MOT Risk Index.co.uk

Kia Sorento — MOT statistics 2024

The Kia Sorento failed 29.7% of 36,420 first MOT attempts in 2024 ("first-time", excluding retests). Adjusted for the age of the fleet, its initial-failure ratio is 106.1 (100 = expected for its age profile). This car fails its MOT about 6% more often than expected for its age.

MOT risk index 106.1, 95% CI 104.4–107.8 (100 = national average) 100 106.1 0 200
Index
106.1
100 = age-normal
Raw fail rate
29.7%
n = 36,420
Dangerous /100
14
national ≈11
Rank
525 of 761
lower index = better

Age-adjusted peer: Nissan Micra (index 106.0) — the two published results are 0.1 index points apart.

Kia Sorento common problems: what actually fails the MOT

Brakes stand out at 21.6 per 100 tests, against 11.6 per 100 tests across UK vehicles of the same ages.

higher bar = fails more oftenrate per 100 tests

Kia Sorento common problems: what actually fails the MOT — 2024 UK MOT data

family vs national — matched to UK vehicles of the same ages — top component groups, per 100 tests. Legend: This family · National avg. Combined labels: family / national average. A gap here reflects how these vehicles are driven, used and maintained as well as how they were built — an MOT defect is a test outcome, not a breakdown.

Component-group comparison table

Each ratio carries a 95% interval. With 6 groups compared here, roughly one apparent difference in twenty is chance alone.

GroupThis familyCases behind itUK, same agesFamily / national
Brakes21.648,68611.61.86×1.84–1.88
Lamps & electrical19.744,43417.81.11×1.10–1.12
Suspension18.842,26115.41.22×1.21–1.23
Body & structure8.519,1085.51.56×1.54–1.58
Tyres7.917,7859.00.88×0.87–0.89
Visibility7.617,0677.90.96×0.94–0.97
Named defects — items per 100 initial tests, this family vs UK national average; this model measured on 225,097 tests, 2019-2024, national column 2024
What failedper 100 tests (this family)per 100 tests (UK average)ratio family / UKWhat to check
Suspension pin, bush or joint excessively wornA suspension pin, bush or joint excessively worn9.704.871.99×Listen for knocks over bumps — worn joints show up on the test
Body, cab or chassis excessively corroded at a…Body, cab or chassis excessively corroded at a mounting point2.680.2610.35×Look underneath for rust or cracks around subframe and suspension mountings
Brake pipe damaged or excessively corrodedBrake pipe damaged or excessively corroded3.781.412.69×Look underneath for rust or cracks around subframe and suspension mountings
Parking brake efficiency below minimum requirementParking brake efficiency below minimum requirement3.501.242.82×Feel for brake judder and pulling on the test drive
Steering ball joint with excessive wear or free playA steering ball joint with excessive wear or free play3.471.222.84×Ask the seller about: A steering ball joint with excessive wear or free play
Brake lining or pad worn below 1.5mma brake lining or pad worn below 1.5mm3.692.151.72×Feel for brake judder and pulling on the test drive
Strength or continuity of the load bearing…The strength or continuity of the load bearing structure within 30cm of any sub-frame, spring or suspension component mounting (a 'prescribed area') is significantly reduced or inadequately repaired2.561.122.29×Look underneath for rust or cracks around subframe and suspension mountings
Aim of a headlamp is not within limits laid down…The aim of a headlamp is not within limits laid down in the requirements2.932.571.14×Try every light and switch — lamps are a top failure
Rear registration plate lamp or light source…A rear registration plate lamp or light source missing or inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources2.982.831.05×Try every light and switch — lamps are a top failure
Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the…Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the requirements3.713.591.03×Check tyre tread depth across the full width

Named defects ranked by how much more often they appear than the national average — not by raw rate.

Kia Sorento MOT advisories: what gets flagged

Brakes are highest at 45.4 per 100 tests; Body & structure are lowest at 6.3 per 100 tests — the gap is 39.1 per 100 tests.

higher bar = flagged more oftenadvisory items per 100 initial tests

Kia Sorento MOT advisories: what gets flagged — 2024 UK MOT data
Advisory rates table
GroupAdvisories per 100
Brakes45.4
Tyres39.7
Suspension31.4
Non-component advisories10.6
Emissions & leaks6.4
Body & structure6.3

Advisories are wear the tester noted but didn't fail — what will need money soon.

Tyres, brakes and suspension: Kia Sorento against cars of the same age

AgePartKia SorentoSame age, petrol and dieselDifference
3 yearsTyres3.974.17-0.20
3 yearsBrakes2.241.770.47
3 yearsSuspension1.250.630.62
4 yearsTyres4.734.540.19
4 yearsBrakes3.492.431.06
4 yearsSuspension2.331.211.12
5 yearsTyres5.055.06-0.01
5 yearsBrakes4.133.091.04
5 yearsSuspension2.792.190.60
6 yearsTyres5.025.54-0.52
6 yearsBrakes4.753.810.94
6 yearsSuspension3.63.72-0.12
7 yearsTyres5.335.95-0.62
7 yearsBrakes5.644.551.09
7 yearsSuspension5.355.68-0.33
8 yearsTyres5.936.31-0.38
8 yearsBrakes7.095.381.71
8 yearsSuspension7.397.78-0.39

Failing items per 100 initial tests, 2019-2024. The comparison group is every petrol or diesel car tested at the same age, so weight and drivetrain show up rather than fleet age.

If a car like this fails, does it fail again?

A failure rate does not say whether a failure is a one-off or the start of something. This follows the same vehicles into their next ordinary MOT a year later — retests after a repair are excluded, because they follow a failure by definition. 2019-2024.

After this year's testFails next yearVehicles followed
It failed34.1%13,946
It passed26.7%115,556

A failed test raises next year's chance of failing again by 7.4 percentage points. The failure most likely to come back is lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment — 33.3% of those vehicles fail again next year. Some of this is the vehicle and some is the owner: a car that was let go once tends to be let go again. One caveat: a car that fails may be sold or scrapped rather than tested again, so these figures describe the vehicles that came back.

Adjusted for how much these are actually driven

The headline index adjusts for the fleet's age. Wear, though, follows mileage: a three-year-old taxi and a three-year-old garage queen sit in the same age band. These two rows compare every car with vehicles of the same age, and then with vehicles of the same age and the same annual mileage, 2019-2024, on 224,077 tests. Both stand on the six-year corpus so they are measured on identical data — compare them with each other, not with the headline index above, which is measured on 2024 alone.

Standardised forIndexReading
Age only107.6fails more often than expected
Age and annual mileage102.6fails more often than vehicles driven as much
Share doing under 3,000 miles a year1.5%a normal spread of use

Mileage matters here: matching on how much these are driven moves the figure by 5.0 points — this fleet works harder than the vehicles it is measured against, so the age-only view penalises it — but it does not change which side of normal the car sits on. One limit to keep in mind: mileage is partly a result of how often a car breaks down — one that spends weeks in the workshop covers fewer miles — so the mileage-matched figure can understate a real weakness. Tests with no usable odometer reading are left out of it.

How the Kia Sorento compares with cars of its own age and size

Not against the whole fleet — against cars of the same size class tested at the same age, 2019-2024.

