2012 Hyundai Santa Fe
This year drew an ordinary 352 complaints for a Hyundai Santa Fe — the model's median is 216. What they were about is the unusual part: 12.5% of them mention rod, against 0.9% across the other years of this generation.
Last year of its generation. This Hyundai Santa Fe ran from 2007 to 2012, 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 | 352 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 216 |
| Involving a crash | 25 |
| Involving a fire | 17 |
| Recalls | 1 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 3/5 |
| EPA combined | 22 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- rod — 12.5% of this year's complaints, against 0.9% across the other years of this generation (13.5×). Owners wrote it as: rod, bearing, connecting, connecting rod.
- noise — 23% of this year's complaints, against 7.8% across the other years of this generation (2.9×). Owners wrote it as: noise, coming engine, started making, informed engine.
- knocking — 10.5% of this year's complaints, against 0.7% across the other years of this generation (14.2×). Owners wrote it as: knocking, engine started.
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
CATASTROPHIC ENGINE FAILURE ON THE HIGHWAY AT 112K MILES. CONNECTING ROD THROUGH THE BLOCK. THIS SAME ENGINE HAS BEEN RECALLED IN SONATAS AND KIA SORENTOS OF THE SAME YEAR, BUT FOR SOME REASON NOT THE SANTA FE. THE SONATA AND SORENTOS WERE RECALLED DUE TO MANU…
A connecting rod bearings in the engine wore out prematurely and damaged the engine while driving with my family. The car was not responding almost causing a catastrophe, I experienced mental distress and triggered my PTSD. When taken to the mechanic for inspe…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 20V746000 ENGINE 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 2012 Hyundai Santa Fe? What happened to yours?
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