Owners have filed 447 complaints on the Kia K5, covering 2021–2026. The system named most often is Electrical System (77 reports). Worst years by volume: 2021, 2022, 2023; cleanest: 2026, 2024, 2025. 31 reports describe a crash, 5 a fire, 3 a death. On average the car was 2.0 years old when the problem happened.
What breaks on Kia K5
Grouped by the system owners named — percentages are shares of all 447 K5 complaints. Open any row for the full reports in owners' own words.
Electrical System 77 Read
Driving this morning 5/7/2025 at 9:09am and smoke started emitting from the center consol accompanied by a burning smell. My husband noticed the smoke coming from the car charging area, it made a popping/poof sound accompanied with even more smoke. We immediately pulled the charger out of the charger port. My car…
Vehicle was stopped a red light on a city street when suddenly cut off. Smoke began to pour out from under the hood. Less than 1 minute later the vehicle was fully involved under the hood of car. Car was a total loss. Vehicle had just been driven approximately 25 miles (all highway) from home towards work when…
Kia has a known issue with the HVAC blower motor circuit on this vehicle model. They have issued a warranty extension related to relocating the blower motor fuse to another circuit in the fuse box, due to potential burning of fuse(s). After executing this extended warranty fuse-relocation-procedure, our blower motor…
Fuel/propulsion System 53 Read
I was driving on [XXX] Orlando Florida on [xxx] doing approximately 70 miles an hour when a large explosion occurred out and within my car the whole car shook this happened twice within a 5 mile radius. The car was eventually brought to Kia city in Orlando, where they determined that the fuel system had failed . The…
Gas tank expanded and bent the undercarriage up so much it blew off the fuel pump cover and pushed up the back seat
I was driving and it was a loud noise. My son flew up with seat belt on hit his head on roof , gas tank blew up / or swelled up and my back seat is sitting about 10-12 inches above then normal. Very scary and worried
Power Train 52 Read
I was traveling normally, exiting a highway ramp when my car acceleration system malfunctioned. It seemed as if it was a power train issue or engine issue. I was not able to accelerate or slow down properly due to this malfunction and it caused me to crash. My car was totaled
On December 28th 2022 between the 6:30 am to 8:00 my car was parked and caught on fire. I have filed a complaint with Kia and since then I have gotten the run around about them looking into the vehicle and seeing what cause the issue. My car was still under the manufacture warranty
Transmission has extremely hard shifting if vehicle sits for more than 24 hours. After the vehicle is parked, inside garage, or outside, the first drive of the day has an extremely hard shift of the transmission on the first shifting of the day. The shift it so hard, it jerks the entire car and jolts me in my seat.…
Structure 36 Read
The car material itself is very cheap meaning it poor quality, very flimsy, I hit a curb and the grill and cover just broke so easily even though it was now a serious hit but very small and slight to the point where you can’t feel it. Now it’s just hanging off and shaking badly because of the poor material, it isn’t…
Back number was replaced
The contact owns a 2025 Kia K5. The contact stated that the vehicle was purchased from the Kia dealer as a brand-new vehicle. The contact stated that while attempting to register the vehicle on the online vehicle rental site Turo the following day, the contact became aware that the VIN was included in a recall. The…
Fuel System 27 Read
The contact owns a 2024 Kia K5. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 25V794000 (Fuel System, Gasoline); however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer was contacted. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the…
The contact owns a 2024 Kia K5. The contact received the recall notice of NHTSA Campaign Number: 25V794000 (Fuel System, Gasoline). The contact was concerned that the vehicle might catch fire while driving. The local dealer was contacted and confirmed that the parts to do the recall repair were not available. The…
The contact owns a 2023 Kia K5. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed, the contact heard a loud ticking sound coming from the fuel tank. The check engine warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where the vehicle was diagnosed as a failure with fuel tank expansion. The…
Engine 26 Read
Engine failed for literally no reason and started smoking and Lia won’t stand by warranty either
The contact owns a 2026 Kia K5. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the check engine warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, where it was diagnosed with an engine harness failure. The contact was informed that the engine harness needed to be replaced. The vehicle was…
Low oil engine warning. Oil level is okay. Car has 80 miles on it, total
Air Bags 22 Read
I am the owner of a 2025 Kia K5 GT-Line that was recently involved in an accident. In the days prior to the crash, I experienced recurring issues including screen reboots while driving and temporary power loss. I do not remember the moment of the accident, and I am currently under medical care for head trauma. I am…
While driving on a rural road, a cow ran in front of my vehicle and I collided with it. The car was towed to a repair shop and the estimated cost of repairs was $15,000. The impact was on the front corner of the drivers side of the vehicle. No airbags deployed. It seems to me that with the violence and location of the…
I was involved in a traffic accident on May 29 2023. I was hit on the passenger side sustaining $18,000 in damages. My side air bag never went off
Service Brakes 15 Read
The contact owns a 2023 Kia K5. The contact stated that while driving at approximately 5 MPH and approaching a stop sign exiting a parking lot, as the contact depressed the brake pedal to stop for a commercial truck stopped at the exit, the "collision warning" illuminated. The contact stated that the brake pedal went…
Break caliper and brake rotors
I am reporting a documented and unresolved brake system safety issue on my 2024 Kia K5 involving repeated premature brake pad wear and rotor damage. The vehicle has required three full brake pad and rotor replacements by approximately 40,000 miles, with each set lasting less than 15,000 miles. Service records…
K5 years to avoid — and the clean ones
Complaints per model year. More reports usually means more cars on the road as well as more trouble, so read the crash and fire columns alongside the count.
| Model year | Complaints | Top system | Crashes | Fires |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Electrical System | — | — | |
| 2025 | Air Bags | 4 | — | |
| 2024 | Electrical System | 1 | — | |
| 2023 | Air Bags | 6 | — | |
| 2022 | Air Bags | 13 | 3 | |
| 2021 | Air Bags | 7 | 2 |
The same model year, different builds
Every complaint carries the first 11 characters of the VIN — plant, year, body and engine. That is a production series, and complaints are spread across them very unevenly.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Distinct production series | 156 |
| Average complaints per series | 2.9 |
| Worst single series | 11 complaints |
| Average age at failure | 2.0 years |
A model average of 2.9 hides a worst series at 11. Enter a VIN above to see the numbers for that exact build instead of the model as a whole.
Owners reported these. Find out if yours is one of them.
- Complaints matched to the exact production run, not just the model
- What the car is worth given what tends to fail on it
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How we count
Every figure here comes from complaints owners filed with NHTSA — 1,100,006 of them, covering 1,982 models built between 1981 and 2026.
A complaint is an unverified report: someone wrote down what happened to their car. It is not a confirmed defect and not a recall. What makes the volume useful is the pattern — when thousands of owners of the same build describe the same failure, that is a signal no marketing brochure will give you.
Two things we do that the source does not. First, we compute the age of the car at the moment of failure from the incident date and the model year. Second, we group complaints by the first 11 characters of the VIN — the production series — so a bad plant run does not disappear into a model-wide average.
Frequently asked questions
What are the worst years for the K5?
By complaint volume, 2021, 2022, 2023 drew the most owner reports. Bear in mind that popular years put more cars on the road, so check the crash and fire columns too.
Which K5 years are the cleanest?
2026, 2024, 2025 have the fewest complaints on file. For recent years that can simply mean the cars are young.
How many complaints does the Kia K5 have?
447 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, covering 2021–2026. Of those, 31 describe a crash and 5 a fire.
Are these complaints verified?
No. They are unverified reports from owners. NHTSA publishes them as filed and investigates only a fraction. The value is in the pattern, not in any single report.
Can I check complaints for one specific car?
Yes — enter its VIN above. We match the first 11 characters, which identify the plant, year, body and engine, so you get complaints on that exact production series rather than the whole model.