2011 Hyundai Sonata
Complaints about this year name steering column far more often than the other years of this generation — 8% of them, about 3× the usual rate of 2.8%.
First year of a new generation. The Hyundai Sonata was redesigned for 2011. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 3,373 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 366 |
| Involving a crash | 116 |
| Involving a fire | 112 |
| Recalls | 14 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 26 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- column — 9.2% of this year's complaints, against 3% across the other years of this generation (3.1×). Owners wrote it as: column, steering column.
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
CLUNKING NOISE FROM STEERING COLUMN WHEN PARKED WHILE TURNING WHEEL AND DRIVING OVER BUMPS.
THE STEERING COLUMN COUPLER IS CLANKING AND NEEDS TO BE REPLACED PER HYUNDAI DEALER'S SERVICE DEPARTMENT.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 18V934000 ENGINE 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.
- 14V433000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
- 16V190000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
- 15V568000 ENGINE Fixed free of charge.
- 15V629000 SUSPENSION Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 14. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Hyundai Sonata 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 2011 Hyundai Sonata? What happened to yours?
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