2020 Hyundai Kona
This year drew an ordinary 154 complaints for a Hyundai Kona — the model's median is 63. What they were about is the unusual part: 14.9% of them mention engine however, against 1.9% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 154 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 63 |
| Involving a crash | 8 |
| Involving a fire | 3 |
| Recalls | 2 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 29 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- engine however — 14.9% of this year's complaints, against 1.9% across the model's other years (7.8×). Owners wrote it as: engine however, amount time, dealer made, case opened.
- safety recall — 7.8% of this year's complaints, against 2.3% across the model's other years (3.4×). Owners wrote it as: safety recall, writes, regards, consumer writes.
- heard — 8.4% of this year's complaints, against 2.9% across the model's other years (2.9×). Owners wrote it as: heard, under hood.
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
2020 HYUNDAI KONA. CONSUMER WRITES IN REGARDS TO NHTSA SAFETY RECALL 21V-301. THE CONSUMER STATED THE VEHICLE FAILED AS DESCRIBED IN SAFETY RECALL 21V-301. THE DEALER REFUSED TO HONOR THE RECALL AND REPAIR THE VEHICLE.
notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 21V301000 (Engine) however, the part to do the recall repair was not available. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle stalled on three separate occasions. The vehicle was towed to the deale…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 21V301000 ENGINE Fixed free of charge.
- 20V022000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
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 2020 Hyundai Kona? What happened to yours?
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