Home · 2016 Kia Optima · Complaints

What 748 owners told NHTSA about the 2016 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.

All (748)Crash / fire / injury (46)Engine (421)Electrical system (99)Transmission & drivetrain (71)Fuel system (61)Lights (46)Body & structure (40)Visibility & wipers (36)Speed control (29)Engine & cooling (24)Steering (24)

2 of 748 complaints match · Steering · crash/fire/injury only · clear filters

Jul 24, 2023SteeringElectrical systemCrash

I was driving and the car’s electrical completely cut out and locked my steering wheel up and ran us off the road and we hit a big rock on the driver side and then the power kicked back on and the steering yanked super hard to the right about 4 times and caught a fallen tree on the right side then completely died with me and my young kids . Took it to Kia to be serviced and got it back and it started to do it again

NHTSA ODI 11534154

Jan 20, 2020SteeringCrash

STEERING WHEEL LOCKED CAUSING VEHICLE TO HIT CURB AND DAMAGE WHEEL WELL. VEH POSSIBLY WILL NEED NEW RIM.

NHTSA ODI 11300398

Working with the data? Download all 748 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 2016 Kia Optima verdict →