AgeKia SorentoSame class, same ageDifferenceTests
3 years13.43%10.74%+2.69 pp16,357
4 years15.88%12.29%+3.58 pp17,140
5 years17.65%14.11%+3.54 pp18,806
6 years19.83%16.03%+3.8 pp18,248
7 years22.82%18.18%+4.64 pp17,560
8 years26.72%20.45%+6.27 pp16,230
9 years31.26%22.97%+8.29 pp15,243
10 years36.12%25.45%+10.67 pp13,066
11 years40.15%28.07%+12.08 pp11,594
12 years42.31%30.41%+11.91 pp11,743
13 years45.1%32.44%+12.66 pp13,847
14 years47.5%34.38%+13.12 pp14,447
15 years49.58%35.83%+13.76 pp13,648
16 years50.83%36.91%+13.92 pp10,998
17 years50.05%37.34%+12.71 pp7,557
18 years49.81%37.75%+12.06 pp4,654
19 years49.44%37.39%+12.05 pp2,055
20 years50.59%36.93%+13.65 pp769

Raw first-time failure rates within each age, so fleet age cannot flatter either side. A positive difference means this model fails more often than its own class at that age.

How does the Kia Sorento perform as it gets older?

The Sorento at age 20 stands out at 50.7%, against 41.0% for all vehicles of the same age.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

How does the Kia Sorento perform as it gets older? — 2024 UK MOT data

Chart axes: car age, years · failure-rate scale 0–55%.

Takeaway: a 10-year-old Sorento has roughly a 32% chance of failing its MOT; from about age 10 it stays above the national age curve.

Data table
AgeKia SorentoAll vehiclesGap
313.2%12.4%+0.8 pp
415.0%13.1%+1.9 pp
515.6%15.1%+0.5 pp
617.1%17.5%-0.4 pp
719.0%20.2%-1.2 pp
823.2%23.3%-0.2 pp
926.0%26.5%-0.5 pp
1031.8%30.1%+1.7 pp
1137.3%33.2%+4.1 pp
1240.8%35.7%+5.1 pp
1342.1%38.2%+4.0 pp
1444.0%40.4%+3.6 pp
1544.1%41.6%+2.5 pp
1646.5%43.1%+3.4 pp
1746.9%43.1%+3.8 pp
1848.9%43.9%+5.1 pp
1946.6%43.5%+3.1 pp
2050.7%41.0%+9.7 pp

Is a Kia Sorento ULEZ compliant?

The share of classifiable 2024 Kia Sorento MOT tests likely ULEZ compliant by first-registration date is 47.3%.

Based on 36,368 classifiable initial MOT tests. This describes the tested fleet, not a specific car. MOT data do not record Euro class, so likely compliance is inferred from fuel and first-registration date. For the only authoritative answer, check the registration with TfL's official ULEZ checker.

higher = larger share likely compliantinferred from fuel and first-registration date; not a recorded Euro class

Age-band estimate from classifiable initial MOT tests
Vehicle age at testLikely ULEZ-compliant shareTests
Under 3 yearsSuppressed — sample below publication threshold
Check a registration with TfL
n = 245
3–5 years100.0%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 6,316
6–7 years100.0%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 5,838
8 years100.0%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 3,132
9 years40.8%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 3,980
10–14 years0.3%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 10,251
15–17 years0.5%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 3,306
18 years0.6%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 1,711
19 years0.0%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 905
20+ years0.0%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 684

Kia Sorento diesel vs hybrid: which ages best

Diesel is highest at 31.0%; Hybrid is lowest at 13.3% — the gap is 17.7 percentage points.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Kia Sorento diesel vs hybrid: which ages best — 2024 UK MOT data
Fuel split table
FuelTests% failingGap vs best
Diesel33,57331.0%+17.7 pp
Hybrid2,65013.3%+0.0 pp

Chart sample sizes: n=34k · n=2,650.

How dangerous are Kia Sorento MOT failures?

Major defects stand out at 69.1 per 100 tests, against 52.8 per 100 tests nationally.

higher bar = fails more oftenrate per 100 tests

How dangerous are Kia Sorento MOT failures? — 2024 UK MOT data
Severity table
SeverityThis family /100National /100Family / national
Minor12.9914.220.91×
Major69.0952.751.31×
Dangerous14.4311.151.29×

Chart values: Minor 13.0 · Major 69.1 · Dangerous 14.4.

Per 100 tests on this family. National average: Minor 14.2 · Major 52.8 · Dangerous 11.2 per 100.

Does the month of a Kia Sorento MOT matter?

Jan is highest at 34.1%; Sep is lowest at 29.8% — the gap is 4.4 percentage points.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Does the month of a Kia Sorento MOT matter? — 2024 UK MOT data

Chart scale: 27%–36%.

bars: Kia Sorento · dashed: all class-4 cars

Month-by-month table
MonthKia SorentoAll vehiclesGap
Jan34.13%31.12%+3.0 pp
Feb33.36%29.99%+3.4 pp
Mar31.02%28.26%+2.8 pp
Apr33.59%29.78%+3.8 pp
May31.12%28.79%+2.3 pp
Jun31.21%28.15%+3.1 pp
Jul32.11%29.33%+2.8 pp
Aug31.95%29.2%+2.8 pp
Sep29.76%28.19%+1.6 pp
Oct33.68%30.34%+3.3 pp
Nov33.62%30.58%+3.0 pp
Dec30.98%29.33%+1.7 pp

Takeaway: the spread between best and worst month is 4.4 percentage points — noticeable seasonality. Seasonality partly reflects registration-date clustering, not weather.

Before reading the shape: most of it is not about cars. Britain changes its registration plates twice a year, and 18.9% of these cars were first registered in March with another17.1% in September — 36% in two months against the 17% an even spread would give. An MOT falls due three years after first registration, so the buying calendar becomes the testing calendar. That shapes how many cars are tested each month — not how often they fail: the busiest months here are not the worst ones, so read the failure line on its own and the volume behind it separately.

Kia Sorento average mileage by age

At age 8, the middle half of Sorentos runs from 54,241 miles to 86,620 miles, against 68,976 miles as the median.

further right = more milesmedian is the typical car; band is p25–p75

Bars: Kia Sorento · dashed: all class-4 cars — 2024 UK MOT data

Chart axes: car age, years · odometer scale 0–144k mi.

Does high mileage mean more Kia Sorento MOT failures at the same age?

Within the same age group, split by odometer (2024 MOTs), so this separates wear from age: at ages 6–9, 12.7% of those with under 40,000 miles failed first time versus 41.7% of those with over 140,000 miles.Inside this age group, higher mileage goes with more failures.

