2023 HYUNDAI SANTA FE HYBRID Complaints

The contact owned a 2023 Hyundai Santa Fe. The contact stated that his partner was driving at 50 MPH, a light ahead had just turned red, with two vehicles stopped just a couple of feet ahead of her, the contact stated that his partner had proceeded to frantically attempt to brake, however, the vehicle did not brake in time, and the automatic braking assist did not initiate. The complete front end of the vehicle was destroyed, as the vehicle crashed into the vehicle ahead. There was no property damage. The vehicle came to a stop after the crash. The driver's side air bags were deployed, however, the contact emphasized that it appeared the air bag had not fully deployed. The vehicle was towed to a lot. No warning lights had illuminated. A police report was filed. The vehicle was destroyed. The contact partner was injured, and she was seated in the driver's seat, and a single civilian seated in the driver's seat of the vehicle that was hit from behind was injured. The contact stated that his partner suffered injuries to her chest, and the other individual suffered injuries to the neck. Medical treatment was needed for both individuals. The local dealer was contacted however the vehicle was not diagnosed, as the vehicle was a total loss, and the manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 23,824.

Santa Fe will randomly experience inability to accelerate. I will hit the gas pedal, the engine will rev all the way up to power, it will slowly crawl forward and than violently accelerate. From the time I hit the gas pedal to the time it actually starts moving takes several seconds. It does this every time I come to a stop once it starts. It has done this 4 occasions now. It puts me at significant danger trying to turn across traffic. In general, it not accelerating as you would expect is a very dangerous situation. Dealer has had the car for over a month and has had the car reproduce the issue. The HEV light and check engine light had come on a couple of the occurrences.

As my wife and I were traveling down the interstate at 45 mph, we heard a loud POP, but we were unable to figure out where it came from. Just a few seconds later, the sunroof exploded into a million tiny pieces of glass that partially rained down on our heads and shoulders. It was quite a startling sound. There was a hole about 8 inches across in the moveable sunroof and more pieces were continuing to fall out. To protect our heads, I closed the shade. There was no evidence of an object striking. Windows were all closed when the incident occurred.

Vehicle has gone into limp mode 2 times in the past week. Power when accelerating would not exceed 30 mph when pushing the gas pedal to the floor. Had to pull over as I was getting onto the highway and stop/ power down the car and restart.

Twice, the car refused to switch from EV mode back to gas mode. This resulted in the hybrid battery dying and the car losing power. The first time, I was merging onto the freeway and the gas pedal was all the way at the floor, but I was only maintaining speed (not accelerating). Both times, the car was driveable for approximately one mile on the hybrid battery alone. However, a warning came on the dash, “Check hybrid system. Stop safely.” The second time, I was able to pull into a parking lot before the hybrid battery died. The next day, I was able to drive the car normally. The dealership is unable to pull any codes or replicate the issue. Unfortunately, it only happens intermittently and we have not identified a common theme for the failure.

I am afraid of getting myself or someone else killed because there is a 1-2 second lag after stepping on the gas pedal after coming to a stop. This is extremely dangerous. My street empties onto a county road with a blind curve. I have had several instances when the delay between the car moving after I’ve stepped on the gas has lead to oncoming cars needing to slam on their brakes to avoid hitting me. I even called the county and asked that they put up a “dangerous curve sign. They put up a squiggly arrow instead which has not helped. My previous gas vehicles made this turn safely for 20 years. My nephew told me it’s a new feature in cars called “stop and gol meant to save gas. I think saving my life is more important than saving a little bit of gas. It happens all the time so I will put todays date in the space below.

I have pinging sound coming from the engine when I accelerate. Transmission seems to skip during acceleration. Took it to the dealership for repair since the car is under warranty. Dealership replaced a bearing in the axle and replaced the turbo. I’m still having the same issues. Dealership had my car for 5 weeks dealing with this issue. I feel they don’t know what’s causing the problem.

The Automatic Emergency Braking System, on multiple occasions now, has slammed on its brakes at highway speed when there are no obstacles, barriers, or even vehicles in sight ahead of my wife. This happened to me the other day also when exiting the highway onto an exit ramp when it "Detected Collision" when *nothing* was around me, no vehicles or barriers within any reasonable distance. It's going to end up causing someone to rear end me or her - absolutely unsafe and 100% putting my wife and child at risk. We're taking it to the dealership on Saturday and have verbally informed them of the issue. No warnings, no messages, no nothing prior to incident - the car is practically brand new.

Three times this has happened. The instances occurred on Highway 680 between Pleasanton and San Jose. I was going the speed limit - 65 miles per hour - as were tons of cars around me. Suddenly the car would brake, startling me because I was nowhere near another car. It frightened me a lot! I think it is the automatic braking system - either the front end collision warning or the blind spot collision warning. It could have easily resulted in an accident. I took it to the Hyundai dealership, and they knew they could not likely duplicate it. They showed me where to turn off the vehicle control (braking) for the front end collision warning and the blind spot collision warning. I have read on the Internet several other parties that have experienced this - car-controlled braking while traveling at high speed with lots of cars around.

Driving down interstate at 70 mph and car started to brake while foot on gas pedal. Would not go…red brake alert came on. Luckily no other car in left lane and pulled off to side of road. Car would not drive. Called tow truck.