Complaint volume
416 consumer-submitted complaints are matched to this model year. Treat the count as a research signal, then read the actual summaries for repeated symptoms.
Complaint records
2019 Kia Sorento Complaints
416 consumer-submitted complaints on record for the 2019 Kia Sorento, grouped by component category.
416 Total complaints
10 Crash reports
18 Fire reports
10 Injury reports
Complaint data reflects consumer-submitted reports. A complaint is not proof
of a defect, recall, or manufacturer fault. Enriched severity fields come
from official bulk records when the complaint can be matched by ODI number.
Buyer interpretation
How to use these complaints before buying
Complaint records are most useful when they turn into inspection points, seller questions, and comparison checks against nearby model years.
Pattern to inspect
The most common categories are engine, unknown or other, structure. Use those categories as a test-drive checklist instead of judging the vehicle from the total count alone.
Severity flags
Enriched records include 10 crash reports, 18 fire reports, 10 injury reports, and 0 fatality reports. These fields come from complaint records and should be read in context.
Mileage clue
Mileage is available on 112 complaints, with an average reported failure mileage of 41,292 miles. Compare that with the mileage on the listing.
Questions to ask the seller
- Have you had any problems related to engine, unknown or other, structure?
- Can I see recent maintenance and repair records?
- Has the vehicle ever been towed, involved in a crash, or repaired for the same issue twice?
- Can we also check the recall record for this 2019 Kia Sorento?
Used-car checklist
Use these complaints before the test drive.
Build a buyer checklist to turn these issues into questions and inspection points.
2019 Kia Sorento
Build buyer checklist Compare with other years Sends year, make, and model to pre-fill your checklist.
How severe are the 2019 Kia Sorento complaints?
10 Crash
18 Fire
10 Injury
0 Fatality
20 Towed
8 Medical attention
What are the most common 2019 Kia Sorento complaint categories?
ENGINE 96
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 46
STRUCTURE 27
POWER TRAIN 20
POWER TRAIN,ENGINE 19
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,STRUCTURE,UNKNOWN OR OTHER 16
EXTERIOR LIGHTING 14
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 9
ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING 9
FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM 9
416 total complaints on record
Latest complaints
| Date | Component | Summary | Severity | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 2025 | POWER TRAIN | I am reporting a recurring defect with my 2019 Kia Sorento’s front axle assembly, which has failed multiple times despite repeated replacements. The vehicle was serviced at Ron Tonkin Kia, where the front axle assembly was replaced three times due to leaks: •January 2022 – First replacement •November 2022 – Second replacement •March 2023 – Third replacement The issue is happening again, indicating a persistent defect. Each time, the axle assembly has been replaced under warranty, but the problem continues to recur, raising concerns about long-term safety and reliability. I am concerned about the potential risk of axle failure while driving, which could lead to loss of vehicle control or other safety hazards. I am requesting an investigation into whether this issue is widespread and whether Kia should be required to address it through a recall or permanent fix. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2025 | ENGINE | This Type of vehicle has a Recall for Oil Pressure Sensor Switch. I Contact Dealer prior my Warranty Covers. But they keep denying the Repairs. Saying tis types of works its not cover on this Warranty. This Vehicle its a Recall for this Oil Pressure Sensor Switch. The Dealer Kia Dont Want to work with the Client other than offering you. A Trade for a new Vehicle Not A Good Bussiness from Kia. Very Dissapointed | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2025 | ENGINE | I am the owner of the aforementioned KIA Sorento EX SUV which I leased when new from TASCA KIA then purchased at the end of my lease. It should be noted that my new address is [XXX] as I moved from the Coventry address on May 26, 2023. I religiously have my oil changed (have all receipts since 2019) at the manufacturers recommendation. At around 55,000 miles I started noticed wet spots on the driveway below the engine and was not sure if it was anti-freeze or oil. As the mileage on my vehicle increased over time I noticed the spots on the driveway getting bigger. A fellow KIA owner who incidently owned a 2019 Sorento Platinum with a V-6 like mine stated that they developed a sizeable oil leak in their vehicle at around 50K miles. My vehicle had close to 74K miles and I noticed that my oil level was dipping down. On December 9, 2024, I drove my vehicle over to KIA of Attleboro, MA and after a mechanics inspection it was determined that was engine was in fact leaking oil from both the filter housing which is plastic and also from the area where the wiring harness connects to the oil pan that indicates low oil pressure which never notified of low oil. On December 10, 2024, I brought my KIA Sorento back to the same dealership in Massachusetts where the oil leaks were repaired at a cost of $912.43. I subsequently went on the web and discovered that this was a growing problem with this year and model KIA along with other years with some owners seizing their motors. I never received a notice from KIA notifying me of this potential issue which I believe is larger than being reported and should inspired NHTSA to force KIA USA to send out a notice to all affected KIA owners and fix this problem at no cost to the consumer. Putting this money out unexpectedly just before Christmas was painful. I would like to be compensated for this expense which is a defect. Thank you. [XXX] [XXX] INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6) | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2025 | ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING | The contact owns a 2019 Kia Sorento. The contact stated while driving 75-80 MPH, there was oil leaking from the vehicle. The contact also noticed that there was oil on the garage floor. There were no warning lights illuminated. The contact stated that the failure was related to NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V202000 (Engine and Engine Cooling). The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, who determined that the oil pan needed to be replaced. The local dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was contacted. The failure mileage was approximately 101,011. | Crash: No Fire: No | 101,011 |
