2026 Kia Seltos
The 2026 Kia Seltos is sold in the U.S. as a gas compact SUV with 2 EPA-rated configurations. The most efficient version, the Seltos AWD, is EPA-rated at 29 mpg combined. NHTSA lists no recall campaigns for this model year so far (Safety Signal A). Owners have filed 4 complaints, most often about the service brakes. NHTSA crash-tested it at 5 stars overall. Manufacturer pricing runs from $23,790 to $31,490 across 7 trims.
| Trim | Powertrain | Drive | MSRP | HP | Torque | MPG comb | Cargo (2nd row) | Wheels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LX | Gas | FWD | $23,790 | 147 hp | 132 lb-ft | 31 mpg | 26.6 cu-ft | 17 in |
| LX | Gas | AWD | $24,990 | 147 hp | 132 lb-ft | 29 mpg | 26.6 cu-ft | 17 in |
| S | Gas | FWD | $25,490 | 147 hp | 132 lb-ft | 31 mpg | 26.6 cu-ft | 17 in |
| S | Gas | AWD | $26,990 | 147 hp | 132 lb-ft | 29 mpg | 26.6 cu-ft | 17 in |
| EX | Gas | FWD | $26,490 | 147 hp | 132 lb-ft | 31 mpg | 26.6 cu-ft | 17 in |
| EX | Gas | AWD | $28,690 | 147 hp | 132 lb-ft | 29 mpg | 26.6 cu-ft | 17 in |
| SX | Gas | AWD | $31,490 | 190 hp | 195 lb-ft | 25 mpg | 26.6 cu-ft | 18 in |
MSRP excludes destination. Open a trim for the complete spec sheet and standard/optional equipment. Have the car in front of you? Decode its VIN to see which of these trims it is and what it was priced at.
Specs & fuel economy
Source: EPA fueleconomy.gov| Configuration | Powertrain | Drive | Engine / motor | City | Hwy | Comb | Annual fuel* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seltos AWD | Gas | AWD | 2.0L 4-cyl | 27 | 31 | 29 | $2,300 |
| Seltos AWD | Gas | AWD | 1.6L 4-cyl turbo | 24 | 27 | 25 | $2,700 |
*EPA estimate at 15,000 miles/year at EPA reference fuel and electricity prices. fueleconomy.gov record ids: 49506, 49505.
The cheapest ownership win
Insurers price the 2026 Seltos very differently, and the gap between the best and worst quote on the same car and driver is usually larger than any option you are weighing on this page.
How to compare cover →Affiliate disclosure: some links on this page are affiliate links. If you request a quote or buy through them we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Nothing on this page changes because of it.
Recalls (0)
Source: NHTSA recall databaseNo NHTSA recall campaigns are on file for the 2026 Kia Seltos. New campaigns appear here within a week of NHTSA posting them.
These are vehicle campaigns — the ones the automaker filed against this model. NHTSA also records equipment recalls, filed by a parts maker against a component (a tyre, a child seat, an aftermarket part), and those are not listed here or counted above. nhtsa.gov/recalls shows both for a VIN.
Hear about a recall before the letter does
The manufacturer’s letter is the last step of a recall: it has up to 60 days after filing to mail owners, at the address on the registration. We email you the day NHTSA posts a recall on the 2026 Kia Seltos, with what to do next. Nothing else, ever — no newsletter, no marketing, one-click unsubscribe in every message.
Parts & accessories for the 2026 Kia Seltos
Search by fitment on eBay Motors — OEM take-offs, aftermarket, and the trim pieces dealers no longer stock. The listing and the price are the seller's.
Find parts for this Seltos →Owner complaints
Source: NHTSA complaint database1 involved a crash · 0 a fire · 2 injuries · 0 deaths reported
0.7 per 10,000 built · Kia reported 55,430 Seltos built (its Early Warning production report to NHTSA)
Filed per year: 2026: 4
Most-cited components
In owners' own words
Filed with NHTSA by the people who own these cars, one per problem area. Quoted as written, with anything identifying removed.
The contact owns a 2026 Kia Seltos. The contact stated that while driving 25 MPH and depressing the brake pedal to make a right turn, the brake pedal went to the floorboard and the vehicle accelerated independently. A dealer was contacted.
I purchased this new 2026 Kia Seltos with approximately 32 miles. The vehicle now has fewer than 600 miles and has experienced two incidents of sudden, intermittent, complete loss of accelerator response.
The contact owns a 2026 Kia Seltos. While driving across an intersection, another vehicle ran a stop sign and collided with the contact's vehicle. The impact occurred on the driver-side door, causing extensive damage to the vehicle. No property damage reported. The vehicle came to a complete stop after being struck.
