Sunroof failure or glass breakage on the 2012 Kia Sorento
6 injuries 6 of the 34 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 sunroof failure or glass breakage gets reported
Owners of the 2012 Kia Sorento report sunroof failure or glass breakage at a median of 57,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 77,500 miles, from 25 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 78,000 miles. It is the 9th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 27,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 95,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 67,342 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.
16% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28,658 miles | 44,000 miles | 58,000 miles | 78,500 miles | 96,000 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, 6 an injury is 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 $700–$4,500 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.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 10 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2014, at a median of 20,000 miles, and latest on the 2015 at 75,000 miles.
By volume the 2012 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
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.
Tl* the contact owns a 2012 kia sorento. The contact stated that while driving 55 MPH, the sunroof exploded. The contact stated that nothing hit the glass to cause it to fracture. The vehicle was taken to the dealer for inspection where they stated that they could not diagnose the cause of failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 24,000. The vine was unavailable. Updated 01/08/14*lj the consumer suffered a cut from the glass. Updated 01/09/14
This past friday at about 2 pm I was driving my 2012 kia sorento down highway 50 when suddenly and for no apparent reason my sunroof violently exploded. I pulled over immediately because I wasn't sure at that moment what had actually happened. When I climbed up to look I found that the front portion of my panoramic sunroof was completely shattered. I looked through the glass but found no rock or any other kind of object that may have caused this to happen. Fortunately the sunroof shade was closed otherwise I would have been covered in glass. I called the kia service dept. Where I had bought the vehicle and spoke with the service mgr. I explained to him what had happened and he told me a rock must have flown up and hit it. Now I find that highly unlikely. It was a beautiful day, 57 degrees and visibility was great. I was on an open stretch of road doing about 50 miles per hour. There wasn't any buildings on either side of road and only a few cars scattered in front and behind me. I?m pretty focused when I drive so I think if something would have flown up in front of me that could have come down and smashed my sunroof in I?m almost…
The moonroof (stationary sunroof that does not open) over the 2nd row seat exploded spontaneously. There was no impact from a rock or any other debris. There was a loud explosion sound like a gunshot sound and glass shot out the top and fell down into the car. It fractured into thousands of pieces...updated 04-29-14 *bf
Also reported on the 2012 Kia Sorento
Other engine problem
Other brake problem
Other electrical problem
Complete engine failure or seizure
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Headlight failure or clouding
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 34 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 sunroof failure or glass breakage happen on the 2012 Kia Sorento?
Across 25 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 57,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 77,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is sunroof failure or glass breakage on the 2012 Kia Sorento?
34 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 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