| Jan 2025 | STRUCTURE | There is delamination of the snow pearl white paint. It has been reported and noted at the Kia dealership. Starting on the hood and passenger driver side door. It is literally falling off after a bubble formed under the paint. Kia has pictures of this | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2025 | STRUCTURE | The Sorento is coated with a "Snow White Pearl" paint that started delaminating rapidly. I took it to the dealership at first for a pen touch up, but it started chipping and peeling exponentially quicker lately. This is a serious issue as the paint is the only protector of the body from rust and wear. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2025 | ENGINE | Oil consumption, car seizes,loses power and stalls when at 65 to 70 mph on highway,almost caused two accidents in which i was able to avoid, both times my children were in the vehicle.spoke with kia as well and they stated they were unable to help with this issue and only suggested us to go to a dealership.We have taken the car to the dealership and to auto shop 3 times in the past 6 months no resolve.Just got an oil change again and did oil consumption test (result was .8 oil burned at 1,000 miles) ,now 2 weeks later no oil in car as oil light came on after it was filled back up at the oil consumption test ,engine is faulty and burns oil at alarming rates. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2025 | AIR BAGS,UNKNOWN OR OTHER | A crack on my dashboard by the airbag above glove box. I use a windshield screen and armor all it to protect it I’m afraid if there’s an accident the airbag will not work as designed and it could cause injury or death Kia said after 5 years it’s normal wear and tear I bought car new oct 2019 | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2025 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The forward collision system warning system the warning that it's not working stays on for a couple of days then goes off but then it comes back on. My other problem is the Pearl White paint is peeling off the hood and roof of my Sorento. Kia said not their problem because it has 80,000 miles. I have read thousands of complaints about this problem. There seems to be a problem with the paint they are using. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2025 | ENGINE | Recently the 2019 Kia Sorento 3.3L V6 has had an intermittent Engine Oil Pressure Light. It will sometimes come on at low idle but not all the time. We did find a leak at the oil filter housing and repaired that, which did not solve the light issue. The vehicle has oil in it, thus not the problem. The vehicle was Manufactured in June of 2018 and there was a recall on the exact issue just prior to this for 2018's. Given the manufacture date and the fact this issue was not discovered until AFTER the vehicle were produced, I feel that given the timing it would be fair to say this vehicle would fall into the recall. I did have an independent shop diagnose this as a possible electrical short or part issue. I have spoken to Kia and they have provided no assistance on this. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2025 | POWER TRAIN,ENGINE | The vehicle (90k miles) has a check oil light on. When I took it to the dealer, they diagnosed the issue as a faulty oil pressure sensor (see attachment #1). The model year warranty is 10yr/100k for engine/powertrain, I was informed that since I am a second owner that they will only honor a 5yr/60k warranty. I then looked to see if there was an extended warranty on this component and there is on the nhtsa.gov site. A letter from Kia dated 4/6/2022 (WTY026) (attachment #2). Attached for you convenience shows an extension of the warranty of this component to 15yr/150k. The letter includes my vehicles make and model, but uses the model year 2014-2018 with a manufacturing date of 12/17/2012 - 3/7/2018. My vehicle was manufactured on 3/2/18 from the VIN plate attached to the vehicle (attachment #3). The dealership also refused to cover the warranty based on this letter because of the model year. My issue is this model year uses the same engine and components and was manufactured before the cut-off of the extended warranty. I would like to see the extended warranty extended to cover further model years as the component is still causing the same safety issue | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2025 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | I received a safety recall letter from Kia America July 2023 and Dec 2024 and called Jerry Seiner Kia Salt Lake City and they will not help me. I then called Kia customer care number on the recall letter 800-333-4542 and it goes to roadside assistance and they cannot help me. I then called the USGOV safety hotline listed on the recall letter 888-327-4236 and that goes to Coach Elkhart. So the Kia customer care number is incorrect and the USGOV safety hotline number is incorrect and no one except me knows this? Zombieland America. Anyone out their know why the USGOV safety hotline number lists Coach Elkhart phone number? I have had 3 other people look to see how crazy this all is. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2024 | LANE DEPARTURE,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Master warning, forward collision avoidance assist, lane keeping assist, and high beam assist warning lights on. Message boards mention similar problems and there have been front and rear camera recalls for Telluride and other models of Kia, but not for Sorento. Similar problem occurred a few months ago when car died while going at highway speeds. This resolved after cleaning radar cover, cameras and sensors, but are not resolving current problem. Lane assist and departure are not working. We have not taken it to dealer yet. Our 2019 Sorento has not been included in recalls for this specific problem. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2024 | ENGINE | The engine blew up. I have all of my oil change receipts and gave them to West Herr Kia, and per Kia West Herr, Kia denied covering the blown engine because the piston went through the engine with great force. This happened at approximately 110,000 miles. West Herr Kia quoted 10,400 to replace the engine. Please let me know if you would like copies of the oil changes. I won't be able to upload all.of them. