2018 Hyundai Santa Fe
This year drew an ordinary 108 complaints for a Hyundai Santa Fe — the model's median is 235. What they were about is the unusual part: 8.3% of them mention malfunction, against 2.8% across the other years of this generation.
Last year of its generation. This Hyundai Santa Fe ran from 2013 to 2018, 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 | 108 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 235 |
| Involving a crash | 6 |
| Involving a fire | 4 |
| Recalls | 2 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 20 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- malfunction — 8.3% of this year's complaints, against 2.8% across the other years of this generation (3×). Owners wrote it as: malfunction, cvvt, paying, very hard.
- april — 6.5% of this year's complaints, against 2.5% across the other years of this generation (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: april, column, steering column, themselves.
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
I have noticed for the past year that my steering column feels loose. It makes a popping noise and really makes noise on rough pavement. I feel like the steering wheel is just gonna come off into my hands. It's very loose to turn and you can feel the pops with…
Reverse Camera malfunctioning most days. A few days a year it works, but usually it's just a blue screen. Other 3 cameras work fine all the time.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 18V118000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
- 22V056000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC 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 2018 Hyundai Santa Fe? What happened to yours?
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