Kia Niro SUV - Reliability & safety (2016-2022)

Kia’s renowned seven-year/100,000-mile warranty is more attractive than that of the Toyota Prius, which comes with a five-year guarantee as standard. It's worth noting however, that Toyota customers can extend their warranty up to 10 years, simply by having their car serviced at a franchised dealer – a perk that even Kia can't match.

While the Niro’s clever hybrid powertrain is still relatively new, plenty of other components in the car are found elsewhere in the Kia range and so have been well proven. The Niro also comes with plenty of safety equipment as standard, including autonomous emergency braking and lane-keeping assistance.

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Kia Niro reliability

The Kia Niro made an incredible Driver Power ownership survey debut in 2018, taking second place out of 75 cars with an overall satisfaction score of 93.07%. Owners praised the car’s infotainment system (which itself ranked first for user-friendliness), interior, seats, comfortable ride and safety features, although some would have liked a larger boot. Performance was the only other area where the Niro wasn’t quite up to some owners’ expectations. It only slipped slightly to fourth position in our 2020 results, with reliability and build quality rated highly, and in our 2021 results it still commands 15th place.

Kia as a brand performed strongly in our 2021 Driver Power survey, finishing second overall out of 29 manufacturers – well ahead of its Korean counterpart Hyundai (16th), as well as rivals including SEAT (15th), Toyota (fifth) and Suzuki (14th).

Safety

The Kia Niro received a 'dual rating' from Euro NCAP; the standard car achieved a four-star safety rating, while a model featuring the optional 'advanced driving assistance pack' was awarded the full five stars thanks to the significant improvements to scores in the pedestrian protection and safety assist categories. Equipment required to make the Niro a five-star car is now fitted as standard.

As standard, the Niro gets seven airbags, ISOFIX child-seat anchor points and electronic stability management. There's also a range of advanced driver aids for even greater safety, including autonomous emergency braking (can apply the brakes to avoid a collision), adaptive cruise control (maintains a safe distance from the car in front) , lane-departure warning, lane-keeping assistance (automatically steers you back into your lane if the car starts to wander), blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert (keeps an eye out for approaching cars when you’re reversing out of a driveway or parking space).