all vehicles · every Sonata year · method

Hyundai Sonata 2013

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

1.09 per 1,000

1.3 times this nameplate’s own median · from 237 complaints filed in the first three years, of 2023 ever. 95% lower bound 0.95.

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 778 complaints

campaign	135	17%
knocking	113	15%
campaign engine	92	12%
seized	91	12%
engine seized	70	9%
engine cooling	57	7%

Steering 353 complaints

clicking	64	18%
left right	63	18%
makes	54	15%
coupler	43	12%
constant	40	11%
clicking noise	31	9%

Electrical System 284 complaints

brake lights	37	13%
bulb	36	13%
tail	35	12%
bulbs	32	11%
brake light	26	9%
tail lights	18	6%

When it breaks

20% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 77,688 miles, from 1194 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

11 investigations covering this model year, 8 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:

10462741 · 10469605 · 10472957 · 10472975 · 10474571 · 10475026

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.