Other powertrain problem on the 2016 Kia Sorento
4 crashes 2 fires 6 of the 68 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 powertrain problem gets reported
Owners of the 2016 Kia Sorento report other powertrain problem at a median of 50,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 20,000 miles and a quarter after 97,500 miles, from 25 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 10,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 150,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 141,848 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.
40% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9,400 miles | 19,509 miles | 50,000 miles | 97,000 miles | 151,248 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, 4 a crash and 2 a fire 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 $400–$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 21 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 2,100 miles, and latest on the 2005 at 95,000 miles.
By volume the 2011 carries the most reports, with 169; the 2016 has 68. 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.
Tl* the contact owns a 2016 kia sorento. After parking the vehicle on an incline, the driver exited the vehicle. Approximately 15 minutes later, the vehicle began to roll down the hill and crashed into several trees. A police report was filed and there were no injuries. The cause of the failure was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified. The VIN was not available. The failure mileage was 1,000.
You can shift the car from park to reverse/drive without putting enough pressure on the brake peddle to actually engage the brake pads to the brake rotors. If you aren't pay attention to how hard you are pressing on the brake peddle, the call will start to move at a normal speed. I have taken the car to two kia dealerships and I have been told this is normal and safe. I feel that this is a huge safety issue. One dealership even checked other 2016 sorentos on the lot and it was the same for them as well. This happens every day.
Tl* the contact owns a 2016 kia sorento. The contact stated that the vehicle could be shut off while it was engaged in any gear. On several occasions, the contact shut off the vehicle without it being parked and the vehicle rolled away. The last time the failure occurred, the contact fell to the ground while attempting to get in the vehicle. The contact was able to get up and stop the vehicle before it crashed. The dealer stated that the vehicle did not come equipped with a gear shift interlock. The failure mileage was 10,300.
Also reported on the 2016 Kia Sorento
Other engine problem
Excessive oil consumption
Head gasket failure
Other body or interior problem
Other electrical problem
Complete engine failure or seizure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 68 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 powertrain problem happen on the 2016 Kia Sorento?
Across 25 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 50,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 20,000 miles and a quarter after 97,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other powertrain problem on the 2016 Kia Sorento?
68 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 4.8 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