CarComplaints.com Notes: Kia really changed the design of the Sorento in the 2011 model year. Instead of a truck-like body-on-frame more capable of offroad adventures, the newest Sorento is a unibody construction and is much more crossover than sport utility. The changes brought a whole slew of problems, including a frustrating problem where the door that won’t open. Is it too late to go back?
10.0
really awful
Crashes / Fires:
2 / 7
Injuries / Deaths:
1 / 0
Average Mileage:
66,826 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
I have a 2011 KIA SORENTO and the rear back door handle has stopped working on 7/7/2021. This is safety issue as I can open the door from inside but not from outside. I have a small child and another on the way and not being able to open the door to let her out of the car is unacceptable. I am really frightened if what will happen if my child is inside and I am not able to get inside my car. This is a potential hazard for my child and my future infant child. Kia has to really step forward and replace this faulty mechanism. I urge the Kia company to recall and fix this asap before someone gets hurt and/or it results in a fatality.
The paint (pearl white) on the vehicle on the surface above the windshield is delaminating/peeling. Two different body shops told me that it was due to a manufacturing defect.
I drove my 2011 Kia Sorento about 9:15 at night. By 12:45 am a passerby had called 911 due to my car being in flames. I was woken up to the fire department arriving at my house and my car engulfed in flames. After the flames were extinguished, they checked it over and determined that it had started in the engine area. I bought the car in 2017 and it currently only has 120,750 miles on it. They investigated it and determined it had started on the passenger side near the engine. My car is a total loss and it was heartbreaking to wake up to that at almost 1:00am. Kia needs to get it together and take care of my expenses.
- Kewanee, IL, USA
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My pearl white paint is peeling in sheets on the rear quarter panel on the drivers side and is coming off all along each side of the windshield and in spots all along the car.
The driver side door will not open from the inside, I had a similar problem with the passenger door about 6 months ago. I looked this up and it appears to be a problem with many of these Kia cars. I am afraid that all the door might do this and I would not be about to get my grandkids out or if I had to get out in an emergency I could not exit. Now I have to roll down the window and reach outside the door to activate the door handle from the outside. My fear is this will stop working and I will be stuck in the car. I am an older person so crawling over the console would be almost impossible. I believe it is a broken door latch on the inside of the door
My husband and I noticed that paint was coming off the roof of my Kia Sorento 2011 model after the car wash. This was around mid 2017. On Nov 7, 2017, I took my car to a body shop to inquire about fixing the paint damage. They informed me that they have seen many Kia Sorentos come in with the pearl white color have delamination. They informed me to check with a Kia bodyshop to see if they would cover this. They said that it is a factory issue. So I went to the Kia body shop and talked with the manager and after a few days he got back to me and told me that Kia would cover half the cost to fix it. Well I never got it done because if it is a factory issue and I believe that Kia should cover all of it. I couldn't afford to pay what Kia wanted to charge for the paint job and make my car payment at that time. So I waited and now the roof and hood paint are continuing to come off and even worse rust. I can't afford to replace my car at this moment. I would like to continue driving my car, but not only is it embarrassing, I worry about the rust effecting areas at the top of my windshield. I see many white Kia Sorentos with this issue in my area and think why hasn't this been recalled and covered by Kia nationally. I feel Kia needs to take responsibility and fix this issue for the us consumers who have spent their hard earned money on their product. I don't feel that I as a consumer am being treated fairly by this company. I feel the product and quality is subpar and that corners were cut to create a better bottom line for the corporation. Kia needs to do better. You need to do a national recall on all white Kia Sorentos with this paint delamination issue and repaint the whole vehicle correctly.
The driver's side front door will not open from the outside. I have found a lot of forums on the internet where a lot of other people are having this problem. What if it were to happen to all 4 doors with a kid in the car?
Doors on recently bough Sorento will not open from inside or outside. This is a common problem and yet Kia has failed to issue a recall and that leaves consumers stuck with repair costs not covered under warranties.
I was leaving my mom house around ten O'clock at night. As I was five minutes away from my apartments my car made a loud sound and started to slow down. I stop my car and put it un park and I seen smoke coming from inside the hood. I get out the car and grab my son and, I knock on someone's door for help and after that fire starts. I call the fire department and they came in about 3-5 minutes and they forced my hood open due to my hood latch missing. After the fire was put out I found pieces of metal on the ground from my Kia.
The right rear passenger door has locked it's self shut for no apparent reason and the Kia dealership has stated that it's a senser that's going to cost $300 to get it open
Please be advised this is in addition to the fuel tank corrosion previously reported. The underside of the vehicle is eaten up with rust. It is affecting the unit body as well as several structural members of the vehicle. Have spoken with Kia and they refuse to do anything about it. I feel that this is a serious issue as it is affecting the entire structural integrity of the vehicle.
The contact owns a 2011 Kia Sorento. The contact stated the driver's side door failed to open from the outside and was difficult to open from inside the vehicle. There were no warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was not repaired. The local dealer and manufacturer were not contacted or informed of the failure. The failure mileage was 91,000.
I was driving 35mph on a 40mph straight road from my grocery store to my home. Halfway into my drive, the hood of my car unlatched and smacked into my windshield. It did not fall back down it stayed covering the windshield and I was unable to see. I was able to pull into a business by looking through the bottom where the hood curves. After pulling over I pushed the hood down to assess the damage. The car was unable to drive without using a bungee to secure the hood. I then drove home going roughly 15mph behind a friend driving in front of me. I am unsure of the last time my hood was manually opened. Roughly 3-4 weeks ago I took my Kia into the dealership due to a letter I received to fix an airbag recall/warranty. I am assuming they opened the hood during this fix but not certain. I have filed a claim with my insurance and currently have my Kia at a collision body shop through the dealership. Attached is the estimate is given by the insurance based on the photos I gave them. The body shop assessed damage to my roof as well but I do not have their estimate.
The driver side door on my 2011 Kia Sorento LX will not open. If the key fob is pressed and all the other doors open, that door will not open. I checked the child proof lock to see if it was engaged oh, it was not. A mere couple of days, perhaps a week prior to finding this problem oh, I had the recall fixed on passenger side front door due to the same problem. However, I was informed by both the lou fusz Kia service department in St louis and Consumer Affairs Kia that there were not any recalls with rear door locks.
Drivers side door will not open from the outside. I must either enter the vehicle from another door & crawl into the drivers seat, reach in through the window if it's down (winter is approaching...it wont be down) or reach in from the drivers side passenger door & open the drivers side door. The vehicle was parked (obviously). Door was not previously slammed shut prior to this occurring.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Midland, GA, USA