2020 Kia Forte: Sell It Now Before the Engine Problems Get Worse

The setup

You bought a 2020 Kia Forte because it was affordable, practical, and got you from A to B without drama. Six years later, you are reading about engine failures in other Kia models and wondering if your car is next. You should be wondering. The question is not whether to keep driving it, the question is how fast you can list it for sale before the engine decides for you.

The 2020 Forte is now six years old, firmly in the danger zone where deferred maintenance meets design flaws. If you still owe money on it, the math gets uglier every month. If you own it outright, you have a window to exit with cash instead of a tow bill. We will show you the federal data, work through the numbers, and tell you exactly what to do.

What NHTSA data actually shows

As of September 23, 2026, NHTSA has 76 owner complaints on file for the 2020 Kia Forte with zero safety recalls. Those complaints include 9 crashes, 2 fires, and 6 injuries. The most-complained-about system is the engine with 18 complaints, followed by the power train with 16 complaints and the electrical system with 11 complaints. Air bags and forward collision avoidance each drew 5 complaints, and vehicle speed control generated 4.

Eighteen engine complaints in a single model year is not normal wear and tear. These are owners who were angry or scared enough to file federal paperwork. One owner filed this with NHTSA: "The engine has failed in this vehicle just like it has in other 2.0L kia vehicles 2020-2026. The piston rings have failed and the pistons have all pitted or developed holes in them just like in the recall 25V-099/kia safety recall SC336." Read that again. Piston rings. Holes in pistons. A recall number for other models but not yours.

Another owner reported: "Engine burning excessive oil over a quart in 1000 miles. Catalytic converter code P0420 because of the excessive oil burning. Oil was always changed within the specified dealer milage range." This is someone who followed the maintenance schedule and still watched their engine consume oil like a two-stroke dirt bike. A quart every 1,000 miles means you are adding five quarts between oil changes if you follow a 5,000-mile interval. That is not a car, that is a mechanical patient on life support.

A third owner described camshaft failure: "I experienced a check engine light and had the vehicle diagnosed with codes P0017 and P0014. The vehicle was taken to a Kia dealership, where the technician found that the exhaust camshaft was free-spinning without the phaser and that the pin connecting the..." The quote cuts off, but the picture is clear. Internal engine components are failing while the vehicle is still relatively young.

The 2020 Forte earned 4 out of 5 stars overall in NHTSA crash testing, with 4 stars frontal, 5 stars side, and 4 stars rollover. Rollover probability sits at 10.7 percent. The safety cage is fine. The problem is the powertrain that moves that cage down the road.

If you own a bluetooth obd2 scanner, plug it in today. A stored code for camshaft position or oil pressure is your early warning that you are about to join the complaint list. If you are seeing oil consumption and want to try one low-cost intervention before the shop quotes you four figures, sea foam motor treatment is the Hail Mary. But understand that you are treating symptoms of a design problem, not fixing the root cause.

The math

Let's say you owe $8,000 on the Forte at 6.5 percent interest with two years left on the loan. Your payment is around $357 per month. You could refinance to a lower rate if your credit improved, but you would still be making payments on a car with 18 engine complaints and zero recalls.

Here is what the next 12 months might look like if you keep it:

Now assume you sell it today for $9,500 (your assumption, not ours). You pay off the $8,000 loan, pocket $1,500, and buy a $6,000 Honda Fit with 90,000 miles and no engine complaints. You drop to liability-only insurance at $50 per month. Your annual cost drops to $600 in insurance plus $400 in maintenance, total $1,000. You eliminate loan payments and you eliminate the engine failure risk. You are $8,000 ahead over the next 12 months, and you are driving something that will start every morning.

The sell or keep decision often comes down to emotion. This one should not. You are holding a depreciating asset with a documented failure mode and no manufacturer recall to force a fix. Every month you wait is a gamble that the engine holds together long enough to sell it to someone else.

What we recommend

Sell the 2020 Kia Forte now. List it this week. Be honest in the ad about oil consumption if you are seeing it, because the new owner will figure it out anyway and you do not need the legal trouble. If the engine is still running clean, you have a narrow window before the piston rings or camshaft phaser decide otherwise.

If you owe more than the car is worth, sell it anyway and finance the difference on a personal loan or credit card if you must. A $2,000 deficit on a personal loan at 11 percent costs you less than a $5,000 engine replacement six months from now. Check the market pulse to see what used Fortes are actually selling for, not what Kelley Blue Book daydreams about.

Do not trade it in unless the dealer offers you private-party money. Dealers know about the Kia engine problems. They will lowball you and then wholesale the car to someone who does not read NHTSA complaints.

Use the sale proceeds to buy something with a timing chain, not a belt, and a naturally aspirated four-cylinder with a decade of complaint data showing it is boring and reliable. Boring is good. Boring gets you to work.

What would change our mind

A recall. If Kia issues a recall covering the 2020 Forte 2.0L engine for piston ring or camshaft failures and offers a free replacement engine or long-block, then you keep it and let them fix it. As of today, that recall does not exist for your model year even though owners are citing recalls for 2020-2026 Kia engines in other models.

Documented oil consumption under one quart per 3,000 miles with no check engine lights and no metal in the oil. If you are at 80,000 miles and the engine is still tight, you might have one of the good ones. But 76 complaints on file means the odds are not in your favor, and you are six years into a depreciation curve that does not recover.

An extended warranty that explicitly covers internal engine failure with no oil consumption exclusion and a $200 or lower deductible. Read the contract. Most aftermarket warranties have a clause that voids coverage if you cannot produce oil change receipts every 5,000 miles, and they will use any excuse to deny a $4,500 engine claim.

Short of those three scenarios, the data says sell.

Bottom line

The 2020 Kia Forte has 18 engine complaints, 16 powertrain complaints, and owners reporting piston failure, oil consumption, and camshaft problems. It has zero recalls. That combination tells you everything. Kia knows about the problems and has not acted. You do not wait around to become complaint number 77. Sell it now, take the cash or eat the small loss, and buy something that does not burn a quart of oil every 1,000 miles. Your future self, standing on the side of the highway with a seized engine and a tow bill, will thank you.

Safety figures on this page come from the NHTSA public complaint and recall database for the 2020 Kia Forte, retrieved 2026-09-23. Complaint counts reflect reports filed by owners and are not verified defect findings.