Hyundai Sonata

Hyundai Sonata Reviews

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Overall Rating2.6 out of 5
See all 105 reviews & ratings

About Hyundai Sonata Reviews

The Hyundai Sonata is a mid-size car that debuted in 1985. Read more Hyundai reviews to learn about other models.


Hyundai Sonata Reviews

ConsumerAffairs has collected 105 reviews and 880 ratings.

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Page 1 Reviews 0 - 10
Coverage

Reviewed Sept. 13, 2023

We purchased a 2011 Hyundai Sonata from the Hyundai dealer in 2011 with only 7000 miles. I have meticulously cared for this car. It has always been garage kept, oil changed at 5000 miles, and all recalls performed. In 2021. I noticed it started excessively using oil with well under 100,000 miles on it. Took it to the original selling dealer and was told it was not covered under the hundred thousand mile warranty because I was not the original owner. Very frustrating when you buy for less superior car for the warranty and the company won’t stand behind their product.

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Reliability

Reviewed July 11, 2023

I bought the car in October 22 and it was working fine. On Saturday, July 1st, I went to have dinner with my family and the car would not start. The was smoke at the back of the car. The car was towed the next morning and the service department at Hyundai told me I had to wait at least a month for the car to be inspected. Therefore, until the car is inspected I don’t have a loaner or a rental car, so I’m spending an insane amount of money in Uber. I was told that after the inspection it may take 4 or 5 months for the car to be repaired. We’re talking about a new car with an allegedly defective engine. It is not my fault the car doesn’t start. I need a solution ASAP.

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    Customer ServiceCoverage

    Reviewed June 26, 2023

    I bought a brand-new Hyundai Sonata on March 11 in Minnesota. Two months later, I moved to Colorado and on the way the car broke down with 1,353 miles on it in a desolate area of Colorado. It had to be towed to Greeley, Colorado. At first, I was told by the service manager at 5:05 p.m. on May 22, before the car would be looked at the next day, that I might have put bad gas in the car and then it wouldn't be covered under warranty. He estimated the repair cost could be $8,000 to $9,000 in such a scenario. Obviously, that caused me a sleepless night. The next day, however, I was informed that the car had a bad fuel injector and was covered. I was given a loaner car while it took it took several days to repair but I did have to drive four hours round trip back to retrieve my vehicle.

    It was indicated to me that I would be entitled for some trip interruption reimbursement due to having to spend a night in Greeley under my own expense before I was to go to Denver two hours down the road where I would stay free with my brother. I also had some other costs. I was sent an email May 25 by a woman named Katy, who said she was my case manager at Hyundai, asking for information. I responded in full to that email on May 29. Since then, Katy has mostly ignored all my emails and voicemails. She did call me once on June 12 and promised she would call me back in a half hour because I was busy. Two weeks have gone by and she has never called back despite numerous emails and voicemails.

    I have spoken to several supervisors at Hyundai customer service and they claim that it will be looked into but nothing has happened and four weeks have gone by. My car has been running fine since being repaired but who knows what the future holds for it. But considering the customer service I have received, I certainly am having regrets about having bought a vehicle from Hyundai.

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    Customer Service

    Reviewed May 31, 2023

    Bought a new 2017 Sonata and within a year paint was peeling off. Hyundai said not their problem. The engine burns 4 quarts of oil in 2500 miles. Hyundai knows this is an issue and that the engine will need replaced but has had me jumping through hoops for 6 months and every time I do what they tell me to do, they add something new. Absolutely horrible experience and I wouldn't drive another Hyundai if they gave it to me for free. Horrible car. Horrible customer service. Horrible company.

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    Punctuality & SpeedStaff

    Reviewed May 12, 2023

    First time Hyundai buyer. Picked up the Sonata N line. Started having problems with it about 8500 miles. Brought it in for service, they didn’t repair it. They claim they couldn’t duplicate problem. Left dealership immediately. Had same problems. Rescheduled an appointment, once again they couldn’t duplicate problems. Contacted Hyundai corporate, what a waste of time. They scheduled my appointment at a new dealership. What a waste of time again. Had a case manager Leena, this lady could care less about my problems with the car. The car sat at the second dealership for a week and Leena claimed they were still diagnosing car.

    I received a call a week after car sat on lot. Leena told me they haven’t looked at the car and they were 3 weeks back logged. No one whatsoever notified me of this prior to bringing car back n. Hyundai is a joke. Along with their dealerships. Save your money. Do your research on Hyundai. It’s horrendous the amount of issues and complaints against them.

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    Customer ServicePunctuality & SpeedStaff

    Reviewed May 6, 2023

    Owned 6 vehicles before my Sonata, this is by far the worst vehicle. They sell extend warranties which they keep you from using, it is a lie you can use it. Multiple engine issues early on. Sue them under the lemon law quickly if that is happening to you!! At 60 k oil was burning, start from 0-10 has hesitation, bucking of engine, knocking or clicking on acceleration, my engine is falling apart. However the True issue in what an unprofessional company this is becomes evident when you ask for help——no calls, mistakes by Case management, you have to pay for your engine issues out of pocket, delay contact or tactical postponing so they don’t have to pay for issues, etc. Zero accountability from this company, horrendous communication and they stonewall you. Expect them to ignore you.

    I had a case under 4 case numbers, multiple case managers at their National office which seem to be high school drop outs. Don’t be fooled by the customer service dept. kindness as it fades when it reaches their National office and nothing is done. This company should be banned as they don’t care for customers but lie and steal American people’s money. Ban them from the US!!!! Corrupt, unprofessional, false apologies, only want your money. You have been warned, a nightmare, all these reviews are real. It is incorrect they are 3.5 stars, it should be 1 star. My fear is that I will have a car loan and a dead car they just ignore. My car is just 4 years old, but issues began at 3 years.

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    Reviewed March 1, 2023

    I urge ANY and EVERYONE who reads this review to STAY AWAY from Hyundai! My wife purchased her car in 2016. The car she purchased was a 2013 Hyundai Sonata. The ran marvelous throughout the years she has had UNTIL about 3 weeks ago. My wife sent me a picture of her check engine light all of a sudden turning on and her oil light blinked and went away. My initial thought was that her car was low on oil, so I put oil in her car and everything ran fine. When my wife gets off from work, she proceeds to drive her car and all of a sudden her car stalls and turns off, IN THE MIDDLE OF HER DRIVING ON THE INTERSTATE!!

    She manages to get her car off the interstate and onto the shoulder. She calls emergency services and they send someone out to assist us with getting the car off the interstate. Once we get the car to a safe location, the emergency services guy and myself began to inspect the vehicle to see if it could be the battery. We replace the battery and think that is the fix, well it wasn't. We get the car to start and the car is able to run but turns off again, it did the same thing it did when she was driving on the interstate. The car won't hold a charge and it sounds like something is knocking in the engine. Ultimately we ended up getting the car towed to our house.

    The next day comes and I call Hyundai's corporate hotline to see if were are any recalls for her car and they said no. Come to find out the campaign closed and no one from Hyundai got in touch with us. We are a military family so we do move after every couple years but my wife's number has stayed the same and when we move, we make sure to get our mail forwarded. Anyways, the agent on the phone tells us that there may be a recall and to take the vehicle to a Hyundai dealer.

    We take the car to a local mechanic shop and he tells us that the engine is falling apart from the inside out. We find a Hyundai dealer and take the car there. Come to find out, there is a recall for her engine. The service member gets the info for the car and does a write up to get the request sent up to Hyundai's recall decision center. While the service agent is doing the write up, he tells us that she is not the only person having this issue. He shows us a half of phone book thick of other people who are having recalls for the same issue.

    Fast forward a couple days, we get the vehicle towed to Hyundai, the write up is done and Hyundai DENIED to get the recall fixed. Their reasoning is "engine neglect" and that a piece of the engine is not covered under the recall. We ask, how is it "engine neglect" when we take the car to get regular oil changes and maintenance done on the car. We have receipts of oil changes and repairs that were performed on the vehicle. We call up to Hyundai to get a case a number and to talk with the case manager who denied the claim; the misses who wrote gave us our case number was very helpful and understanding. She tells us we have to 3 to 5 business days for the case manager to get in touch with us.

