2009 Hyundai Santa Fe
This year drew an ordinary 357 complaints for a Hyundai Santa Fe — the model's median is 216. What they were about is the unusual part: 29.7% of them mention fuel, against 1.9% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 1 of the Hyundai Santa Fe, which began in 2007 and ran to 2012. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 357 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 216 |
| Involving a crash | 27 |
| Involving a fire | 5 |
| Recalls | 3 |
| EPA combined | 19.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- fuel — 29.7% of this year's complaints, against 1.9% across the other years of this generation (15.3×).
- gauge — 33.6% of this year's complaints, against 8.8% across the other years of this generation (3.8×). Owners wrote it as: gauge, fuel gauge, empty, gas gauge.
- tank — 30.8% of this year's complaints, against 8.8% across the other years of this generation (3.5×). Owners wrote it as: tank, full, half, gas tank.
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
AFTER FILLING MY GAS TANK, THE FUEL GAUGE ON MY 2009 SANTA FE WOULD READ EMPTY AND THE LOW FUEL LIGHT WOULD ILLUMINATE. IN ADDITION, THE "CHECK ENGINE" LIGHT CAME ON. AFTER DRIVING A FEW MILES THE FUEL GAUGE WOULD FLUCTUATE BETWEEN EMPTY AND HALF FULL. THE MEC…
AFTER FILLING THE GAS TANK, THE GAS GAUGE READ EMPTY, ALONG WITH THE LOW-FUEL WARNING LIGHT. AFTER DRIVING APPROXIMATELY 10 MILES, THE GAUGE THEN APPEARED TO BE FUNCTIONING NORMALLY. THE GAUGE CONTINUES TO MALFUNCTION IF THE GAS TANK IS FILLED. WHEN THE TANK I…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 11E040000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 12V354000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 13V113000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING 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 2009 Hyundai Santa Fe? What happened to yours?
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