2019 Hyundai Elantra
This year drew an ordinary 246 complaints for a Hyundai Elantra — the model's median is 266. What they were about is the unusual part: 21.5% of them mention headlights, against 7.9% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 3 of the Hyundai Elantra, which began in 2017 and ran to 2020. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 246 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 266 |
| Involving a crash | 12 |
| Involving a fire | 3 |
| Recalls | 1 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 30.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- headlights — 21.5% of this year's complaints, against 7.9% across the other years of this generation (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: headlights, dim, bulbs, bright.
- night — 10.6% of this year's complaints, against 2.9% across the other years of this generation (3.7×). Owners wrote it as: night, stop working, dealership said.
- exact — 7.7% of this year's complaints, against 2.5% across the other years of this generation (3.1×). Owners wrote it as: exact, exact same, same engine, turning off.
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
SINCE I BOUGHT THE CAR I NOTICED A LACK OF CONSIDERABLE LIGHT OUTPUT COMING FROM THE FRONT HEADLIGHTS. TURNING ON THE BRIGHTS IS JUST WORST AS IT LOWERS THE LINE OF SIGHT INSTEAD OF INCREASING IT. THE OVERALL LIGHTS ARE DIM. CHANGING THE BULBS DOES NOTHING. TH…
Both Front headlamp assemblies broken hi beam mechanism. My cars headlights burn out every couple months and the bright lights will not work. I took to a Hyundai dealership on 03/28/2026 who told me it would be $5,333.30 to fix. I have done nothing to cause th…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 21V301000 ENGINE 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 2019 Hyundai Elantra? What happened to yours?
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