Total Complaints
3 filings
KIA SEPHIA · model year
3 NHTSA complaints for this specific cohort.
NHTSA overall rating
Not crash-tested
New Car Assessment Program
The 1986KIASEPHIA carries 3 consumer safety complaints in NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation database for this specific model-year cohort. Within that volume, owners reported 0 crashes, 0 fires, 0 injuries, and 0 fatalities. No NCAP 5-star crash-test rating is available for this model year in the federal database.
Component-level analysis is where model-year complaints become actionable: the top complaint category for the 1986 SEPHIA is unknown or other with 1 filings, followed by seat belts:front:buckle assembly (1) and power train:automatic transmission (1). Concentration in one or two component groups is the classic signature of a systemic defect; a flat distribution usually reflects normal aging, warranty complaints, or isolated build-plant variability.
NHTSA currently has 2 investigation files overlapping the 1986 SEPHIA. Owners comparing this cohort against neighboring years should pair the counters above with the complaint-by-year trend on the parent model page — a spike in a single year often tracks to a platform refresh, a new transmission supplier, or an updated ECU calibration. Use the related-complaint feed below to read raw owner narratives before deciding whether any pattern here affects your specific use case.
Total Complaints
3 filings
Crashes Reported
0 reports
Source
NHTSA ODI
Federal complaints database
At or below the fleet median complaint volume.
| Component | Count |
|---|---|
| UNKNOWN OR OTHER | 1 |
| SEAT BELTS:FRONT:BUCKLE ASSEMBLY | 1 |
| POWER TRAIN:AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION | 1 |
WHEN PULLING OUT OF A PARKING SPACE THERE WAS A LOUD BANGING NOISE, AND VEHICLE STALLED DUE TO TRANSMISSION GOING OUT. TRANSMISSION WAS REPLACED. *AK
CHECK ENGINE LIGHT CONTINUES TO BLINK ON AND SEAT BELT DOES NOT LOCK . *AK
CHECK ENGINE LIGHT CONTINUES TO BLINK ON AND SEAT BELT DOES NOT LOCK . *AK
Data as of 2025. Sources: NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) complaints database, NHTSA recall campaign API, NHTSA NCAP crash-test ratings, and NHTSA FARS for fatality cross-reference.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.