2023 Hyundai Kona
This year drew an ordinary 63 complaints for a Hyundai Kona — the model's median is 74. What they were about is the unusual part: 9.5% of them mention danger, against 3.2% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 63 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 74 |
| Involving a crash | 4 |
| Recalls | 1 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 31 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- danger — 9.5% of this year's complaints, against 3.2% across the model's other years (3×). Owners wrote it as: danger, loaner, loaner vehicle.
- already — 7.9% of this year's complaints, against 3.1% across the model's other years (2.5×). Owners wrote it as: already, pulls, alignment, car pulls.
- distance — 6.3% of this year's complaints, against 2.1% across the model's other years (3×). Owners wrote it as: distance, realized, second dangerous, situation highway.
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
This is the second dangerous situation on the highway. Both were within reasonable speed and distance, and the car couldn't come to a complete stop. This time there was an accident and I hit the car in front of me. I realized the car had a very important brake…
Car pulls to the right since I had it..the dealer did a alignment twice already but it still pulls to the right..they did a alignment at around 5000 miles and again at 8000 miles but it still does it.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 23V526000 POWER TRAIN 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 2023 Hyundai Kona? What happened to yours?
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