Home · 2012 Kia Optima · Complaints
What 916 owners told NHTSA about the 2012 Kia Optima
These are the actual owner complaints behind this car’s reliability verdict, filed with the federal government, unedited. They’re unverified reports, not confirmed defects: read them as leads for your pre-purchase inspection, not a diagnosis.
1 of 916 complaints match · Lights · crash/fire/injury only · clear filters
Sep 6, 2015LightsBody & structureCrash1 injury
EXITING HWY 71 EAST BOUND TO WOODWARD DECREASING SPEED THE VEHICLE IN FRONT OF ME HAD A CAR CUT IN FRONT OF HER. I HAD A SAFE DISTANCE AND SLAMMED MY BRAKES. MY BRAKES DID NOT GRAB AS USUAL MY CAR DID NOT STOP AND I HIT THE VEHICLE IN FRONT OF ME. I TRULY BELIEVE MY BRAKE SYSTEM FAILED. I WILL TAKE MY CAR INTO KIA WHEN I GET IT BACK.
NHTSA ODI 10761891
Working with the data? Download all 916 complaints as CSV · fetched from NHTSA July 19, 2026
How to use these: a complaint is one owner’s report, filed voluntarily and published unverified. Patterns matter more than any single story. If several owners describe the same failure at similar mileage, put that system at the top of your
pre-purchase inspection list. Back to the
full 2012 Kia Optima verdict →