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Transmission and drivetrainPart report

2025 Kia Sorento Transmission and drivetrain Problems

Complaints
19about this part
Share
25%of 77 total for the year
Median mileage
2,532miles
Trend
Too newThis model year is less than 4 years old, so a trend is not meaningful yet.

NHTSA recorded 19 complaints about the transmission and drivetrain of the 2025 Kia Sorento, 25% of the 77 complaints for this model year. Where a mileage was given, the median is 2,532 miles.

Example complaints

Selected from NHTSA records; personal details are removed. They are consumer reports, not findings.

“While driving at speeds below 25 mph, my transmission seems to get caught between gears. When I press the accelerator, the engine revs, but the car doesn’t accelerate as it should. It feels like the power just drops out. There were no warning lights or indicators on the dashboard. The exact same thing happened again the very next day, at low speed, in the same general area. Both times, the car suddenly lost power in traffic, leaving me unable to move normally. …”

NHTSA complaint #11694539, filed 2025-10

“This incident started within the first 100 miles of ownership. The dealership hasn’t been able to recreate the incident. I put my 2025 Kia Sorento in the “automatic” drive position. I start driving and my transmission won’t shift gears. I looked down at my dashboard and it shows the vehicle is in “manual” drive gear 1. I look at my gear shift and it shows the vehicle is in “automatic” drive position. If I push the vehicle to its redline or approximately 5000 RPM’s the vehicle shifts and dashboard changes from “1” to “D”. …”

NHTSA complaint #11708206, filed 2026-01

“Our 2025 Kia Sorento has exhibited several issues with shifting into gears especially from 1-2 gear there is hesitation, hard shifting, where it has delayed engagement, rough or jerky shifts, and a feeling of power loss while driving. It has a hard time getting into 3rd gear and just stalls, dragging at 1st/2nd when attempting to accelerate and coming down from 4th gear back into 2nd and 3rd. A check transmission' warning light has appeared on the dashboard. This is teh second time we have had this issue. …”

NHTSA complaint #11698228, filed 2025-11

“Have had an issue of losing power while on an interstate traveling back from work twice now. After the second time I reported to my local dealership. While driving home, my vehicle lost power and was extremely slow and unresponsive. Check engine light came on but when checked under the diagnostics of the entertainment system, showed no issues present. Light turn off but still was having issues with responsiveness. When arriving home connected my personal ODB scanner tool to the vehicle and showed 1 code P0301Cylinder 1 Misfire. Had take. …”

NHTSA complaint #11670142, filed 2025-06

“Today is 12/15/2025 About a month or 2 ago i was on the highway coming from South Carolina to North Carolina when the engine revved up unexpectedly without input. It has HDA2 and that was doing most of the work. The vehicle started to speed up beyond the set limit and once i hit the brakes and manually shifted i was able to regain control. Last week the vehicle made a small noise that I wasn’t sure about. I called the dealership thinking that it could be a transmission problem. When i called they didn’t seem concerned and asked me to bring it in Monday (today). …”

NHTSA complaint #11705120, filed 2025-12

Related service bulletins

Transmission and drivetrain: other model years

YearComplaintsShare of year
20251925%
2024511%
20232217%
20226835%
202114456%
20201813%
20195112%
201894%
2017375%
201612610%
2015426%
2014727%
2013697%
2012556%
201126517%
2009916%
20082311%
20072013%
20063514%
20053812%
20044018%
2003227%

Other parts of the 2025 Kia Sorento

Electrical system
22 complaints
Other or unknown
20 complaints
Engine
19 complaints
Forward collision avoidance
9 complaints
Vehicle speed control
7 complaints
Brakes
6 complaints
Visibility (wipers, defrost, mirrors)
6 complaints
Air bags
4 complaints
Fuel system
4 complaints
Back-over prevention (rear camera)
3 complaints
Exterior lighting
2 complaints
Lane departure
2 complaints

← All problems reported for the 2025 Kia Sorento

About this data. Data from NHTSA (ODI) complaints, recalls, TSBs and investigations, updated Oct 31, 2026. Complaints are unverified consumer reports and may be duplicated or inaccurate.

To check a specific vehicle for open recalls, use its VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls. Methodology