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2024 | FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | . In October 2023 (see KIA service ticket) my KIA was brought into Jackson KIA Cocoa, FL, for something not operating correctly. The vehicle periodically would hesitate when pressing the accelerator and other times when you had pressed the accelerator to go faster and removed your foot from the accelerator, the vehicle would not slow down, rather continue to speed up even if you tapped the brakes. The service technician had the vehicle for two days and confirmed during several of his test drives that the vehicle would hesitate and speed up with your foot off the accelerator. The service technician said the fuel pump was the issue; however, to cover it under our vehicle warranty, the vehicle would need to generate either a service code error or the indicator light would have to turn on. Neither of these happened during the service technician’s test drives. The service technician wanting to confirm his assessment that the fuel pump was faulty, replaced the fuel pump with a new one and test drove the vehicle. The issues of hesitation and acceleration didn’t happen as they did with old fuel pump. The service technician put the old fuel pump back in because I refused to accept a charge for replacing the fuel pump when it was under warranty. I made an appointment with Jackson Kia in August 2024, explaining that the vehicle had not improved and no error codes and no indication lights but the vehicle was accelerating and hesitating even more than it was almost a year ago when their service technician confirmed the issue with the fuel pump. I left the vehicle with Jackson KIA again for three days for them to diagnose the problem and confirm that the fuel pump was faulty. The service technician confirmed that the other service technician from a year ago diagnosed the problem correctly. It was in fact the fuel pump and is exhibiting the conditions as outlined in the KIA Motors Fuel Pump notice, except the vehicle did not have any diagnostic error codes nor any lights | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2024 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | Snow White Pearl Paint, there are several vehicles including mine that have peeling paint all over the vehicle, in both Kia and Hyundai vehicles, the paint peels when it rains or anything else! No one at the Corporate office or dealership will speak to this, and says that after 36 months it isn't their problem, I have been told that this is a wide spread issue and that it is on most of all vehicles that are this color. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2024 | ENGINE | This Engine is the Lambda II 3.3 Cylinder and it has been using a quart of oil every 400 miles. The oil light went on while my wife went to Mayo clinic in Minnesota for [XXX] and she had to pull over and put more oil in while on the side of the road. Kia dealership looked at it and said they could do an oil consumption test but that KIA would not pay for a new engine since at 96000 miles, it is out of warranty (second owner). This issue appeared suddenly and is getting worse. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6) | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2024 | ENGINE | The contact owns a 2019 Kia Sorento. The contact stated that the vehicle was consuming an excessive amount of engine oil. The vehicle was taken to a dealer four times where an unknown diagnosis was provided and the vehicle was repaired four times with unknown parts, but the failure persisted. Additionally, the contact stated that while driving at approximately 45 MPH, the vehicle jolted forward, shuddered, and lost motive power. The check engine warning light was flashing. The vehicle was taken to a dealer where it was diagnosed that the cylinder #2 valve was burned and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was being repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 101,000. | Crash: No Fire: No Towed | 101,000 |
| Dec 2024 | EXTERIOR LIGHTING,TRAILER HITCHES | The contact owns a 2019 Kia Sorento. The contact stated that the vehicle was taken to the local dealer and was informed that parts for the repair under NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V703000 (Trailer Hitches) were not available. The vehicle was taken back to the dealer, who replaced the fuse. The vehicle was repaired. The contact stated that the driver’s side taillight became inoperable. There were no warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was taken back to the same dealer, where it was diagnosed that the taillight bulb, taillight assembly, and the wiring harness needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired, but the failure persisted. The manufacturer was contacted, opened a case, but no assistance was provided. The failure mileage was approximately 45,220. | Crash: No Fire: No | 45,220 |
| Dec 2024 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | Paint just peeling off | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2024 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,SERVICE BRAKES,ENGINE | My car has been in recall with Kia motors and nothing has been changed or done | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2024 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,ENGINE,VISIBILITY/WIPER | I have been without transportation for 3 months now and I’m about to lose my Job | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2024 | ENGINE | The contact owns a 2019 Kia Sorento. The contact stated that the vehicle was taken for an oil change and the oil warning light illuminated immediately after the oil change was performed. The vehicle was returned to the mechanic who diagnosed that oil was unclean. The mechanic informed the contact that the failure had caused the air conditioning to fail. The mechanic informed the contact that there were metal shavings found in the oil. The oil was flushed and replaced. The contact was referred to the dealer. The dealer was contacted and confirmed that the repair was not covered under recall or warranty. The manufacturer had not been made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 149,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 149,000 |
| Nov 2024 | STRUCTURE | The paint is peeling everywhere on my vehicle | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2024 | ENGINE | The Oil Pressure sensor was lighting up on the Dash indicating Low Oil pressure when the engine was running under 1500 RPM. Was replaced and Same condition appeared within hours leaving the dealership. KIA USA was no help in resolving the issue. Technician noted that there was no Sludge or any reason for the issue. I have seen many reported issues with the same result on line | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |