all vehicles · every Sonata year · method

Hyundai Sonata 2008

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

0.84 per 1,000

1.0 times this nameplate’s own median · from 99 complaints filed in the first three years, of 425 ever. 95% lower bound 0.68.

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.

Air Bags 137 complaints

off light	11	8%
lbs	11	8%
belt light	10	8%
ocs	10	8%

Visibility 67 complaints

visor	58	86%
sun visor	38	57%
stay	33	49%
hangs	15	23%
visor stay	14	21%
side visor	14	21%

Service Brakes 55 complaints

rear	37	67%
rear brakes	23	42%
brake pads	20	37%
wear	15	28%
worn	12	22%
metal	10	19%

When it breaks

21% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 62,000 miles, from 343 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

4 investigations covering this model year, 1 of which list a recall campaign. Owners had filed 466 complaints about this component over roughly 94 months before an investigation opened.

Throttle control system vulnerabilities

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:

10209390 · 10209742 · 10212615 · 10213310 · 10217127 · 10217807

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.