Model years › Hyundai Sonata Hybrid

2012 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid

Complaints about this year name mechanic far more often than the model's other years — 16% of them, about 41× the usual rate of 0.4%.

NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.

What the complaints were about

• independent — 14.9% of this year's complaints, against 4% across the model's other years (3.7×). Owners wrote it as: independent, independent mechanic, driving various, various speeds.
• various — 10.4% of this year's complaints, against 3.5% across the model's other years (3×). Owners wrote it as: various, mechanics, blvd.
• trying — 9.1% of this year's complaints, against 3% across the model's other years (3×). Owners wrote it as: trying, try, miles per, trying get.

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.

Also unusual this year

• pedal — 16% of complaints, 39× usual
• manufacturer made — 15% of complaints, 37× usual
• transmission — 14% of complaints, 34× usual

What owners wrote

while driving at an undisclosed speed and depressing the brake pedal, the vehicle lunged forward. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic and diagnosed with automatic transmission failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not made aw…

while driving at various speeds, the vehicle hesitated and stalled while depressing the accelerator pedal. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact had taken the vehicle to multiple independent mechanics who were all unable to diagnose the failure d…

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.

Recalls for this year

• 20V746000 ENGINE Fixed free of charge.
• 20V393000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
• 17V617000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
• 18V137000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
• 17V152000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
• 23V651000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.

Own a 2012 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid? What happened to yours?

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How this was worked out

Every year of the Hyundai Sonata Hybrid 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.

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