2018 Hyundai Kona
This year drew an ordinary 74 complaints for a Hyundai Kona — the model's median is 63. What they were about is the unusual part: 18.9% of them mention put, against 5% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 74 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 63 |
| Involving a crash | 9 |
| Involving a fire | 10 |
| Recalls | 0 |
| EPA combined | 28.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- put — 18.9% of this year's complaints, against 5% across the model's other years (3.8×).
- burning — 13.5% of this year's complaints, against 2.3% across the model's other years (5.8×). Owners wrote it as: burning, recalled, australia.
- mechanic — 17.6% of this year's complaints, against 6.2% across the model's other years (2.8×).
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
Motor started burning oil at the rate of .5 quarts per week and a few months later vehicle failed to accelerate, had major vibrations and hesitation. Piston rings had failed. Verified by dealer. No other symptoms. Numerous problems with same motor reported by…
WHEN GOING FROM GAS TO BRAKE, EVEN AT LOW SPEED THE CAR LURCHES FORWARD, EVEN AFTER THE BRAKE IS COMPRESSED. I HAVE BEEN IN TWO CRASHES NOW WITH THE SAME CAR TIS HAS HAPPENED. I SEE THAT IN AUSTRALIA, OVER 4000 OF THE SAME CARS WERE RECALLED FOR THIS ISSUE. TW…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Hyundai Kona 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 2018 Hyundai Kona? What happened to yours?
Loading comments…