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.
2011 Kia Sorento 116,000. Regularly maintained.the first problem was the driver side back door will not open from the outside, that happened about 6 months ago. Now, my driver side door won't open from the outside. In addition, recently my car has just shut off while driving; foot on the gas at it is not doing anything (no engine light). We park it, shut it off and restart and it will work fine for a while. There is some sort of acceleration problem. I can stop at stop sign and lightly increase my speed and it will tug like engine. No accidents. This is a huge safety concern with having 2 small children in the back seat. If I were in an accident, I would not be able to get my child out of the back. If I was in accident, someone couldn't help me or my children. This to me is very serious! Sept 2017 date of back door issue not opening from outside. 3/22/18 drivers door not opening from outside. Car shutting off and not working properly as been since about Jan/2018. There is something wrong with headlights too. Since 1/2017, bulbs are good but they just work for a while and then one or the other stops working out of nowhere.
Passenger door front and rear don't open from the outside or inside. Safety concern if we are in an accident and can't get out. This was noticed about 2 months ago.
Door latches -both back doors will not open from the outside, 1 will not open at all. Now the drivers door will not open from the outside. Its very dangerous and the car just passed the 100K miles so warranty is useless. There was a recall that replaced the inside door handles for cosmetic reasons on the front, there is obviously a bigger problems. My local body shop couldn't even figure it out and told me to go to dealer who is trying to charge me $110 just to diagnose it. It should be recalled for safety reasons.
Takata recall the driver's side back door will not open from the outside. This same problem occurred with the driver's side front door and this was repaired by Kia as there was a recall.
One day we went to open the driver side back door from the outside and it no longer opened. There was no damage done to the door it just stopped working. When I contacted Kia they didnt see it as being a safety issue. In my eyes it S ahuge issue if my girls and I were in a wreck and safety crews wouldnt be able to open the door from the outside!
In Sept 2017 the back driver's side door stopped opening from the outside. Now, Jan 2018 the drivers door will not open from the outside. Both doors open perfect from the inside.
My drivers side back door won't open from the outside or inside(this is my current issue with the car). I have been in no accidents with this car. I had trouble with my driver's door would not open last year and that was under recall and repaired. Both issues just started all of a sudden.
My front driver and rear driver door will not unlock from the outside. This happened about 6 months ago and have read it's a known issue. I it first happened to the driver door then about a month later the the back driver doir
The contact owns a 2011 Kia Sorento. The contact stated that the door handle was loose. The contact took the vehicle to Kia of greenville (424 laurens rd, greenville, SC)where the front driver and passenger door handles were replaced per a customer satisfaction campaign. The vehicle was repaired; however, the rear passenger door handle experienced the same issue. The manufacturer was not notified of the failures. The failure mileage was approximately 130,000.
I am unable to open my drivers side rear door from the outside. This seems to be quite a prevelent problem on several Kia models. I have seen that many people have had the same problem. Some with multiple doors on the same vehicle. This is a sfety issue as you can't quickly get into the vehicle to if you had small children in the back and ther was an emergency or if first responders needed access to the back or any door that had this problem for that matter. The reason I am reporting this is that I have seen too many people with this issue on there Kia Sorentos and other models.
Driver's side door handle malfunctioned. Can unlock door with key or key fob, but door will not open. Have to climb into back seat to manually open driver's side door. This is a safety issue! completely ridiculous to have to do when it's raining, or when needing to enter the car quickly. I'm reading online that it is a faulty actuator switch. Dealers are charging up to $500 to fix. This needs to be a recall from the manufacturer. Not bragging about my Kia anymore.
Left rear door will not open by door handles inside or outside even with the door unlocked if kids are in the car it is a safety hazard sitting still when it first happened
The passenger side door handle completely fell off in my hand when I attempted to open the door to get my grandchild out of the car. The car handled was defective and my grandchild remained in a car in extreme heat while I tried to get into the car another way. I crawled over the driver's set and pushed the door open from the inside to be able to pull the child out. I should not have to crawl around in my car to get a minor out of it. Nor should anyone be exposed to Texas heat for any amount of time due to car failure. Called Kia customer center and was told to take car to be evaluated at a dealership near me - they chose. The service area didn't even look at the car -- saw the car handle I brought in and said 'well why you bringing it in. It's broke. I can tell that by looking at it." He said he would open a work order that day. No response, I called Kia and they called this person who said he was just then writing up the order. Weeks later I called Kia customer service and I was told that some sales manager (no name, would not provide phone number) had denied covering the repair of the part. I told the Kia service to appeal it -- this plastic part is on the passenger side of my car. For 6 years, this car has been used by me exclusively M-F to an from work. Once in awhile on the weekends, I take a grandchild to an event or sometimes I have carried husband to ymca.. if the part failed due to use, the drivers side handle should have failed. I looked online after learning from Kia that there would not be a recall on this issue. I saw hundreds of people in the same situation I was in - warranty didn't cover it since it was over 70,000 miles. The 'fix' repair is over $500. I saw that a class action is being discussed. Since it is always the passenger door handle that fails for 2011 Kia, it is obviously due to Kia using a substandard part.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Mesquite, TX, USA