2020 KIA SORENTO — Complaint #2142611
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about EXTERIOR LIGHTING:HEADLIGHTS filed October 23, 2025
NHTSA complaint #2142611 (ODI reference 11695305) concerns a 2020 KIA SORENTO and was filed on October 23, 2025. The owner reports the failure occurred on October 2, 2025. The report was geocoded to Wisconsin based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as exterior lighting:headlights, 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 exterior lighting:headlights 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 2020 KIA SORENTO shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2020 Kia Sorento. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the headlights became inoperable. The blinkers and the radio were inoperable for several seconds before returning to normal function. The contact stated that the failure had occurred several times while the contact and the contact's wife were driving the vehicle. The contact stated the failure was a major safety hazard, especially while driving at night. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic; however, the failure was not duplicated. The dealer was made aware of the failure; however, the contact was required to pay a fee for a diagnostic test. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was unknown.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2142611 |
| ODI Number | 11695305 |
| Date Filed | October 23, 2025 |
| Failure Date | October 2, 2025 |
| VIN | 5XYPGDA50LG |
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.