2017 Kia Sportage problems: recalls, complaints and whether this is a year to avoid

Is 2017 a good year for the Kia Sportage?

The spread across this nameplate is wide: the 2017 draws 6 times the complaints of the 2019. On a run like that the model year you buy matters more than the badge, and 2017 sits near the top of it.

Older years have been on the road longer and collect more complaints for that reason alone, and a year that sold in higher volume collects more while being no worse.

This retrieval holds 8 of the nameplate’s model years. 2014, 2018, 2021, 2022, 2023 are absent, which means no records came back for them — not that they were clean. The ranking above is among the years shown.

The 2017 accounts for 23% of every complaint filed against the Kia Sportage in this retrieval, which works out to 44.6 complaints per year on the road across the 9 years since it was sold new — the figure to compare against other years, because it removes the advantage a newer car gets simply from having had less time to accumulate reports.

Complaints rose sharply against the preceding year: the 2017 carries 3.0 times the reports of the 2016. A jump that size between consecutive years usually means something changed in the car rather than in how many were sold, and it is worth asking a seller what was done to this one.

Which recalls cover the 2017?

NHTSA records 4 recall entries against the 2017 Kia Sportage. The campaign text for this year was not part of the stored sample — check the VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls, which is the only way to know whether a specific car’s campaigns were carried out.

What do owners report on the Kia Sportage?

Across every Kia Sportage year, not the 2017 alone — NHTSA does not split component totals by model year.

• Engine — 888 reports
• Electrical System — 171 reports
• Unknown or Other — 155 reports
• Service Brakes — 132 reports

If your 2017 is doing something now, these are the guides for that system — each opens with whether it is safe to keep driving:

• Engine knocking
• Engine overheating
• Check engine light steady
• Rough idle or stalling

Which other Kia Sportage years should you compare?

← 2016 Kia Sportage · 2019 Kia Sportage → · All Kia Sportage years

If you are deciding between years, the table above is the short answer and the Kia Sportage page carries the full run with the component breakdown. Before money changes hands, run the VIN for open recalls and read the inspection checklist — ten minutes in the seller’s driveway finds most of what matters.