2005 Hyundai Santa Fe
This year drew an ordinary 216 complaints for a Hyundai Santa Fe — the model's median is 235. What they were about is the unusual part: 32.9% of them mention belt, against 12.7% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 216 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 235 |
| Involving a crash | 18 |
| Recalls | 3 |
| EPA combined | 18.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- belt — 32.9% of this year's complaints, against 12.7% across the model's other years (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: belt, seat belt, sensor, buckle.
- bag — 31% of this year's complaints, against 11.9% across the model's other years (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: bag, air bag, illuminated, bag light.
- seat — 19.4% of this year's complaints, against 3.8% across the model's other years (5.1×).
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
UPON STARTING THE VEHICLE OR WHILE DRIVING VARIOUS SPEEDS, THE AIR BAG WARNING INDICATOR ILLUMINATED. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO AN INDEPENDENT MECHANIC FOR DIAGNOSTIC TESTING AND A CODE FOR THE FRONT PASSENGER SEAT BELT SENSOR WAS DETECTED. THE CONTACT WAS ADVI…
THE AIR BAG WARNING INDICATOR WAS ILLUMINATED. THE FAILURE OCCURRED A FEW TIMES. THE DEALER STATED THAT THE AIR BAG WOULD NOT DEPLOY DUE TO A FAILURE WITHIN THE SEAT BELT BUCKLE SWITCH ON THE FRONT DRIVER SIDE. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT REPAIRED. THE [VIN] WAS NOT N…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 14V435000 SUSPENSION Fixed free of charge.
- 05V527000 AIR BAGS
- 05V450000 AIR BAGS
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 2005 Hyundai Santa Fe? What happened to yours?
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