2011 KIA SORENTO — Complaint #2123204
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:ALTERNATOR/GENERATOR/REGULATOR filed August 22, 2025
NHTSA complaint #2123204 (ODI reference 11682489) concerns a 2011 KIA SORENTO and was filed on August 22, 2025. The owner reports the failure occurred on April 7, 2025. The vehicle had 200,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Virginia based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as electrical system:alternator/generator/regulator, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same KIA SORENTO cohort independently describe similar electrical system:alternator/generator/regulator failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2011 KIA SORENTO shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2011 Kia Sorento. The contact stated while driving approximately 55 MPH, the vehicle started to lose motive power. The accelerator pedal was depressed; however, the vehicle failed to respond as intended. The contact stated that several unknown warning lights were illuminated before pulling off the roadway. The hood was opened and there was white smoke coming from the engine compartment. The contact stated that the smoke then dissipated. The vehicle was towed to a local mechanic. The mechanic diagnosed the vehicle and determined that the alternator and the engine needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 200,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2123204 |
| ODI Number | 11682489 |
| Date Filed | August 22, 2025 |
| Failure Date | April 7, 2025 |
| VIN | 5XYKU4A20BG |
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.