

Fuel & Propulsion 1,092 4.9%

Body & Structure 1,087 4.9%