Does high mileage mean more Kia Sorento MOT failures at the same age? — 2024 UK MOT data
Kia Sorento: first-time failure by mileage within each age group (2024)
AgeOdometer% failing95% intervalTests
3–5<40k miles13.1%12.1–14.2%4,087
3–540-70k miles17.4%15.8–19.1%1,981
3–570-100k miles16.7%12.3–22.2%216 (rough estimate)
6–9<40k miles12.7%11.2–14.4%1,672
6–940-70k miles19.2%18.3–20.3%5,824
6–970-100k miles25.4%24–26.7%3,988
6–9100-140k miles30.8%28.4–33.4%1,284
6–9140k+ miles41.7%34.7–49%180 (rough estimate)
10–14<40k miles18.5%14.1–24%232 (rough estimate)
10–1440-70k miles26.7%24.6–28.9%1,646
10–1470-100k miles35.7%34.1–37.3%3,466
10–14100-140k miles44%42.4–45.6%3,784
10–14140k+ miles48.3%45.3–51.2%1,121
15+<40k miles19.6%11.3–31.8%56 (rough estimate)
15+40-70k miles34.1%30.3–38.3%536
15+70-100k miles43.6%41.2–45.9%1,738
15+100-140k miles50.4%48.7–52.2%3,136
15+140k+ miles51.3%48.4–54.2%1,140

line: median · band: middle half of the fleet (p25–p75)

Mileage by age (p25 / median / p75)
Agep25Medianp75Tests
320,98727,93536,8942,363
425,03633,73442,6821,185
531,06340,51151,8692,768
638,74050,85264,8742,739
746,87860,02674,3033,099
854,24168,97686,6203,132
961,80577,58895,9113,980
1065,70983,968104,9562,886
1174,55094,349115,7992,108
1282,613102,347122,9081,878
1388,142106,746129,1131,599
1492,958111,781131,6931,780
1585,821104,393123,7031,237
1687,227107,120125,998897
1793,601112,497130,3001,172
1894,005114,756135,9321,715
1992,713113,868135,056907
20+96,360115,281137,559686

A typical 8-year-old Sorento has ~68,976 miles on the clock. Much more — ask why; much less — check for gaps in the MOT history.

Where in Britain the Kia Sorento fails its MOT most

Llandrindod Wells area is highest at 45.3%; Ilford area is lowest at 19.8% — the gap is 25.5 percentage points.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Where in Britain the Kia Sorento fails its MOT most — 2024 UK MOT data
Toughest areas% failingvs model overall
Llandrindod Wells (LD)45.27%+13.1 pp
Exeter (EX)44.68%+12.5 pp
Truro (TR)43.97%+11.8 pp
Plymouth (PL)43.51%+11.3 pp
Torquay (TQ)41.57%+9.4 pp
Easiest areas% failingvs model overall
Ilford (IG)19.75%-12.4 pp
Enfield (EN)19.76%-12.4 pp
London E (E)20.53%-11.7 pp
Kingston upon Thames (KT)20.65%-11.5 pp
Romford (RM)20.7%-11.5 pp

Why do areas differ?

For each external factor we correlate the area fail rate with the factor across postcode areas that have ≥800 tests of this family, then compare the bottom vs top fifth (quintile) of the factor. Correlation, not causation — factors travel together (the north is colder and often poorer; urban areas are denser and less salted). Road surface condition is joined now, for the 91 English areas the DfT publishes, and it explains nothing: the correlation with suspension failures is −0.01 and with body and structure failures 0.07. Potholes wreck wheels and tyres between tests, but by the time a car reaches the bay the road it drives on leaves no measurable trace.

In areas with the highest mot centre density this model fails 10.3 pp more often than in the lowest fifth (r=0.69, n=98 areas with ≥800 tests).

In areas with the highest urban share this model fails 9.0 pp less often than in the lowest fifth (r=-0.52, n=98 areas with ≥800 tests).

In the most coastal fifth of areas this model fails 3.7 pp more often than in the most inland fifth (r=-0.28, n=98 areas with ≥800 tests).

Kia Sorento Why do areas differ? — 2024 UK MOT data
Values shown in the quintile chart
FactorLow QHigh QGapCorrelation
MOT centre density26.3%36.6%+10.3 ppr=0.69
Urban share36.1%27.1%-9.0 ppr=-0.52
Distance to coast34.6%30.9%-3.7 ppr=-0.28

Factors that only mean something combined

Some conditions are useless on their own and informative multiplied together. Frost days alone say little — Britain barely freezes. Salt tonnage alone says little — it tracks frost. Distance to the sea alone says little. Multiply the first two and divide by the third and you get an index of how hard an area attacks a car's underside, and it lines up with the corrosion defects we actually record. We built five such combinations and tested each against our own data. Three survived; two did not, and the failures are listed here on purpose — a proxy that was never checked is decoration. One survivor only survived on the second attempt: built from a crude stand-in for street parking it failed outright, and rebuilt from the census — terraced streets carrying more cars than they have driveways — it works, and carries information the salt index does not.

Composite area indicators, each tested against a defect rate we measure
CompositeBuilt fromTested againstrVerdict
Underbody corrosionfrost days × salt load ÷ (distance to coast + 1)share of tests with a corrosion defect+0.42holds (116 areas)
Tyre wearrain days × annual miles ÷ age at first tyre advisoryshare of tests failing on tyres+0.45holds (116 areas)
Overnight corrosionterraced housing × cars per household × frost daysshare with a corrosion defect+0.41holds (102 areas) — and adds signal beyond the first index
Deferred maintenancedeprivation × advisory-to-failure conversion ÷ labour ratecars repeating the same advisory−0.26fails (118 areas)
Powertrain stressengine capacity ÷ kerb weightsuspension, brake and emissions failures−0.16fails (22 models)

The deprivation result is the one worth dwelling on. The intuition that poorer areas defer repairs is strong enough that most people treat it as established. We tested it twice — once on raw failure rates (r = 0.04) and again, more fairly, on whether an advisory turns into a failure — and it did not hold any of the three times we tried it — on raw failure rates, on advisory-to-failure conversion, and again with deprivation measured properly inside each nation rather than England alone. We are closing it. What does predict local failure rates is the density of test centres, which is a statement about testing, not about cars.

All external-factor correlations (machine-readable)
Factorrn areasLow-Q fail %High-Q fail %Gap ppLow-Q factorHigh-Q factor
MOT centre density (per 10k vehicles)0.6889826.336.6+10.35.28.5
Urban share (0–1)-0.5179836.127.1-9.00.40.9
Distance to coast (km)-0.2759834.630.9-3.75.781.6
Terrain gradient (% grade)0.2676032.734.8+2.10.53.5
Frost days (days/year)0.1979831.633.4+1.811.837.2
Road-salt proxy (g/m²-yr)0.1739831.033.2+2.2230653.1
Income deprivation (score)0.0528329.532.2+2.80.10.2

Deprivation uses England IMD 2019 income score only (Scotland SIMD is a different scale). Salt proxy is a simplified NWSRG-style dry-salt sum from air Tmin; coastalness is distance from the area centroid to the nearest coastline.

Every dot is a postcode area — size = how many were tested there, colour = share failing. These figures are not age-adjusted: coastal and rural areas often run older fleets and salted roads, so higher raw fail rates do not automatically mean a worse local stock of this model.

Map labels: Scotland · N. England · Wales · London · S. West. Colour scale: 22%–40% failing.

Kia Sorento survival: which cars are still on the road

By age 19 is well below the reference at 11.4%, against 100.0% at the ages 4–6 reference level.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Kia Sorento survival: which cars are still on the road — 2024 UK MOT data

Chart axes: car age, years · survival vs ages 4–6 · scale 0–105%.

