2006 Hyundai Elantra
This year drew an ordinary 155 complaints for a Hyundai Elantra — the model's median is 266. What they were about is the unusual part: 27.7% of them mention brake lights, against 3.9% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 155 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 266 |
| Involving a crash | 28 |
| Recalls | 1 |
| EPA combined | 24 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- brake lights — 27.7% of this year's complaints, against 3.9% across the model's other years (7.1×). Owners wrote it as: brake lights, fuses, light switch, under recall.
- bag — 27.7% of this year's complaints, against 5.2% across the model's other years (5.4×). Owners wrote it as: bag, air bag, bag light, passenger seat.
- airbag — 29% of this year's complaints, against 10.8% across the model's other years (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: airbag, deploy, airbag light, airbags.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
OCCUPANT CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM (OCS) SHOULD BE REPROGRAMMED. NHTSA TSB#0590003 AND HYUNDAI TSB#06-90-010 COVER THE "PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF" LIGHT REMAINS ILLUMINATED WHEN SMALLER STATURED ADULT SITS IN FRONT PASSENGER SEAT, THEREFORE THE AIR BAG WILL NOT DEPLOY…
AIRBAG LIGHT ON DASH ILLUMINATED FOR 10+ YEARS, WILL NOT SHUT OFF. PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF LIGHT IN CENTER CONSOLE WILL NOT ILLUMINATE REGARDLESS OF EVEN WHEN A SMALL STATURED PASSENGER IS PRESENT OR THERE IS NO PASSENGER AT ALL.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 09V280000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Hyundai Elantra was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2006 Hyundai Elantra? What happened to yours?
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