all vehicles · every Sonata year · method

Hyundai Sonata 2011

Safety complaints filed by owners in the first three years, per 1,000 sold.

2.95 per 1,000

3.5 times this nameplate’s own median · from 624 complaints filed in the first three years, of 3469 ever. 95% lower bound 2.72.

Against its own model years

The model year carries far more information than the badge, so this is the comparison that matters.

Model year	Per 1,000	Complaints
2008	0.84	99
2009	0.67	79
2010	0.20	32
2011	2.95	624
2012	0.90	205
2013	1.09	237
2014	0.39	82
2015	0.94	203
2016	0.54	111
2017	0.80	132
2018	0.85	101
2019	0.31	30
2020	0.73	60
2021	0.82	66
2022	0.97	66
2023	1.70	79

What owners describe

Phrases over-represented in these complaints compared with the same component on every other vehicle. Counts are complaints containing the phrase.

Steering 1189 complaints

clicking	222	19%
coupler	162	14%
pulls	125	11%
clicking noise	115	10%
coupling	96	8%
steering coupler	92	8%

Engine 1007 complaints

campaign	209	21%
campaign engine	151	15%
knocking	141	14%
seized	132	13%
engine seized	98	10%
engine however	68	7%

Electrical System 460 complaints

brake	116	25%
button	48	10%
pedal	44	10%
brake lights	43	9%
push	43	9%
horn	36	8%

When it breaks

22% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 75,000 miles, from 2577 complaints that recorded one).

Failures arrive late and spread out, which looks like wear. Service history matters more than model year here.

What NHTSA did

10 investigations covering this model year, 7 of which list a recall campaign. Owners had filed 272 complaints about this component over roughly 65 months before an investigation opened.

Non-crash Vehicle Fires

What owners and forums say

Not built yet. This panel is meant to carry community sentiment beside the filed-complaint data, so the two can be compared. Showing something weaker here would defeat its purpose.

Check this yourself

Example records behind this page:

10320556 · 10322666 · 10326949 · 10327508 · 10327799 · 10328355

Limits of this figure. It counts safety complaints filed with the federal government, which is a floor on failures and not a census: problems that only cost money are under-reported. Complaint rates also reflect how likely a brand’s owners are to file, which cannot be separated from how often the car fails. Sales are calendar-year and the denominator for this nameplate is automated checks only, not verified against an external source.