Survival vs fail rate by age
AgeTestsSurvival vs ages 4–6Fail %
316,35790.5%13.43%
417,14094.9%15.88%
518,806100%17.65%
618,248100%19.83%
717,56097.2%22.82%
816,23089.8%26.72%
915,24384.4%31.26%
1013,06672.3%36.12%
1111,59464.2%40.15%
1211,74365%42.31%
1313,84776.7%45.1%
1414,44780%47.5%
1513,64875.6%49.58%
1610,99860.9%50.83%
177,55741.8%50.05%
184,65425.8%49.81%
192,05511.4%49.44%

By age 19, only about 11% as many cars of this family present for MOT as at ages 4–6 (reference n≈18,064); survivors still fail at 49.4% vs 15.9% at age 4. Older cars that still appear are a selected subset — weaker ones have already left.

How many miles does a Kia Sorento last?

100,000+ miles is highest at 29.3%; 200,000+ miles is lowest at 0.3% — the gap is 29.1 percentage points.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

OdometerTests ≥ thresholdShare of sample
100,000+ miles65,72729.32%
150,000+ miles9,1244.07%
200,000+ miles6050.27%

Of 224,152 tests of this family with a usable odometer in 2024, 29.3% had reached 100k miles, 4.1% had reached 150k miles, 0.3% had reached 200k miles. This is a cross-section of cars still presenting for MOT, not a full birth cohort.

How many years is a Kia Sorento likely to last?

Bought at age 5 is highest at 9.9 years; Bought at age 15 is lowest at 2.4 years — the gap is 7.5 years.

bigger number = longer remaining lifeyears on the observed survival curve

Age nowTypical mileage (p50)Expected years left
5—9.9
8—7.8
10—7.4
12—6.2
15—at least 2.4

estimateEstimate only — not a warranty: a typical 10-year-old example of this family has about 7.4 expected years of further MOT-present life on the 2024 survival curve. Derived from how many cars of each age still appear for test, not from a longitudinal panel.

Kia Sorento faults that come together

Emissions & leaks + Seatbelts & SRS stand out at 5.32×, against 1.00× if the faults were independent.

above 1.0× = more than expectedbelow 1.0× = less

Group AGroup BTogetherLift
Noise, emissions and leaksSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems4755.32× (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems1,3945.26×
Road WheelsSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems804.96× (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureNoise, emissions and leaks9554.84×
Identification of the vehicleSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems794.61× (rough estimate)
Identification of the vehicleNoise, emissions and leaks584.55× (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems2,7144.3×
BrakesSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems2,4944.15×
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systemsSuspension2,3624.09×
Body, chassis, structureIdentification of the vehicle1513.99× (rough estimate)
BrakesNoise, emissions and leaks1,7433.89×
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentNoise, emissions and leaks1,8023.83×
Body, chassis, structureRoad Wheels1343.76× (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureBrakes4,9093.7×
Body, chassis, structureSuspension4,6703.66×
Body, chassis, structureLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment5,0733.64×
BrakesRoad Wheels2923.61× (rough estimate)
Identification of the vehicleLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment3223.57× (rough estimate)
Noise, emissions and leaksSuspension1,5203.53×
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systemsSteering9463.53×
Body, chassis, structureSteering2,0563.48×
Noise, emissions and leaksSteering6883.45×
BrakesIdentification of the vehicle2913.39× (rough estimate)
BrakesSuspension9,7253.36×
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentRoad Wheels2853.36× (rough estimate)
Road WheelsTyres1313.35× (rough estimate)
Road WheelsSuspension2583.32× (rough estimate)
SteeringSuspension4,1863.25×
Noise, emissions and leaksRoad Wheels393.25× (rough estimate)
BrakesLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment10,2173.23×
Identification of the vehicleSuspension2643.2× (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentSuspension9,5773.15×
BrakesSteering4,1863.12×
Road WheelsSteering1123.11× (rough estimate)
Identification of the vehicleSteering1173.06× (rough estimate)
Identification of the vehicleVisibility1433.02× (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentSteering4,1382.94×
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systemsVisibility9452.85×
Identification of the vehicleTyres1122.7× (rough estimate)
Noise, emissions and leaksTyres5682.63×
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systemsTyres7602.62×
Road WheelsVisibility1162.6× (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentVisibility4,5192.59×
BrakesTyres3,7632.59×
Noise, emissions and leaksVisibility6362.58×
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentTyres3,7762.47×
SuspensionTyres3,3842.42×
TyresVisibility1,9032.37×
Body, chassis, structureVisibility1,6932.31×
BrakesVisibility3,8052.29×
Body, chassis, structureTyres1,4552.27×
SteeringTyres1,4152.18×
SuspensionVisibility3,4422.16×
SteeringVisibility1,5102.04×
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentSpeedometer and speed limiter11too few (rough estimate)
Identification of the vehicleRoad Wheels8too few (rough estimate)
BrakesSeat belt installation check7too few (rough estimate)
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systemsSpeedometer and speed limiter6too few (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureSeat belt installation check6too few (rough estimate)
Seat belt installation checkSteering6too few (rough estimate)
BrakesBuses and coaches supplementary tests6too few (rough estimate)
Seat belt installation checkSuspension6too few (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentSeat belt installation check6too few (rough estimate)
Speedometer and speed limiterVisibility5too few (rough estimate)
Buses and coaches supplementary testsSuspension5too few (rough estimate)

Defects in «Body, chassis, structure» and «Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems» appear together 5.26× more often than chance (1,394 co-occurrences in the same test; lift≥1.3, n≥500).

Lift = how many times more often both groups appear on the same test than if independent. A pair is listed from 5 tests with both faults; the lift is shown from 20, and called above chance only when its 95% interval excludes 1 (see rough estimates).

Is low mileage better for a Kia Sorento?

Cars driven under 5,000 miles a year is well below the reference at 19.3%, against 34.4% for cars driven 8,000–12,000 miles a year.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

BandFail %Tests
<5k miles/year19.26%12,453
8–12k miles/year34.37%65,851
Gap (low − normal)-15.11 pp—
By fuel and age

Diesel

AgeLow-use fail %nNormal fail %nGap pp
59.991,76119.47,676-9.4 pp
611.131,57220.687,697-9.55 pp
713.861,40023.917,641-10.05 pp
815.071,22128.797,169-13.72 pp
915.851,11733.926,928-18.07 pp
1019.3799140.526,042-21.14 pp
1124.4388044.455,444-20.02 pp
1226.5490846.85,336-20.25 pp
1330.131,17549.525,973-19.4 pp
1434.751,34152.895,725-18.14 pp

Petrol

AgeLow-use fail %nNormal fail %nGap pp
1431.433545.6546-14.22 pp

At matched ages 5–14, cars averaging under 5k miles/year fail at 19.3% vs 34.4% for 8–12k miles/year — 15.1 pp lower (n_low=12,453, n_normal=65,851). In this family low annual use is associated with fewer MOT fails, not more — the ‘garage queen’ penalty is not visible in overall fail rates. Diesel alone: 19.2% low-use vs 34.3% normal (-15.1 pp).

