Other speed control problem on the 2012 Kia Forte
3 crashes 2 injuries 5 of the 12 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When other speed control problem gets reported
Owners of the 2012 Kia Forte report other speed control problem at a median of 20,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 15,000 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles, from 10 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 78,000 miles. It is the 6th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 900 miles at the tenth percentile to 120,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 121,493 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
60% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 907 miles | 15,250 miles | 21,280 miles | 83,750 miles | 122,400 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 3 a crash and 2 an injury are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $250–$2,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 10 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2020, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2014 at 145,000 miles.
By volume the 2016 carries the most reports, with 14; the 2012 has 12. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
I was backing out of a driveway approx. 3 feet when the car lurched backwards at full RPM while the brakes were applied and the gas pedal went all the way to the floorboard. The only way I could get the car to stop was to turn off the ignition. It was like the brakes weren't working and the throttle was stuck. This "problem" caused damage to a support beam of a carport causing it to fail and fall on a car parked underneath. I know there are similar complaints such as this on this exact car, why hasn't there been any investigations and/or recalls on this car? This is a very unsafe car. By the way, this was a rental car and no one wants to take responsibility. *tr
300 miles after complaining to dealer of slipping floor mat stopping braking and random high acceleration-a real accident occurred against a barrier in a parking garage. Mats flip far more that audi and toyota recalls. Entire car damaged by previous acceleration(random) or brakes not working due to mats. The parking garage incident occurred at 15 MPH and square head on to cement barrier severely damaging bumper, hood, fenders, grill, headlights and interior engine. I injured both arms and skin abrasions on chest-due to airbag not deploying-similar to recent recalls. Dealer response was that floor mats always give away from wear and tear at 17k miles without warning-causing me near fatal other accidents. *tr
Driving in a shopping center parking lot. Made a right turn into an alley. Vehicle then rapidly accelerated through the alley and then smashed into a tree. Can't remember if brakes were applied or not. It all happened very quickly. Kia forte was totaled and driver was hospitalized with extensive injuries (foot broken, hand broken, vertebrae damage) hospitalized approx. 5 days and nursing home approx. 10 days. Last visit to surgeon for smashed foot (to remove metal pins) was in april of 2013. Accident report on file with cape coral police (agency case number [xxx]) information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6). *tr
Also reported on the 2012 Kia Forte
Other engine problem
Other brake problem
Other electrical problem
Complete engine failure or seizure
Tail light, brake light or signal failure
Engine knock or bearing noise
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 12 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other speed control problem happen on the 2012 Kia Forte?
Across 10 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 20,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 15,000 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other speed control problem on the 2012 Kia Forte?
12 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed