all vehicles · every Sonata year · method

Hyundai Sonata 2016

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

0.54 per 1,000

0.6 times this nameplate’s own median · from 111 complaints filed in the first three years, of 886 ever. 95% lower bound 0.44.

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.

Engine 543 complaints

oil	256	47%
consumption	77	14%
oil consumption	76	14%
burning	66	12%
quarts	39	7%
consumption test	37	7%

Electrical System 137 complaints

check	43	31%
engine light	26	19%
check system	20	15%
hev	17	12%
off engine	11	8%
lighting electrical	10	8%

Unknown Or Other 115 complaints

oil

24%

When it breaks

25% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 60,500 miles, from 358 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

5 investigations covering this model year, 3 of which list a recall campaign.

Loss of Motive Power

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:

10820359 · 10845721 · 10851244 · 10854476 · 10870226 · 10870409

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.