Which Kia Sorento engine is best?

diesel 1.8–2.0 is highest at 108.7; petrol over 2.0 is lowest at 99.5 — the gap is 9.2 points.

below 100 is betterabove 100 is worse100 = normal for this model at that age

Engine bands against this model's own failure rate at the same ages
FuelCapacityvs own age normRaw fail %Tests
petrolover 2.0 litre99.543.73%1,770 (rough estimate)
dieselover 2.0 litre10032.38%219,564
diesel1.8–2.0 litre108.737.06%286 (rough estimate)

No engine band clearly fails less or more for its age: the bands are within 5 index points of each other, or their 95% intervals overlap, so this page does not name a best or worst engine.

Read this one with more care than the rest of the page. Age is held constant, but who buys which engine is not: the largest capacity in a range is often a performance or executive variant that is garaged, cherished and lightly driven, while the smallest is frequently a fleet or entry car worked hard from new. The gap below is real in the test records; how much of it is the engine and how much is the owner, this data cannot separate. Bands under 100 tests are not shown; bands under 5,000 tests are rough estimates.

Best year for a Kia Sorento, and the years to avoid

Build year 2012 is highest at 109.1; Build year 2018 is lowest at 88.5 — the gap is 20.6 points.

below 100 is betterabove 100 is worse100 = normal for this model at that age

build year vs the same model at the same age · 100 = as expected

Kia Sorento build year vs the same model at the same age · 100 = as expected — 2024 UK MOT data
Kia Sorento by build year, tests 2019–2024. Below 100 is better than the model's own age norm.
Every build year with its confidence interval
Build yearvs own age norm95% CIRaw fail %TestsVerdict
202097.787.1–108.313.87%2,364no different
201999.594–10515.06%8,407no different
201888.584.1–92.814.38%11,114better
201795.391.7–98.816.53%16,400better
2016101.297.9–104.419.44%18,965no different
201593.390.7–95.920.68%24,118better
201497.394.5–100.224.78%17,716no different
2013103.3100.1–106.530.09%13,126worse
2012109.1105.9–112.435.8%12,019worse
2011103.5100.3–106.737.71%10,679worse
2010102.699.8–105.440.93%12,432no different
200998.795.7–101.642.27%9,922no different
2008100.597.2–103.745.53%8,074no different
20079794.5–99.645.75%11,951better
2006100.398.3–102.448.95%19,521no different
200599.597.1–101.949.77%12,987no different
2004103.7100.8–106.752.98%8,965worse
2003104.198.8–109.353.75%2,839no different

The best build year here is 2018 and the weakest is 2012. Comparing build years sounds simple and is not: within a single year of testing, a car's build year and its age are the same number, so a naive comparison of years is a comparison of ages wearing a disguise. Each year below is measured against the same model at the same age in other cohorts, across six years of testing — 8 of 18 years come out distinguishable from their own model's age norm.

Two limits worth knowing before you act on this. Age, test year and build year are locked together by arithmetic, so the test-year effect is taken from the observed national failure level of each year rather than estimated — it is an adjustment, not a solution.

Kia Sorento MOT repair costs

The MOT-failure repair budget per test runs from £100.93 to £191.77, against £54.85 for the test itself.

bigger number = costs morepounds per test, MOT-failing faults only

MOT repairs, budget
£101–192
per test, repairs only
The test itself
£54.85
statutory cap, unchanged since 2010
How the figure is built: chance of failing × typical price of that repair
ComponentFails per 100 testsTypical repairIts priceContribution
Suspension18.8 (nat. 15.36)Suspension coil spring (single corner)£180£33.84
Brakes21.6 (nat. 11.25)Front brake pads (parts + labour, typical hatchback)£150£32.40
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment19.7 (nat. 18.09)Battery replacement (standard 12V lead-acid)£140£27.58
Tyres7.9 (nat. 8.7)Tyre (single mid-range 16" fitted)£90£7.11

Multiply how often each component fails on this model by what that repair usually costs, and you get the amount an owner should expect to budget per test for MOT-failing faults only — roughly £101 to £192, on top of the test fee itself. It is a budgeting figure, not a quote: the spread between a set of pads and a set of discs is most of the range.

Prices are modal quotes from a hand-kept catalogue of published UK garage guides — we do not scrape the booking sites, their terms forbid it, so this list is short and updated by hand with a source and date against each line. Each line prices one typical repair in that group, not a full remedy, and only groups our catalogue actually covers are counted. The contrast worth noticing is the second card: the legal maximum for the test has been £54.85 since 2010, while the repairs it uncovers have followed inflation the whole time.

For scale from a different direction: Warrantywise, which sees used-car warranty claims rather than test failures, puts the average claim at £2,052 across the ten highest-claim models it ranks and £539 for Honda, the lowest-claim make in its index (Warrantywise index 2026, 1.6 million claims, cars aged 3–15). Those sit an order of magnitude above the figures in this table, and the gap is the point: a warranty claim is a gearbox or an engine, which almost never fails an MOT, while the faults that do fail one are corrosion, lamps and tyres, which no warranty pays for. The two numbers answer different questions and neither replaces the other.

Kia Sorento running costs for a fleet

Vehicles failing at age 10 stand out at 32.0%, against 16.0% at age 5, tested in the same year.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Fails per 100 at age 5
16
vehicles needing work
At age 10
32
other cars of this model tested at age 10 in 2024
Repairs per 100
£10,093
plus £5,485 in test fees
Off the road
1d
median; 30.35% cleared same day
Failure rate and typical odometer by age
AgeFailsMedian odometerTestsGap vs age 5
313.2%27,9352,363-2.4 pp
415.02%33,7341,185-0.6 pp
515.64%40,5112,768+0.0 pp
617.05%50,8522,739+1.4 pp
719.01%60,0263,099+3.4 pp
823.15%68,9763,132+7.5 pp
926.01%77,5883,980+10.4 pp
1031.77%83,9682,886+16.1 pp
1137.29%94,3492,108+21.6 pp
1240.79%102,3471,878+25.1 pp
1342.15%106,7461,599+26.5 pp
1443.99%111,7811,780+28.4 pp
1544.06%104,3931,237+28.4 pp
1646.49%107,120897+30.9 pp
1746.93%112,4971,172+31.3 pp
1848.92%114,7561,715+33.3 pp
1946.64%113,868907+31.0 pp

The number a fleet manager needs is not the failure rate, it is the year the car starts costing more. Between cars aged 9 and cars aged 10, both tested in 2024, the failure rate of this model is 5.76 percentage points higher — the steepest one-year step in this cross-section of different cars, and a natural planning point for replacement.

Repair spend uses the same modal prices as the section above, so it inherits the same limits: one typical repair per component group, not a full remedy. Downtime is the gap between the failed test and the passed re-test, which is the window a vehicle is legally off the road.

