2018 Hyundai Tucson
This year drew an ordinary 388 complaints for a Hyundai Tucson — the model's median is 175. What they were about is the unusual part: 10.1% of them mention accelerating, against 3% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 3 of the Hyundai Tucson, which began in 2016 and ran to 2021. 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 | 388 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 175 |
| Involving a crash | 13 |
| Involving a fire | 9 |
| Recalls | 1 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 24.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- accelerating — 10.1% of this year's complaints, against 3% across the other years of this generation (3.4×). Owners wrote it as: accelerating, oncoming, accelerating stop, creates.
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
Vehicle stalls when accelerating at low speeds. It appears to be a delay when the car transitions from 1st to 2nd gear. This creates a safety concern, especially when taking turns into traffic due to delays/stalls when turning.
Vehicle has judder at slow speeds or hesitation in shifting gears. Has almost stalled while making a left turn at intersection into oncoming traffic or accelerating after stop sign . Dealer updated TCU ECM software, problem got worse. Appears to be a dual clut…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 20V543000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Hyundai Tucson 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 2018 Hyundai Tucson? What happened to yours?
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