The quietest fourth-generation year so far, and the hybrid is the version that still stops in traffic.

The most important item on this page, and the newest. Kia is recalling 2021 to 2023 Sorentos because "the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) blower motor wiring harness may be inadequate, which can result in a fire." The HVAC system is the heating and air-conditioning unit; the blower motor is the fan that pushes air through the vents. NHTSA's consequence line is four words: "A fire increases the risk of injury." Dealers "will replace the wiring harness and blower motor resistor, free of charge." Kia's code is SC351, NHTSA received the report in September 2025 and owner notification letters were mailed on 23 January 2026. A car sold privately in the months around that date may well have an owner who has never heard of it. This is the one campaign to confirm before anything else.

The turbocharged 2023 Sorento uses an eight-speed wet dual-clutch transmission — two automated manual gearboxes sharing a housing, fast when shifting hard and awkward at walking pace. The petrol file describes both the character and the failures. "Car is a huge safety issue. Seems to be DCT transmission issue. Car gets stuck in first or second gear and revs all the way up", where DCT is simply the industry's abbreviation for that dual-clutch gearbox. Another: "Transmission Warning Indicator appears on Dashboard Cluster and vehicle bucks and stalls and won't shift properly. Dealership found Transmis[sion]" trouble. A third reports the whole unit replaced: "Transmission went out while driving on highway. Dealership said they need to replace the entire transmission." An all-generation review of the Sorento describes the same behaviour as a design trait: in "stop and go traffic or during gentle acceleration from a standstill, the transmission can be hesitant and jerky. It's going to lurch forward unexpectedly or exhibit noticeable delays before engaging." Note that the transmission recall covering the 2021 and 2022 cars, 22V760, does not extend to 2023 Sorentos. What does reach this year is a Kia technical service bulletin — the fix instruction a manufacturer sends its dealers — covering 2021 to 2023 Sorentos "equipped with a 2.5L T-GDI Theta III engines and 8-Speed Dual Clutch Transmissions (DCT)" — T-GDI being Kia's label for Turbocharged Gasoline Direct Injection, fuel sprayed straight into the cylinder of a turbo engine — that "may exhibit abnormal/harsh shifting, gear slipping, no gear engagement in Drive D and/or Reverse R shift selection" with fault codes P1C2D03, P1C2D1C or P1C2E92 stored. The remedy is improved electric oil pump control software. If the car hesitates or refuses a gear, ask the dealer to check for those codes and that update by name rather than accepting that it is just how the gearbox feels.

Kia is recalling 2022 and 2023 Sorento, Sorento Hybrid and Sorento Plug-in Hybrid vehicles because "the mounting clips for the rearview camera may break, which can cause the rearview camera image not to appear properly on the display", failing federal rear-visibility standard FMVSS 111. Dealers inspect and replace the rearview camera housing as necessary, free of charge, Kia code SC280, with owner letters mailed in October 2023. It applies to all three versions of the car. Reverse it during the test drive and look at the screen rather than over your shoulder.

Two more campaigns, at opposite ends of the seriousness scale. 23V579 covers 2023 Sorentos whose "air bag warning labels on the driver and front passenger sun visors may detach", failing federal occupant-protection standard FMVSS 208 — the consequence being that occupants are not warned about air-bag deployment risks. Dealers inspect and replace the visors free of charge, Kia code SC277. It is a label, and it is still a recall, so it should show as closed. 22V703 is the more serious one and it reaches the 2023 plug-in hybrid: on Sorentos fitted with a Kia tow-hitch harness, debris and moisture on the harness module's printed circuit board "may cause an electrical short, which can result in a fire", parked or driving, with Kia advising owners park outside and away from structures until it is repaired. Free fuse and/or module, Kia code SC249.

This pattern crosses all three versions of the 2023 and it has no campaign behind it. "Front panel of panoramic sunroof shattered while driving on Interstate 90 at approx 65m[ph]. Sunroof was fully closed. Exploded on its own." A hybrid owner: "The sub roof exploded while on the freeway and all the glass shattered like rain onto the fabric underneath." A plug-in owner: "I heard an explosion above my head. I smelled smoke and heard glass rattling", and the service adviser said it was the second one he had seen in two years. In several filings Kia declined to cover it. There is nothing to inspect that predicts it, so the practical step is a financial one: check what your insurance charges for glass before you buy a car with a panoramic roof.

A second hybrid cluster is fuel delivery. One owner describes three limp-mode events with codes P0171 and P0191 — lean running and fuel rail pressure — and "they replaced the high pressure fuel pump twice within a week and I believe under 200 miles of driving the car", with the trouble continuing afterwards. Another reports "Faulty fuel injectors are causing consistent engine misfires and occasionally causing the check engine light to illuminate and for the vehic[le]" to lose power. A third, more alarming, reports petrol getting into the oil: the dipstick reading twice the maximum and smelling of fuel at 11,731 miles, with the dealer confirming the condition but declining to repair it under warranty. None of these is a recall — but Kia has a documented answer to the last one. Its technical service bulletin for "2021-2023MY Sorento HEV, PHEV (MQ4 P/HEV) w/ Gamma 1.6L T-GDI" cars — HEV is Kia's shorthand for the petrol-electric hybrid and PHEV for the plug-in hybrid you can charge from a socket — built between July 2021 and November 2022 updates the engine and hybrid converter software on vehicles where "the engine oil becom[es] diluted with fuel and/or moisture caused by repeated short drive trips, in low outdoor temperature (32 degree F-) environments." If a hybrid's oil smells of petrol, that is the bulletin to name at the service desk. Have a Kia dealer read stored codes before purchase rather than relying on a clean dashboard on the day.

Worth saying explicitly, because it is the reason this year reads differently from the third-generation cars on this site. Across 147 complaints there is no oil-consumption cluster, no P1326 knock code, and no connecting-rod bearing failures — the Theta II four-cylinder that defines the 2016 to 2020 Sorento is not in this car. Kia's emissions campaign for that engine, SC340, stops at the 2020 model year. The recall count is also down: four, against nine on the 2022. Two of the four are a label and a camera clip. That does not make the 2023 faultless — the hybrid's loss of power and the gearbox's low-speed manners are both real and both above — but the failure that used to end these cars is gone.

Kia runs two warranty extensions that reach this car. WTY042 covers "a horn sound malfunction condition" on 2021 to 2025 Sorentos and Sorento Hybrids and 2022 to 2025 plug-in hybrids, extending coverage "from 5 years / 60,000 miles to 10 years / 120,000 miles." It costs nothing to test: press the horn. WTY043 is narrower and newer — it extends the new-vehicle warranty "for certain repairs related to the rear right-hand (RH) door curtain in certain 2023-2026 MY Sorento Hybrid (HEV) SX-Prestige vehicles manufactured from June 27, 2022 through December 5, 2025 and certain 2023-2026 MY Sorento Plug-in Hybrid (PHEV) SX-Prestige vehicles." Kia's summary does not state the new term, so ask the dealer to read the bulletin rather than quoting a number here. Both apply only if the car is the right version and build date, which a VIN check settles in a minute.