Kia Sorento rust problems: where they corrode

Age-standardised corrosion susceptibility stands out at 3.42×, against 1.00× for the national age-standardised rate.

above 1.0× = rusts more than averagebelow 1.0× = rusts less

How it rusts
3.42×
2.62% of tests record a corrosion defect vs 0.77% typical — age-standardised
Salt Belt exposure
69th
percentile among the models published here, from its tests across 98 postcode areas

This Kia Sorento fails on corrosion far more often than average once age is held constant, and its owners live in areas that are saltier than most for the models we publish.

Corrosion is the one failure mode that is as much about geography as about the car. We keep the two apart on purpose: a model can look rusty simply because it is popular in Scotland, and a model can look clean simply because it is bought in Surrey. Blending them into a single score would hide which of the two is doing the work.

Exposure is this model's tests weighted by an area corrosion index built from frost days, salt load and distance to the coast — the composite validated at r = 0.42 against corrosion defects we actually record. It is published as a rank, not a raw score, because every mainstream model skews towards low-corrosion areas for the simple reason that most of Britain's cars are in the south. Susceptibility is standardised to the national age profile, so an old fleet does not get labelled a rusty model.

Does a Kia Sorento advisory become a failure?

Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment are highest at 33.9%; Non-component advisories are lowest at 0.0% — the gap is 33.9 percentage points.

higher = more likelypercentage is the observed transition probability

chance the same component fails at the next MOT, given an advisory now

Kia Sorento chance the same component fails at the next MOT, given an advisory now — 2024 UK MOT data
Kia Sorento, advisory → failure conversion by component group, chained tests 2019–2024. Chart labels and rates: Lamps & electrical 33.9% · Suspension 21.6% · Steering 20.3% · Body & chassis 18.3% · Brakes 18% · Seat belts & restraints 11.2% · Tyres 8.8% · Noise, emissions, leaks 4.5%.
Advisory today → failure at the next test, with how long you have
ComponentFails next timeTypical lead timeMiles of warningAdvisories tracked
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment33.9%12 months5,5262,319
Suspension21.6%12 months6,52428,395
Steering20.3%12 months6,5446,044
Body, chassis, structure18.3%12 months4,8266,411
Brakes18.0%12 months6,02242,781
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems11.2%12 months4,9461,549
Tyres8.8%12 months7,32339,955
Noise, emissions and leaks4.5%12.1 months5,5019,289
Identification of the vehicle3.4%12 months7,1033,321
Non-component advisories0.0%——15,153

This is the question an advisory note actually raises, and it needs six years of test history to answer. We followed the same vehicles from one MOT to the next across 2019–2024 and measured how often a component that was merely advised came back as a genuine failure at the next test.

Read it as a budgeting horizon, not a prophecy: the most likely component above turns into a failure for about 34 in 100 cars, and the median gap is 12 months and roughly 5,526 miles. The rest were repaired, sold, scrapped, or simply held. Rows with fewer than 500 tracked advisories are not shown.

What will fail next on a Kia Sorento?

Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment after a failure at age 15-19 are highest at 31.6%; Brakes after a passed at age <3 are lowest at 2.2% — the gap is 29.4 percentage points.

higher = more likelypercentage is the observed transition probability

Probability of each component failing at the next test, by age and last result
AgeLast testMost likely next failuresCars tracked
<3passedTyres 3.6% · Visibility 3.6% · Brakes 2.2%6,948
<3advisoryVisibility 6.0% · Tyres 4.9% · Brakes 4.6%2,606
<3failureVisibility 5.7% · Tyres 5.1% · Brakes 3.4%1,374
3-5passedVisibility 4.7% · Tyres 3.9% · Brakes 3.2%23,757
3-5advisoryVisibility 6.4% · Tyres 5.7% · Brakes 5.3%13,808
3-5failureTyres 7.1% · Visibility 6.7% · Brakes 5.9%7,828
6-8passedSuspension 5.7% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 5.5% · Brakes 5.2%17,060
6-8advisorySuspension 9.0% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 7.8% · Brakes 7.8%12,570
6-8failureSuspension 11.9% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 11.4% · Brakes 10.5%10,353
9-11passedSuspension 11.4% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 11.1% · Brakes 9.7%8,879
9-11advisorySuspension 16.4% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 14.9% · Brakes 13.3%8,892
9-11failureSuspension 21.1% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 20.3% · Brakes 18.1%11,059
12-14passedBrakes 15.2% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 15.1% · Suspension 12.8%7,857
12-14advisoryLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 21.1% · Brakes 19.9% · Suspension 18.3%9,383
12-14failureLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 27.5% · Brakes 25.3% · Suspension 23.0%14,510
15-19passedLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 18.7% · Brakes 15.1% · Suspension 15.0%4,430
15-19advisoryLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 26.8% · Brakes 21.8% · Suspension 20.8%5,984
15-19failureLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 31.6% · Brakes 25.2% · Suspension 24.2%10,040
20+failureLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 19.3% · Suspension 17.5% · Brakes 14.0%57 (rough estimate)

The same chains, cut differently: given a car's age and how its last test went, which component most often causes trouble at the following one.

The pattern that repeats across every family: a failure at one test roughly doubles the chance of a failure on the same component at the next one, and an advisory sits about half-way between a clean pass and a failure. Age bands in years; probabilities are per car, not per defect item.

Kia Sorento ownership: what six years of MOTs show

The ten-day re-test pass rate is highest at 64.9%; The later re-test pass rate is lowest at 4.8% — the gap is 60.1 percentage points.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Fixed same day
30.35%
of failures re-tested
Fails /10k miles
0.462
miles actually driven
Clean streaks
30.24%
3+ tests, nothing noted
Odometer anomaly
0.75%
reading went backwards

Failing is usually a same-week event, not a disaster. Of 52,833 failures followed through to their re-test, 30.35% were repaired and passed the same day and 64.85% within ten days; the median gap is 1 day. 146,787 defect items were cleared in the process.

Per mile driven, not per year. Dividing failures by the miles that actually went onto the odometers between consecutive tests gives 0.462 failures per 10,000 miles, on a median of 6,350 miles a year across 44,215 chains. This is the number to compare between models — an annual rate quietly rewards cars that barely leave the drive.

Two populations hide inside one model. 30.24% of these cars strung together three or more tests with nothing recorded at all, while 34.14% carried the same advisory three times or more — the same fault, noted, ignored, noted again. When you buy used you are buying one of those two histories, and the MOT record shows which.

Odometer anomalies: 0.75% of 44,249 chains show a reading lower than the previous test, with a median drop of 17,290 miles. We call this an anomaly and not fraud on purpose — instrument swaps, imports, unit mix-ups and keying errors all land in the same bucket. Obvious typos (drops under 100 miles or over 90% of the reading) are already excluded.

