For every car sold, owners filed about as many complaints about the 2021 Optima as about the typical Optima year. Among the 13 Optima years with enough complaints to compare, owners filed the fewest about the 2016 (0.37 per 1,000 sold) and the most about the 2023 (1.10).
Safety complaints filed by owners in the first three years, per 1,000 sold.
1.0 times this nameplate’s own median
Counted from 49 complaints filed in the first three years, of 172 ever. 95% lower bound 0.41. Not counted: 1 complaint that reported only that a recall repair was unavailable, not a failure.
The model year carries far more information than the badge, so this is the comparison that matters. The bar is how many complaints each rate rests on.
| Model year | Per 1,000 | Complaints | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 0.62 | 28 | |
| 2009 | 0.41 | 17 | |
| 2010 | 0.34 | 11 | |
| 2011 | 0.86 | 73 | |
| 2012 | 0.95 | 112 | |
| 2013 | 0.96 | 148 | |
| 2014 | 0.55 | 86 | |
| 2015 | 0.50 | 80 | |
| 2016 | 0.37 | 53 | |
| 2017 | 0.38 | 44 | |
| 2018 | 0.44 | 46 | |
| 2019 | 0.41 | 41 | |
| 2020 | 0.27 | 24 | |
| 2021 | 0.57 | 49 | |
| 2022 | 0.66 | 52 | |
| 2023 | 1.10 | 72 |
No phrase appears often enough in these complaints to describe them reliably.
No clear early or late pattern.
That is not a clean bill of health, and not a criticism of the agency: investigations open for many reasons and complaint volume is only one of them.
For every car sold, owners filed about as many complaints about the 2021 Optima as about the typical Optima year. Among the 13 Optima years with enough complaints to compare, owners filed the fewest about the 2016 (0.37 per 1,000 sold) and the most about the 2023 (1.10). The typical year is the median across its model years.
The parts owners named most often in complaints filed to date: Electrical System (46), Fuel/Propulsion System (46), Unknown Or Other (33).
Complaint records cannot settle that on their own. They count safety problems owners chose to report to the federal government, not every repair. What they do show is how this year compares with the other Optima years: for every car sold, owners filed about as many complaints about the 2021 Optima as about the typical Optima year.
Among years with enough complaints to compare, the 2016, at 0.37 per 1,000 sold. Every Optima year, ranked.
No guide we read covers the Optima.
Example records behind this page, each on NHTSA’s own site: