Unclassified problem on the 2007 Kia Spectra
5 crashes 3 injuries 8 of the 32 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 25 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 2007 Kia Spectra report unclassified problem at a median of 100,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 70,000 miles and a quarter after 130,000 miles, from 25 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 15,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 152,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 136,370 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15,800 miles | 69,000 miles | 99,000 miles | 130,000 miles | 152,170 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, 5 a crash and 3 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 2007 has 32. 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 rented a 2007 kia spectra. The contact stated that the front and rear passenger side air bags deployed without warning when the key was placed in the ignition. The driver suffered hearing loss in the left ear, whiplash in the neck, and a cut on the arm. The rear passenger was a nine year old child who suffered head injuries. The VIN, engine size, number of cylinders, and purchase date were unavailable. The current and failure mileages were 29,000.
We bought this car brand new. From day one the front air bag will turn off when I sit in the passenger seat. I am well above the weight minimum at around 140 lbs. And am 5'2". The only way that I can keep the airbag on is to roll up a towel and put that in center of seat when I sit. This is very uncomfortable though. I complained and complained to the dealer. I even offered to have them see how I was sitting as they kept saying it was something that I was doing. But never would fix it. I don't want this to happen when a passenger is in the seat if we were to have an accident. Bought the car for the safety features and this one doesn't even work. Kia should be made to fix this! *tr
I was traveling on the highway and fell asleep behind the wheel. I was told that during the time of me falling asleep I was traveling around 90 miles and hour. I suddenly woke up to a sign saying to get over to the next lane due to a sweeper truck cleaning the highway. I remember slowing down all of a sudden and hearing my tires making a loud noise. According to the police report I hit the drivers side fender and my car began spinning around to only be cut of my car with the jaws of life, then being life flighted to the nearest hospital. None of my airbags deployed in the vehicle. My steering wheel ended up sitting on my armrest and my dashboard ended shifting forward towards me with the left side of my dashboard completely falling on my leg. I wanted to share my info with someone so kia can check into these faulty issues. *tr
Also reported on the 2007 Kia Spectra
Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other body or interior problem
Other fuel system problem
Seat belt or retractor failure
Airbag failed to deploy in a crash
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 32 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 32 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 2007 Kia Spectra?
Across 25 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 100,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 70,000 miles and a quarter after 130,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is unclassified problem on the 2007 Kia Spectra?
32 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 2.2 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