Kia Sorento safety recalls and how to check yours

DVSA recall campaigns stand out at 25.

bigger number = more recorded casescompare like-for-like scope, not sample size alone

recall campaigns launched per year

Kia Sorento recall campaigns launched per year — 2024 UK MOT data
Campaigns launched per year for the Kia Sorento. Source: DVSA vehicle safety recalls. Chart values: 2012: 0 · 2013: 2 · 2014: 0 · 2015: 0 · 2016: 0 · 2017: 1 · 2018: 0 · 2019: 0 · 2020: 2 · 2021: 1 · 2022: 4 · 2023: 4 · 2024: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2026: 1.
Most recent safety recall campaigns for the Kia Sorento
ReferenceLaunchedVehiclesConcern
R/2026/13924/04/2026343Kia Cluster Malfunction Recall
R/2025/13003/04/2025340Kia Sorento MQ4 PDC Recall
R/2025/13003/04/2025331Kia Sorento MQ4 PDC Recall
R/2025/13003/04/2025695Kia Sorento MQ4 PDC Recall
R/2024/46505/12/202411,036Kia HECU Fuse Replacement
All 25 campaigns
ReferenceLaunchedBuild datesVehiclesConcern
R/2026/13924/04/202630/06/2025 – 18/11/2025343Kia Cluster Malfunction Recall
R/2025/13003/04/202519/07/2023 – 18/12/2024340Kia Sorento MQ4 PDC Recall
R/2025/13003/04/202519/07/2023 – 18/12/2024331Kia Sorento MQ4 PDC Recall
R/2025/13003/04/202519/07/2023 – 18/12/2024695Kia Sorento MQ4 PDC Recall
R/2024/46505/12/202401/07/2010 – 21/08/201411,036Kia HECU Fuse Replacement
R/2023/26918/09/202301/04/2022 – 31/08/20221,013Turn signals may not activate intermittently due to improper switch contact in the multifu
R/2023/07724/04/202311/04/2022 – 10/05/202214Poor moulding of the plastic fuel tank by a temporary supplier can lead to a potential fue
R/2022/34306/02/202319/03/2012 – 06/10/20146,377The PTC (positive temperature coefficient) heater in some Sorento (XM) models can overheat
R/2022/36309/01/202320/01/2020 – 25/08/2022916The High Pressure Electric Oil Pump within the eight-speed dual-clutch transmission (DCT)
R/2022/32830/11/202227/04/2015 – 13/07/2015295There is a risk the automatic gear shift lever could be moved out of Park without the foot
R/2022/14324/05/202201/03/2020 – 30/11/2020326A FUEL LEAK CAN DEVELOP ON THE DIESEL LOW PRESSURE FUEL LINE
R/2022/14720/05/202201/07/2021 – 31/08/202149A FAULT HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF THE FRONT L/H SEAT BELT PRE-TENSIONER
R/2022/10403/05/202201/05/2014 – 28/02/202015,665THE ELECTRICAL CONNECTOR TO THE PTC HEATER CAN OVERHEAT
R/2021/00201/02/202101/09/2020 – 14/12/2020965IF THE ECALL SYSTEM IS ACTIVATED THE VIN NUMBER MAY NOT BE TRANSMITTED
R/2020/18720/07/202014/12/2005 – 17/12/200815,645WATER OR OIL MAY ENTER THE HYDRAULIC ELECTRONIC CONTROL UNIT
R/2019/45513/01/202023/01/2019 – 19/11/2019579IN SOME SITUATIONS THE FRONT COLLISION AVOIDANCE SYSTEM MAY NOT RECOGNISE PEDESTRIANS
R/2017/28023/11/201701/09/2011 – 31/10/201124RUBBER DIESEL FUEL FEED PIPE MAY HARDEN OR CRACK
R/2013/05501/06/201314/05/2009 – 24/04/201140,769BRAKE LIGHTS MAY MALFUNCTION
R/2013/05501/06/201301/05/2007 – 15/12/200840,769BRAKE LIGHTS MAY MALFUNCTION
R/2010/12907/09/201001/09/2009 – 30/07/2010549RISK OF FIRE
R/2009/09209/11/200920/09/2009 – 25/10/20061,816BRAKE LIGHT MAY NOT OPERATE
R/2007/07714/05/200704/05/2006 – 28/03/20071,864CURTAIN AIRBAGS MAY DEPLOY INCORRECTLY
R/2004/15908/11/200419/12/2003 – 22/04/20041,148SNAP RING RETAINER WITHIN THE GEARBOX MAY DETACH
R/2004/15808/11/200406/11/2002 – 24/06/20043,517ALTERNATOR PULLEY MAY SEIZE
R/2004/07705/07/200406/10/2002 – 18/02/20044,427POSSIBLE INTERFERENCE BETWEEN POWER STEERING HOSE AND BRAKE PIPE

DVSA lists 25 safety recall campaigns for the Kia Sorento, covering roughly 149,472 vehicles in total. A recall is the manufacturer fixing a fault for free, so an open recall on your car costs nothing to clear.

Counter-intuitive, and measured on our own data: across the 25 families published here, more recalls go with a lower MOT Risk Index (r = −0.52). Heavily recalled models are not worse cars in the test bay — an active manufacturer removes the fault before it becomes an MOT failure.

Check whether a specific car has an outstanding recall — free, by registration — at DVSA's recall service. Source: DVSA vehicle safety recalls (check-vehicle-recalls.service.gov.uk), OGL.

Kia Sorento technical service bulletins: what dealers are told

US market, Kia SORENTO and its variants, model years 2015–2022 only. A count of bulletins, not a UK failure rate.

NHTSA manufacturer communications are 608.

bigger number = more recorded dealer communicationsnot affected vehicles or confirmed faults

These are the issues the manufacturer fixes quietly: service communications sent to dealers without a public recall campaign. They show what the service network has been told even when the issue never became news.

United States · NHTSA manufacturer communications

US technical service bulletins by communication year; leading subjects cover the full file
Communication yearBulletinsLeading subjects across all years
20131
  • Electrical system (236)
  • Engine and cooling (130)
  • Equipment (120)
  • Engine (77)
  • Powertrain (71)
  • Petrol fuel system (34)
  • Steering (31)
  • Structure (28)
201417
201558
201655
201755
201850
201954
202046
202149
202249
202367
202442
202547
202618

Caveat worth stating plainly: this is NHTSA data about US-specification cars. British cars sold under the same name often use different gearboxes, engines and equipment, so a bulletin may describe a component that was never fitted here. The file counts dealer communications, not affected vehicles or confirmed failures, and it cannot tell you whether an individual UK car has the issue. A communication can carry more than one subject tag, so topic counts do not have to add up to the total. Source: NHTSA Manufacturer Communications API (US-market vehicles; queried model years 2015-2022). Licence: U.S. Government work / public domain · retrieved 2026-09-25.

Kia Sorento owner complaints: what goes wrong

US market, Kia SORENTO and its variants, model years 2015–2022 only. A count of owner complaints, not a UK failure rate; NHTSA has no UK denominator.

Engine (not MOT-tested) is highest at 1,924; Brakes are lowest at 131 — the gap is 1,793.

bigger number = more recorded casescompare like-for-like scope, not sample size alone

Owner complaints (US) against actual MOT failures (UK) for the same component groups
ComponentComplaintsShareMOT fail items per 100MOT rankAgreement
Engine (not MOT-tested)1,92449.7%not in top 6—complained about, rarely an MOT failure
Lamps & electrical78320.2%19.7#2complained about and fails often
Transmission (not MOT-tested)3679.5%not in top 6—complained about, rarely an MOT failure
Body & structure2927.5%8.5#4complained about, fails occasionally
Steering2626.8%not in top 6—complained about, rarely an MOT failure
Brakes1313.4%21.6#1complained about and fails often

Two different populations answering two different questions: the MOT records what an inspector can measure once a year, the complaint file records what annoyed or frightened an owner on the road. A component high in one column and absent from the other is the interesting case — driver-assistance and electronics dominate complaints while almost never appearing as an MOT failure item.