The contact owns a 2026 Kia Seltos. The contact stated that the heating system was inoperable and was blowing cold air. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, where the contact was informed that the radiator cap was not tightened, causing air to build up in the system. The dealer tightened the radiator, and the vehicle was repaired.
Complaint counts are raw owner reports to NHTSA, not verified defects, and scale with how many were sold. Use them to spot patterns, not to rank.
Reported by Kia itself: 1 death-or-injury claim on this model year in its quarterly Early Warning reports to NHTSA (49 CFR 579.21): 1 injured, as claimed, not verified — about 1.8 per 100,000 built. Every Seltos model year, by year and system → Dated and by system, they are exhibit F of the defect dossier.
Crash ratings
Source: NHTSA NCAP| Configuration | Overall | Frontal | Side | Rollover | Rollover risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SUV AWD | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★☆ | 15% |
| SUV FWD | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★☆ | 17% |
NHTSA New Car Assessment Program. Standard driver-assist: forward collision warning, lane departure warning, automatic emergency braking.
Service bulletins & campaigns
Source: NHTSA manufacturer communicationsMost often about: Engine, Electrical System, Back Over Prevention, Steering.
- TSB_ELE422 Service bulletin2026-05-28 · Electrical System
- TECHNICAL SERVICE BULLETIN: INFOTAINMENT SYSTEM SOFTWARE UPDATE USING UPDATE. KIA. COM - This bulletin provides information and service procedures for updating the infotainment systems on applicable Kia vehicles using the Kia Navigation Updater available at update.kia.com. The software update may improve system performance, enhance existing features, and apply the latest operating software for sup
- TSB_ENG261_R1 Service campaign2026-02-10 · Engine
- TECHNICAL SERVICE BULLETIN: DATA COLLECTION: EXTRACT CALIFORNIA EMISSIONS DATA FROM ECU (DC26) - This bulletin has been revised to include additional information. New/revised sections of this bulletin are indicated by a black bar in the margin area. This bulletin provides information related to extracting “in use monitoring performance tracking” emissions data from the Engine Control Unit (ECU) of
- TSB_ELE412 Service bulletin2026-02-05 · Electrical System
- TECHNICAL SERVICE BULLETIN: SERVICE ACTION: STEERING ANGLE SENSOR CALIBRATION (SA641) - This bulletin provides information regarding the recalibration of the Steering Angle Sensor (SAS) on certain Seltos (SP2 PE) vehicles produced from March 3, 2025, through August 11, 2025. During manufacturing, the SAS in certain vehicles may not have been properly calibrated, resulting in a lower return-to-cent
- PS797 Other2025-12-09 · Back Over Prevention — Warnings
- PITSTOP: TECHNICAL OPERATIONS: EXTERNAL DAMAGE TO ULTRASONIC SENSOR: This Pitstop provides information related to Parking Distance Warning (PDW) alerts and repairs involving ultrasonic sensors. The PDW system alerts the driver while parking, by calculating distance based on the difference in signal transmission and reception times between the vehicle (ultrasonic sensor) and an object. The membrane
A service bulletin is the manufacturer telling its dealers how to diagnose or repair a known condition. It is not a recall, not a finding that the vehicle is defective, and the work is not automatically free — though a bulletin is often what a dealer works from when you describe a symptom, so quoting the document number can save a diagnosis. The count is every communication filed; the list shows the most recent, one entry per campaign, because a single campaign is usually filed as several documents on the same day. The summaries are NHTSA's; the full documents come from the manufacturer.
Seltos by model year
all years, side by side →Common questions about the 2026 Seltos
Source: EPA, NHTSA and manufacturer press kitsHow much does the 2026 Kia Seltos cost?
Manufacturer pricing runs from $23,790 for the LX FWD to $31,490 for the SX AWD, across 7 trims. Those are MSRPs from the manufacturer's own press material; they exclude destination, options, taxes and whatever the dealer adds. Every trim and price is listed above.
Does the 2026 Kia Seltos have any recalls?
No NHTSA recall campaigns are on file for the 2026 Kia Seltos. New campaigns appear here within a week of NHTSA posting them, and a clean sheet on a recent model year often just means the vehicle is new.
How safe is the 2026 Kia Seltos?
NHTSA gave the 2026 Kia Seltos 5 stars overall in its New Car Assessment Program tests — 5-star frontal crash, 5-star side crash, 4-star rollover. WhichTrim also grades it A (100/100) on its recall record, which is a different question from crash protection.
What is the fuel economy of the 2026 Kia Seltos?
Across the 2 EPA-rated configurations of the 2026 Kia Seltos, the best EPA combined figure is 29 mpg. Figures are the EPA's own, per configuration, and every one is listed above.
