2021 Hyundai Santa Fe
This year drew an ordinary 164 complaints for a Hyundai Santa Fe — the model's median is 235. What they were about is the unusual part: 7.3% of them mention set, against 2.4% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 3 of the Hyundai Santa Fe, which began in 2019 and ran to 2023. 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 | 164 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 235 |
| Involving a crash | 4 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 7 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 24.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- set — 7.3% of this year's complaints, against 2.4% across the other years of this generation (3.1×). Owners wrote it as: set, office, without incident.
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
My vehicle loses power on the highway intermittently. I had my car set on cruise control at 55 and with no other vehicle in front of me the speed decreased to 45. It frequently sputters going up hills. My car has had 4 oil leaks.
17551 mileage. Parked vehicle. Placed in Park, set parking brake. Drivers seat moved full forward and leaned forward pinning me against the steering wheel forcing the breath out of me before I was able to stop the spontaneous movement. Restricted my breathing…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 21V524000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 21V00M000 VISIBILITY Fixed free of charge.
- 21V185000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 21V308000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 22V746000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 23V181000 TRAILER HITCHES Fixed free of charge.
- 24V879000 BACK OVER PREVENTION 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 2021 Hyundai Santa Fe? What happened to yours?
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