2006 Hyundai Santa Fe
This year drew an ordinary 106 complaints for a Hyundai Santa Fe — the model's median is 235. What they were about is the unusual part: 24.5% of them mention brake, against 7.1% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 106 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 235 |
| Involving a crash | 11 |
| Involving a fire | 3 |
| Recalls | 1 |
| EPA combined | 18.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- brake — 24.5% of this year's complaints, against 7.1% across the model's other years (3.5×).
- switch — 15.1% of this year's complaints, against 3.6% across the model's other years (4.2×). Owners wrote it as: switch, brake lights, brake light, lamp.
- spring — 15.1% of this year's complaints, against 4.8% across the model's other years (3.2×). Owners wrote it as: spring, coil, coil spring, smd.
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 CONTACT NOTICED THAT THE BRAKE LIGHTS FAILED INTERMITTENTLY. THE [VIN] WAS MADE AWARE OF THE FAILURE BUT OFFERED NO ASSISTANCE. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO A PRIVATE MECHANIC WHO ADVISED THE CONTACT TO HAVE THE BRAKE LIGHT SWITCH REPLACED. NO REPAIRS WERE PER…
THE FRONT DRIVER SIDE COIL SPRING FRACTURED WHILE REVERSING FROM A DRIVEWAY. THE CONTACT SPOKE WITH THE [VIN] AND WAS TOLD THERE WAS NOTHING THAT COULD BE DONE TO ASSIST WITH THE FAILURE. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT REPAIRED. THE FAILURE AND THE CURRENT MILEAGES WERE…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 14V435000 SUSPENSION Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Hyundai Santa Fe 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 Santa Fe? What happened to yours?
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