    Fast forward to the 5th day of waiting and we get a call from the case manager. We ask him why was the recall denied when we have taken car of the vehicle since we have had it in 2016, and he begins to tell us that since we did not take the vehicle to a certified Hyundai dealer and don't have records of the oil changes and maintenance, that was the ultimate deciding factor. There are plenty of ASE certified mechanics and shops that know how to work Hyundais and other brands of cars. Everything that was described in the recall for the Hyundai engines happened to my wife's car. Ultimately, I would suggest to not buy a Hyundai. Hyundai will NEVER get our business again and I will be sure to let EVERYONE I know to not buy a Hyundai.

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    Reviewed Feb. 12, 2023

    I don't have any negative feedback on the Reliable Hyundai. However, my feedback is about Hyundai itself. I have a Sonata 2013 with 130K mileage. Recently, its engine started making noises and burning oil. When I took it to the Hyundai, they said this car has an extended warranty due to having this type of issue, and its engine needs to be replaced. But, before doing that, they need to run some test and send it to the corporation for approval.

    After about three weeks, they told me that Hyundai hadn't approved because my car passed one of the tests, and they could not replace the engine unless I paid 9k for replacement. I have been in a financial crisis for the last few months, and this incident happened to my car. If this model has had tons of recalls due to the engine problem, mine should not be excluded, even though it passed one of the tests. I was asking myself why I bought a car from a car manufacturing company that does not have supportive and responsive customer service. Besides, I had to pay over a thousand dollars to rent a car while they had my car, and in the end, they charged me 350 dollars for the diagnosis. If you ask me, I would never recommend buying a car from Hyundai.

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    Reviewed Dec. 21, 2022

    My engine has failed, and my steering wheel column has locked. I had the software update on my engine with Napleton that qualified me for a lifetime engine replacement. I submitted maintenance records for my car and pictures of my valvetrain that are well maintained, and Hyundai denied my engine claim for exceptional maintenance neglect on Dec 8. On December 14th, after reviewing my oil changes, they still denied me for using low quality oil that's obscured. The problem I am having with my car is oil not being able to get to the pistons inside my engine. It's not fair to customers when the company know their engines have a manufacture defect.

    Then they blame the customers for lack of maintenance to have an excuse not to replacing the engine. Knowing that with or without oil changes in the Hyundai sonata 2011 -2012 models the engines will eventually seize anyway. I've reached out to their company over 300 times trying to resolve this matter and I'm still in the same place I started at a month ago. I want to sue for pain and suffering. I've been without a car since Nov 9, and it's Dec 20. Hyundai has put me and my family life in danger on numerous occasions, with their faulty and defective parts causing two near-death experiences. Hyundai Sonata has had a recall on every part, and I consider them unsafe and dangerous.

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    Reviewed Nov. 17, 2022

    I bought my 2021 Sonata Limited off the lot in April. It was a decent car until it hit about the 1 year mark. I then started having problems with my car where it would shake and lost all power. It was towed to the nearest dealership. Even though the check engine light had come on and told them the problem b/c the car wasn't do it anymore they made me come get it. Less than 24hrs later it did it again and I had to have it towed for the 2nd time. They had it for over a week and didn't do anything to fix it. Gave it back, was driving on the freeway at 85 and lost all power again. Towed again to different dealership-they had it for over a week and said it was fixed. Drove it home and less than a week doing the same thing. Towed to another dealership-They had it for 2 weeks and finally "fixed" it. The car doesn't have the power it used to have and doesn't run right.

    About a month ago my check engine light came on again, took it in and was the Catalytic converter-They tried to fix it, stripped bolts and had to take the turbo off and send it to an outside machine shop. They had my car for 3 weeks. Runs sluggish, no get up and go anymore and Hyundai won't do anything for me. Worst part is I have a Palisade and that car is starting to fall apart at just 40k. Stay away. they are terrible

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    Hyundai Sonata Company Information

    Company Name:
    Hyundai Sonata
    Website:
    www.hyundaiusa.com