What do owners complain about on the 2026 Kia Seltos?
Owners have filed 4 complaints with NHTSA about the 2026 Kia Seltos, most often about service brakes, vehicle speed control, air bags. Of those, 1 involved a crash, 2 reported injuries. Complaints are unverified owner reports, so treat the pattern as a signal and the individual report as an anecdote.
Are there service bulletins for the 2026 Kia Seltos?
The manufacturer has filed 5 service bulletins and related communications with NHTSA for the 2026 Kia Seltos, most often covering engine, electrical system, back over prevention. The most recent is dated 2026-05-28. A bulletin is not a recall: it is the repair procedure a manufacturer sends its dealers for a condition it knows about, and the work is not automatically paid for. It is still worth knowing — if the symptom matches, quoting the bulletin number at the service desk can save a diagnosis. The document numbers and summaries are listed above.
Which 2026 Kia Seltos trim is the best value?
$7,700 separates the cheapest of the 7 trims from the most expensive, so the answer depends on which of the differences you would actually use. Every trim has its own page here with the manufacturer's full specification and equipment list, plus a short summary of exactly what it adds over the base trim — worth reading before a dealer frames the walk-up for you. The trim-by-trim ladder shows what every step up costs and what it makes standard.
What we hold, and what an empty row means
Paid vehicle-history reports will not tell you the difference between “nothing happened to this car” and “we never received that record” — both of the big two say as much in their own help pages. Most of what is on this page comes from complete federal registers, so we can tell you which is which, row by row.
| Data | Held | Source | What it covers — or what empty means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fuel economy & configurations | 2 configurations | EPA certification records | Every configuration the EPA certified for sale, with its own test figures. |
| Emission certificates | none | EPA emission certificates | The EPA published no certificate we could match to a configuration on this page. |
| Recalls | none | NHTSA recall campaigns | No campaign has been filed. Because the register is complete, an empty row here means there is nothing to find — not that we are missing it. |
| Owner complaints | 4 | NHTSA complaint database | Also complete, but unverified: these are reports owners filed, not findings. Counts scale with how many were sold. |
| Crash ratings | 2 tested | NHTSA NCAP | Only the configurations NHTSA chose to crash-test, which is never all of them. |
| Service bulletins | 5 | NHTSA manufacturer communications | Everything the manufacturer told its dealers about a defect or malfunction, short of a recall. |
| Investigations | none | NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation | No defect investigation has been opened. |
| Driver-assist crash reports | none | NHTSA Standing General Order 2021-01 | No report has been filed. Only entities named in the order report, and only crashes they hear of — so this is also what an unequipped car, or a manufacturer without telematics, looks like. |
| Specifications filed with NHTSA | none | NHTSA vPIC, decoded from VIN patterns | We had no VIN pattern to decode for this model year, or the manufacturer filed nothing usable. |
| Trims, pricing & equipment | 7 trims | Manufacturer press kit | Transcribed from the manufacturer's own press material, every value carrying the document it came from. |
Rebuilt nightly; this page was generated 2026-10-26. Every figure above is traceable to the source named beside it, and the JSON for this page carries the same values with their identifiers.
Sources & method
Safety Signal starts every model-year at 100 and subtracts points per open NHTSA recall campaign by severity: critical 15 (fire risk, park-outside or do-not-drive advisories), high 8 (brakes, steering, airbags, loss of drive power, structure, battery), moderate 6, minor 3 (software, labels, lighting fixed by an update). The most serious recall counts in full and each further one counts 85% of the one before, because a vehicle sold in millions is recalled more often than a rare one without being more dangerous — and because a flat subtraction bottomed the scale out, scoring a vehicle with 22 recalls within a point of one with six. A ≥ 90, B ≥ 80, C ≥ 70, D ≥ 60, otherwise F. Read it as what it counts: recall campaigns on the federal record, weighted by severity. The damping reduces the sales bias by roughly 40% but does not remove it: like our complaint counts, this is not normalized by how many were sold, so a best-seller still scores somewhat worse than an obscure model with the same real risk. NHTSA crash ratings, do-not-drive and park-outside advisories, and the crash, fire, injury and death counts in owner complaints are reported separately on every page and never blended into the letter — a vehicle can hold five stars and a poor letter at once, and where that happens we say so rather than leave you to notice. Because the scale subtracts from a clean sheet, a model year too new to have been recalled, complained about or bulletined scores full marks on an empty record; we label those grades provisional rather than present them as earned.
EPA figures come from fueleconomy.gov vehicle records. Recalls, complaints, investigations and crash ratings come from NHTSA's public flat files, refreshed nightly. Trim-level specifications and pricing are transcribed from the manufacturer's official press kit; every value carries its source in the data file.