Unclassified problem on the 2003 Kia Spectra
6 crashes 4 injuries 10 of the 13 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.
Only 8 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When unclassified problem gets reported
Owners of the 2003 Kia Spectra report unclassified problem at a median of 25,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 20,000 miles and a quarter after 75,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.
It is the 38th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 1,400 miles at the tenth percentile to 85,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 85,549 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.
63% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,414 miles | 17,750 miles | 25,500 miles | 73,739 miles | 86,963 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 a crash and 4 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.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 9 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2004, at a median of 25,000 miles, and latest on the 2007 at 100,000 miles.
By volume the 2009 carries the most reports, with 41; the 2003 has 13. 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.
Posess a 2003 kia spectra gt that was involved in a rear end collision. Only one person in the vehicle but both air bags deployed. Airbag broke windshield as well as side casing that held the seat belts in place. I am concerned about this and want to know if this is a normal occurrence in this vehicle or any vehicle for that matter? Pieces of the interior of the vehicle shattered and scattered throughout the vehicle and could have caused harm to anyone they contacted. Please advise. *jb
Dt: 2003 kia spectra. The car has been in 2 accidents and the airbags did not deploy. During the first accidentconsumer's vehicle was cut off by someone in front. In turn a SUV hit consumer's vehicle on the rear passenger's side. During the second accident consumer's vehicle rear ended a car in fron. This was a front to rear collision at 25 t-30 miles MPH. There was injuries in the second accident. A police report was taken. Also, there there was a problem with oil circulation. Ithe consumer was told by the dealership that the oil sending unit was not working properly. *ak
Dt: 2003 kia spectra. The consumer stated when turning the vehicle was hit on the front driver's side by the wheel. The vehicle was hit so hard that the bumper came off and pushed the engine and hood up. The fireman said the air bags should have deployed. The vehicle spun around twice. This broke the rear axle on the driver's side. The vehicle ended up six feet from where the accident occurred. The consumer's back was sore for a few weeks. A police report taken. The insurance company totaled the vehicle and has not been inspected to see why the airbags did not deploy. *ak *nm
Also reported on the 2003 Kia Spectra
Other body or interior problem
Other brake problem
Other engine problem
Other powertrain problem
Wiper or washer failure
Other lighting problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 13 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 13 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 unclassified problem happen on the 2003 Kia Spectra?
Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 25,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 20,000 miles and a quarter after 75,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is unclassified problem on the 2003 Kia Spectra?
13 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.9 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