2020 Hyundai Elantra
This year drew an ordinary 242 complaints for a Hyundai Elantra — the model's median is 266. What they were about is the unusual part: 13.6% of them mention forward, against 5% across the other years of this generation.
Last year of its generation. This Hyundai Elantra ran from 2017 to 2020, so it had the whole run for its faults to be found and fixed. Last years are usually the most sorted of a generation.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 242 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 266 |
| Involving a crash | 20 |
| Involving a fire | 6 |
| Recalls | 3 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 34 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- forward — 13.6% of this year's complaints, against 5% across the other years of this generation (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: forward, messages, forward collision, concerns.
- high — 12.4% of this year's complaints, against 3.9% across the other years of this generation (3.2×). Owners wrote it as: high, beam, high beam, beams.
- illuminated contact — 8.3% of this year's complaints, against 2.4% across the other years of this generation (3.5×). Owners wrote it as: illuminated contact, residence, failure related, lost control.
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
The high beam shutter that switches from high to low is not working. The car has 68,000 and I don't think this is something that should not work at that low mileage considering it is not in use all the time. I just dont see how it stops working all of a sudden…
while his son was driving at an undisclosed speed, the Lane Assist safety feature failed to function as intended. The messages “Forward Collision Avoidance”, and “Lane Assist Camera Disabled” were displayed. The vehicle was taken to a local dealer, where it wa…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 21V301000 ENGINE Fixed free of charge.
- 19V720000 WHEELS Fixed free of charge.
- 19V721000 SUSPENSION 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 2020 Hyundai Elantra? What happened to yours?
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