By model year
Kia Optima by model year: recalls, complaints, ratings
For the Kia Optima, matched NHTSA complaint counts in this table run from 75 (2010) to 1,386 (2013). The complaint file is dated Oct 23, 2026. These are raw counts, not rates. A higher count can mean more vehicles were sold, and newer model years have had less time for complaints to be reported.
The table lists raw counts from NHTSA's files. A larger complaint count can mean more vehicles were sold, and newer model years have had less time for complaints to be reported. The counts are not divided by sales. This page does not rank one model year above another.
| 2001 | 3 | 143 | 15 | 0 | 2 | Pre-2011 | 19–21 |
| 2002 | 3 | 107 | 15 | 4 | 0 | Pre-2011 | 18–21 |
| 2003 | 2 | 141 | 8 | 2 | 0 | Pre-2011 | 21–23 |
| 2004 | 1 | 225 | 8 | 3 | 0 | Pre-2011 | 21–23 |
| 2005 | 0 | 144 | 7 | 1 | 2 | Pre-2011 | 21–23 |
| 2006 | 2 | 155 | 3 | 1 | 3 | Pre-2011 | 21–25 |
| 2007 | 2 | 167 | 11 | 5 | 3 | Pre-2011 | 23–25 |
| 2008 | 3 | 144 | 20 | 4 | 3 | Pre-2011 | 23–25 |
| 2009 | 1 | 116 | 5 | 4 | 2 | Pre-2011 | 23–25 |
| 2010 | 1 | 75 | 7 | 2 | 2 | Pre-2011 | 23–25 |
| 2011 | 5 | 594 | 23 | 33 | 7 | 5 | 26–36 |
| 2012 | 5 | 920 | 25 | 77 | 7 | 5 | 26–36 |
| 2013 | 9 | 1,386 | 48 | 114 | 8 | 5 | 26–37 |
| 2014 | 7 | 590 | 20 | 43 | 8 | 5 | 24–37 |
| 2015 | 4 | 1,009 | 31 | 74 | 4 | 5 | 24–37 |
| 2016 | 5 | 759 | 27 | 20 | 3 | 5 | 25–37 |
| 2017 | 3 | 257 | 4 | 9 | 3 | 5 | 25–42 |
| 2018 | 2 | 233 | 10 | 10 | 2 | 5 | 25–42 |
| 2019 | 1 | 212 | 20 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 24–41 |
| 2020 | 0 | 151 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 24–42 |
Star columns say "Pre-2011" for older model years because those ratings use a different NHTSA method. Overall stars for 2011 and newer are the matched Safety Ratings variants. A dash means no overall star was matched.