2021 Kia Rio Problems & Owner Complaints
Age-normalised, this year draws ~2.5 complaints per year on the road — ranking 11 of 14 Kia Rio years we track (1 = most complaints per year).
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What owners report
Steering is the most-reported problem area on the 2021 Kia Rio, cited in 4 of 15 filed complaints (27%).
Service Brakes is next (3 complaints, 20%), followed by Engine (2), Power Train (2), Back Over Prevention (1).
Across all complaints, 2 report a crash.
The most safety-critical cluster is Service Brakes: 2 crash report(s).
Complaints by vehicle system
Owner complaints filed with the U.S. NHTSA for the 2021 Kia Rio, grouped by the vehicle system each cites. A single complaint can name more than one system, so the group totals can add up to more than 15.
Unknown Or Other 6
“Back up camera sometimes flips sides, so that obstacles on the right side of the car are shown on the left side of the camera screen. Sometimes the camera doesn't work at all.”
NHTSA complaint #11707375, 2024
“Placed car in park got out to open a gate. Car took off forward even when shifter was in Park Position and almost ran a child over.”
NHTSA complaint #11555136, 2023
“seatbelts in rear are inoperable/anti theft not working. Kia dealership told me that its not their issue about the anti theft. I have been told on 3 separate occasions that my seatbelts have been ordered but they haven’t!!!! No one is following up with me, when I call I get told “until they can get in contact with the dealership Kia the corporate company cannot do anything” have 2 kids Kia the dealership as well as the corporate company knows about this and no one is doing anything!! NO ONE CARES”
NHTSA complaint #11520150, 2023
Steering 4 1 crash
“Having been complaining about a noise from under the front right tire, I was initially told it was a little piece of plastic and that got cut off. I was still hear the scraping and squealing and I kept check the from right tire because I thought that's where it was coming from. I mentioned this to every mechanic at kia and was told "that's just how 2021s sound". Finally after months of complaining the noise got louder and you could hear it was clearly something in steering. They schedules an appointment for Dec 7th on Mon Nov 28th. Said it was safe to drive when that night while working I was…”
NHTSA complaint #11495434, 2022 · crash
“Steering Gear Assembly completely broke at 81,000 miles. My daughter was backing up in a busy street at 5pm and lost 100 percent of steering control. Lucking cars dodged her and she didn’t get hurt or worse.”
NHTSA complaint #11660866, 2025
“On 3/19/23, as I was driving on a dry, straight, two lane road at the posted speed of 40mph, the car began to try to steer into oncoming traffic. I had to exert moderate force to keep the car in my lane. This continued continuously for about 1/2 mile. No low tire pressure indicator lights were illuminated, however the lane assist icon was on and green, indicating normal operation. Just as I was going to turn down a side street to check the tires manually, the steering returned to normal. However, the lane assist icon was now white, and as I drove the remaining approximately 2 miles home, the i…”
NHTSA complaint #11512905, 2023
Service Brakes 3 2 crash
“Having been complaining about a noise from under the front right tire, I was initially told it was a little piece of plastic and that got cut off. I was still hear the scraping and squealing and I kept check the from right tire because I thought that's where it was coming from. I mentioned this to every mechanic at kia and was told "that's just how 2021s sound". Finally after months of complaining the noise got louder and you could hear it was clearly something in steering. They schedules an appointment for Dec 7th on Mon Nov 28th. Said it was safe to drive when that night while working I was…”
NHTSA complaint #11495434, 2022 · crash
“Vehicle failed to reduce speed effectively while trying to avoid a collision with another vehicle during a left turn, which then caused the vehicle to turn widely and collide with the curb.”
NHTSA complaint #11448123, 2022 · crash
“On the way to work, I had the brake pedal pressed waiting for a traffic signal to change. After it changed to green, I released the brake pedal and depressed the gas pedal, only for the vehicle not to move forward - as if the brake was still being applied. I took my foot off the gas pedal, waited a second or two, then tried the gas pedal again and it still did not move. I was at the traffic signal for nearly 10 seconds with nothing touching the brake pedal and unable to drive forward. The vehicle did not turn off, display any warning lights, or any signs of other trouble. The parking brake was…”
NHTSA complaint #11426082, 2021
Engine 2
“I was driving 60-70 miles an hour for 45 minutes then car lost all acceleration and engine light came on. I pulled over immediately turned the car off. Turned it back on drove 1/4 of a mile and same thing happened. I pulled over turned car off and had it towed to the dealership.”
NHTSA complaint #11459319, 2022
“Vehicle has less than 4000 miles and throttle body had to be replaced”
NHTSA complaint #11446051, 2021
Power Train 2
“Placed car in park got out to open a gate. Car took off forward even when shifter was in Park Position and almost ran a child over.”
NHTSA complaint #11555136, 2023
“I had driven my wife to her school about 5 miles and headed back to my work another 5 miles when i tried to accelerate pass car I lost almost all power barely making it up a slight hill I kept going trying to make it to my house barely going 10 miles an hour. I thought the transmission had let go cause while I had the gas peddle floored i went at best 10-15 miles an hour I eventually parked the car I knew it would never make it up another slight hill. It was rowed to a nearby dealer where they could find no problem telling me it was just some bad gas. This sounds like what I read about t…”
NHTSA complaint #11491460, 2022
Back Over Prevention 1
“Center Console Display blank (screen black) upon startup unable to see cameras and backing up affected creating safety concern.”
NHTSA complaint #11540589, 2023
Electrical System 1
“Center Console Display blank (screen black) upon startup unable to see cameras and backing up affected creating safety concern.”
NHTSA complaint #11540589, 2023
Fuel/Propulsion System 1
“Vehicle has less than 4000 miles and throttle body had to be replaced”
NHTSA complaint #11446051, 2021
Lane Departure 1
“On 3/19/23, as I was driving on a dry, straight, two lane road at the posted speed of 40mph, the car began to try to steer into oncoming traffic. I had to exert moderate force to keep the car in my lane. This continued continuously for about 1/2 mile. No low tire pressure indicator lights were illuminated, however the lane assist icon was on and green, indicating normal operation. Just as I was going to turn down a side street to check the tires manually, the steering returned to normal. However, the lane assist icon was now white, and as I drove the remaining approximately 2 miles home, the i…”
NHTSA complaint #11512905, 2023
Seat Belts 1
“seatbelts in rear are inoperable/anti theft not working. Kia dealership told me that its not their issue about the anti theft. I have been told on 3 separate occasions that my seatbelts have been ordered but they haven’t!!!! No one is following up with me, when I call I get told “until they can get in contact with the dealership Kia the corporate company cannot do anything” have 2 kids Kia the dealership as well as the corporate company knows about this and no one is doing anything!! NO ONE CARES”
NHTSA complaint #11520150, 2023
How we read this (methodology)
How to read this: raw complaint totals are not a clean reliability score — a model year with more cars sold, or simply more years on the road, accumulates more complaints regardless of how good it is. So this page leans on two signals that are not distorted by sales volume: the share of complaints falling on each vehicle system (the breakdown above) and NHTSA's own crash / fire / injury / death flags. When we compare model years of the same model, we normalise by years on the road (complaints ÷ vehicle age) rather than comparing raw totals. Age-normalised, the 2021 Kia Rio draws about 2.5 complaints per year on the road, ranking 11 of 14 among the Kia Rio model years we have ingested (1 = most complaints per year on road).
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Related
Data source: U.S. NHTSA (nhtsa.gov). SaveVIN surfaces public recall data and is not affiliated with or endorsed by NHTSA.