Coscienzios

Model years to avoid

Hyundai Elantra

What it says about you

Opinion

The warranty was noticed, the arithmetic was done, and whatever your uncle said about Korean cars in 1998 was correctly ignored. He has still not acknowledged this.

Not measured, not from the data, and offered in fun. Everything below this is not.

22 model years on record, 6,979 complaints filed.

The years to look at closely: 2017 (door), 2013 , 2012 (airbag light). Everything else drew a normal number of complaints for this model.

What owners report, and when

Faults that dominated the complaints of more than one model year. Not the same question as which year to avoid — a car can have an ordinary number of complaints every year and have most of them be about the same thing.

  • steering 2009, 2010 peak 51.4% of that year's complaints
  • bag 2005, 2006 peak 30.7% of that year's complaints
  • seat 2005, 2021, 2022 peak 24.1% of that year's complaints
  • wheel 2009, 2010 peak 24.7% of that year's complaints
  • paint 2017, 2018 peak 9.2% of that year's complaints
  • acceleration 2016, 2018 peak 7.2% of that year's complaints

Every year

  1. 2026 1 recall 1 complaints
  2. 2025 0 recalls 21 complaints
  3. 2024 1 recall 57 complaints
  4. 2023 2 recalls 145 complaints
  5. 2022 5 recalls 97 complaints
  6. 2021 6 recalls 129 complaints
  7. 2020 3 recalls 242 complaints
  8. 2019 1 recall 246 complaints
  9. 2018 0 recalls 280 complaints
  10. 2017 door 762 complaints
  11. 2016 2 recalls 290 complaints
  12. 2015 3 recalls 260 complaints
  13. 2014 2 recalls 382 complaints
  14. 2013 4 recalls 1,326 complaints
  15. 2012 airbag light 673 complaints
  16. 2011 5 recalls 460 complaints
  17. 2010 3 recalls 453 complaints
  18. 2009 4 recalls 282 complaints
  19. 2008 7 recalls 315 complaints
  20. 2007 6 recalls 266 complaints
  21. 2006 1 recall 155 complaints
  22. 2005 4 recalls 137 complaints

What does a Hyundai Elantra say about you?

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Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints — compared against itself rather than against other cars, so popularity and age do not decide the answer.