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What 41 owners told NHTSA about the 2024 Kia Seltos

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 (41)Crash / fire / injury (5)Electrical system (15)Engine (5)Driver assistance (4)Transmission & drivetrain (4)Visibility & wipers (4)Speed control (3)Body & structure (2)Engine & cooling (2)Lane Departure (2)Lights (2)

1 of 41 complaints match · Engine & cooling · crash/fire/injury only · clear filters

May 4, 2024Engine & coolingFire

Daughter driving back to college from home in her new 2024 Kia Seltos. We leased this vehicle for her for reliability and dependability throughout her years at college. 9 months into lease, 10,000 miles her car started smoking from engine. She immediately pulled over to notice the car had completely dumped out oil everywhere. We have pics and video to prove this. She had to wait on side of highway for 3.5 hours waiting to be towed. 6 days have passed and we have gotten zero answers and no help from corporate Kia only to be told for us to call dealerships to work it out. Now I’m working with the Kia dealership that it was towed to AND the previous Kia dealership that performed last oil change. I’m getting conflicting comments on both ends from dealership and no help from corporate Kia. 1 week and no answers, my daughter has no car not to mention the mental stress this has put on her. This incident caused her to miss her D1 lacrosse practice due to a 6 hr unplanned and unexpected mechanical/ defective oil plug that came out from the oil pan. Dealership of towing has informed us that the engine of this new car needs to be replaced. Kia dealership that performed last oil change wants to see new oil put in it and run full diagnostic and if all checks out, call it good. We feel this car had a defective part and we should at the very least have a new engine put in it or we should be put into a new lease! My daughter’s safety was at jeopardy on the highway that morning and the concern for others that are driving a 2024 Kia seltos. It has come to our attention that this had been an ongoing issue of Kia’s cars that “fits” the description exactly as to what had happened to us. We need a car ASAP are looking for advise on how to move forward from here.

NHTSA ODI 11586993

Working with the data? Download all 41 complaints as CSV · fetched from NHTSA July 12, 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 2024 Kia Seltos verdict →