all vehicles · every Santa Fe year · method

Hyundai Santa Fe 2014

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

0.73 per 1,000

0.7 times this nameplate’s own median · from 72 complaints filed in the first three years, of 657 ever. 95% lower bound 0.56.

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	1.00	71
2009	0.54	41
2010	1.20	94
2011	0.71	54
2012	1.42	103
2013	1.93	154
2014	0.73	72
2015	0.30	34
2016	0.26	32
2017	1.97	260
2018	0.55	69
2019	0.59	72
2020	0.47	54
2021	1.07	114
2022	1.35	156
2023	1.83	230

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 368 complaints

engine	316	86%
knocking	58	16%
seized	47	13%
rod	38	10%
bearing	34	9%
engine seized	33	9%

Service Brakes 88 complaints

part recall	36	39%
hydraulic however	36	39%
however part	35	38%
repair yet	28	31%
yet exceeded	24	26%
confirms	22	24%

Electrical System 71 complaints

abs	18	26%
hood	11	16%

When it breaks

25% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 63,000 miles, from 350 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

7 investigations covering this model year, 4 of which list a recall campaign. Owners had filed 604 complaints about this component over roughly 109 months before an investigation opened.

Hyundai and Kia ABS Module 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:

10561728 · 10561808 · 10574616 · 10574617 · 10579526 · 10579617

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.