No-start or intermittent start failure on the 2014 Kia Sorento
2 crashes 1 injury 3 of the 37 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 no-start or intermittent start failure gets reported
Owners of the 2014 Kia Sorento report no-start or intermittent start failure at a median of 80,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 15,000 miles and a quarter after 95,000 miles, from 30 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 8th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 7,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 112,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 105,580 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
33% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6,720 miles | 13,871 miles | 79,250 miles | 94,000 miles | 112,300 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, 2 a crash and 1 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 $200–$1,800 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 13 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2012, at a median of 30,000 miles, and latest on the 2003 at 175,000 miles.
By volume the 2011 carries the most reports, with 42; the 2014 has 37. 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.
Since buying the 2014 kia fwd 4-cyl vehicle, I have had about 5 instances where the car would not start after I pressed the brake pedal and then the ignition switch. Kia and hyundai had brake switch issues in models circa 2011 and earlier, but I could not find anything about whether kia fixed the problem in subsequent model years. During my incidents I have repeated the above steps trying to start the non-responsive vehicle until it inexplicably started up; took over 10 re-tries each time this problem occurred. I am taking the vehicle into the dealer on monday 11/4/13 asking them to fix the problem. *tr
Since buying the 2014 kia fwd 4-cyl vehicle, I have had about 5 instances where the car would not start after I pressed the brake pedal and then the ignition switch. Kia and hyundai had brake switch issues in models circa 2011 and earlier, but I could not find anything about whether kia fixed the problem in subsequent model years. During my incidents I have repeated the above steps trying to start the non-responsive vehicle until it inexplicably started up; took over 10 re-tries each time this problem occurred. I am taking the vehicle into the dealer on monday 11/4/13 asking them to fix the problem. *tr
Aug 5 2014 was driving home engine just stopped, which makes braking and steering very difficult. Got engine started after a few tries ,drove home without further incident. Called kia, had towed to local dealer. Dealer could not find any codes or problems. Mileage 9500. On jan 7 2015 car would not start in parking lot at work. Managed to get started, drove 500 yards and engine quit at a stop light. Restarted engine, started up a hill and after 500 yards or so engine quit again. Restarted again continued home without incident. On jan 7 2015 left work, engine quit again. Restarted and continued on. After 8 miles engine quit while traveling up a slope on snow covered road. Car slid backwards into a ditch. Restarted again, pulled the car from ditch, continued on. After a mile, engine quit again. Restarted and continued home without incident . Mileage 14000. Called kia upon arriving home. They arranged a loaner car for us and we took sorento to local dealer again. Dealer put 30 miles on car without incident and checked computer for codes. None found. Kia engineering instructed them to check all grounds. No problems found. Kia…
Also reported on the 2014 Kia Sorento
Other engine problem
Other body or interior problem
Paint peeling or clear coat failure
Other electrical problem
Other brake problem
Other lighting problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 37 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 no-start or intermittent start failure happen on the 2014 Kia Sorento?
Across 30 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 80,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 15,000 miles and a quarter after 95,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is no-start or intermittent start failure on the 2014 Kia Sorento?
37 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