What the reports actually say
The headlights are so dim that I could not see at night. I am forced to drive with the fog lights on for any amount of visibility. I recently replaced the headlights with factory replacements and now the connectors going into the back have failed and power only makes it to the lights when Mercury is in retrograde. This is unacceptable and a severe safety hazard.
NHTSA complaint, filed 09/03/2026 · ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Paint De lamination on Snow White Pearl due to manufacturing defect Date listed was the date it started to peel. Started peeling around the window first. Then it continued on the front hood.
NHTSA complaint, filed 08/07/2026 · STRUCTURE

US owners have filed 3,875 complaints about the equivalent Kia Sorento to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, including 99 that mention a crash, 138 a fire and 112 an injury. These are owner reports, not verified findings — but they are the only large public record of what drivers themselves notice, and they cover the years between MOT tests.

Caveat worth stating plainly: US-specification cars, self-selected reporters, no denominator — complaint counts scale with how many cars were sold there and how motivated owners are to file. The mechanical gap matters as much as the statistical one: American cars of the same name often carry different gearboxes, engines and equipment — automatics where Britain buys manuals — so a drivetrain complaint filed in Ohio may describe a part that was never fitted here. Read the ranking inside a model, not between models, and treat drivetrain entries with particular caution. Source: NHTSA ODI consumer complaints (US market, public domain) — US-spec vehicles, indicative only.

Kia Sorento inspection results in other countries

Finland Katsastus stands out at 39.4%, against 26.3% nationally.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Same model, different national inspection regimes
CountryTestThis model failsNational averagePositionSample
United KingdomMOT (class 4)29.7%26.01%+3.7 pp36,420
FinlandKatsastus39.4%26.3%+13.1 pp3,041
NetherlandsAPK60.9%50.8%+10.1 pp2,791

The verdict is consistent across every regime where the difference is clear, which is the strongest form this comparison takes: independent inspectorates, different rulebooks, same direction of travel.

What Finland fails it for — share of recorded faults
Fault areaShare
Brake systems37.6%
Axles, wheels and suspension30.3%
Steering equipment8.1%
Chassis and body7.7%
Environmental hazards6.7%

Useful as a cross-check on the UK defect table above: the categories are named differently, but a component that dominates in both regimes is a genuine weak point of the model rather than an artefact of one country's testing style.

The exact faults Netherlands records — APK defect codes, 2024
CodeFaultRecordedType
210Tyre pressure not at the correct value532failure
205Tyre with insufficient tread354failure
RA2Excessive leak of other fluids252advisory
497Number-plate light not working or missing248failure
584Sidelight not working properly211failure
AC1Tyre down to 1.6–2.5 mm of tread192advisory
516Dipped headlight incorrectly aimed184failure
RA1Airbag or seat-belt warning light showing a fault159advisory

Worth dwelling on how mundane the top of that list is: tyre pressure, tread depth, headlight aim. The Dutch APK records 1.594 defects per inspection against a much higher national failure rate than Britain's, and the reason is not that Dutch cars are worse — it is that the two regimes draw the line between "note it" and "fail it" in different places. Codes are the RDW's own; the English wording here is our translation of the Dutch original.

Britain is not the only country that inspects every car every year, and the Kia Sorento is on the road in all of them. Each national regime writes its own rules, so the pass rates below are not comparable to each other — what does travel across a border is whether a model sits above or below its own country's average.

Rows with fewer than 500 inspections are not published. Sources: Traficom — Periodic inspections of cars by model / by model and fault object 2024, CC BY 4.0; RDW open data — Meldingen Keuringsinstantie + Geconstateerde Gebreken + Gekentekende voertuigen (2024), CC0. Not an RDW endorsement.. Adapted; licences and full notice.

Kia Sorento MOT: quick answers

Kia Sorento MOT Risk Index stands out at 106.1, against 100 for a car with the same age profile.

below 100 is betterabove 100 is worse100 = normal for this model at that age

What is the Kia Sorento first-time MOT pass rate?
70.3% of first attempts passed in 2024 (36,420 tests). This is the first-time figure: retests after repair are excluded. Basis: first-time, excluding retests.
Why does this number differ from other sites?
Other sites often report a pass rate that includes retests or counts all attempts. Our 29.7% figure is the first-time initial failure rate, using 36,420 primary tests as the denominator (first-time, excluding retests). The age-adjusted MOT initial-failure ratio 106.1 is shown separately because raw rates compare fleet age as well as cars.

Compare the Kia Sorento with other cars

Kia Rio is highest at 106.8; Volkswagen Transporter is lowest at 105.7 — the gap is 1.1 points.

below 100 is betterabove 100 is worse100 = normal for this model at that age

Same brand

All Kia MOT statisticsKia Rio MOT statsKia Sportage MOT stats

Similar risk

Nissan Micra (index 106.0)Volkswagen Transporter (index 105.7)Kia Rio (index 106.8)

Same size class

how Lexus RX compareshow Volkswagen Sharan compareshow Fiat 500X compares

By build year

Kia Sorento 2003Kia Sorento 2004Kia Sorento 2005Kia Sorento 2006Kia Sorento 2007Kia Sorento 2008Kia Sorento 2009Kia Sorento 2010Kia Sorento 2011Kia Sorento 2012Kia Sorento 2013Kia Sorento 2014Kia Sorento 2015Kia Sorento 2016Kia Sorento 2017Kia Sorento 2018Kia Sorento 2019Kia Sorento 2020

By area

Kia Sorento MOT failure rate by postcode area

By failure group

Kia Sorento body, chassis and structure failuresKia Sorento brakes failuresKia Sorento vehicle identification failuresKia Sorento lamps, reflectors and electrics failuresKia Sorento noise, emissions and leaks failuresKia Sorento road wheels failuresKia Sorento seat belts and airbags failuresKia Sorento steering failuresKia Sorento suspension failuresKia Sorento tyres failuresKia Sorento visibility failures

Inspections abroad

Kia Sorento in FinlandKia Sorento in the Netherlands


Data details & how to cite

Scope: class-4 vehicles (cars), initial tests only, outcomes pass / fail / fixed-on-the-spot at the station (PRS counts towards the failure rate — the defect was present at arrival). Index = observed initial failures ÷ failures expected for this fleet's exact age profile, ×100; margin of error is a 95% confidence interval. Covers ALL generations together — a 3-year-old and a 15-year-old are very different cars; a generation split is on the roadmap. Dataset release dataset_release_id=dvsa-2024-v2, frozen baseline; headline claim_id=family-stats:kia-sorento:dvsa-2024-v2. Full method: methodology.

Cite: MOT Risk Index (2026). Kia Sorento MOT statistics 2024 (data release dvsa-2024-v2; downloadable dataset motriskindex-families-2024-v5, doi:10.5281/zenodo.22975051). https://motriskindex.co.uk/cars/kia-sorento/ · Published 2026-07-30.