2012 Hyundai Santa Fe — reported problems

What owners report: issue areas

Owner complaints are classified by the system they concern: 475 classifications in all. One complaint can concern several systems, so these add up to more than the number of complaints.

• Engine234 (49.3%)Official recall records for this system: 13, covering model years 2001–2026.
• Electrical system43 (9.1%)Official recall records for this system: 13, covering model years 2001–2026.
• Speed control & accelerator40 (8.4%)
• Brakes28 (5.9%)Official recall records for this system: 16, covering model years 2003–2018.
• Powertrain (transmission & drivetrain)24 (5.1%)Official recall records for this system: 10, covering model years 2010–2024.
• Steering16 (3.4%)Official recall records for this system: 2, covering model years 2018.

Other / uncategorized: 16 classifications (3.4%) were not assigned to a specific system by the source. They are counted but not treated as an issue area.

These are counts of records held by CarFaultIQ, not a failure rate. More records can simply mean more vehicles were sold or more owners reported. No vehicles-in-service figure exists in this data, so no reliability or risk score can be derived from it.

What the records are about, by source

Each source is kept separate: owner complaints, recalls, manufacturer communications and investigations are different kinds of record and are never added together. All model years.

• Owner complaints (15,214 records, model years 2001–2026) are most frequently classified under: engine, fuel system and powertrain (transmission & drivetrain).
• Safety recalls (145 records, model years 2001–2026) are most frequently classified under: air bags (restraint system), equipment & accessories and electrical system.
• Transport Canada recalls (173 records, model years 2001–2026) are most frequently classified under: brakes, engine and electrical system.
• Manufacturer communications (3,082 records, model years 2001–2026) are most frequently classified under: electrical system, engine and powertrain (transmission & drivetrain).
• Investigations (67 records, model years 2001–2021) are most frequently classified under: engine, lights and electrical system.

"Most frequently classified under" reports how the records are filed by the source. It is not a finding about causes, and a record can be filed under more than one system. Read the individual records

Mileage reported when the issue occurred

• 281reports included a mileage
• 69,967average of those mileages

This is the mileage owners recorded at the time they reported, not an expected failure mileage and not a prediction for any individual vehicle. The lowest and highest figures on record are not shown: they are unverified odometer entries that include zeros and implausibly high readings, so they would not describe a real range. A median is not shown either, because the stored figures are group totals and a median cannot be recovered from them.

Evidence by model year

Records held per model year. Select a year to narrow this page to it.

1. 2001 355 records for 2001 355
2. 2002 223 records for 2002 223
3. 2003 404 records for 2003 404
4. 2004 384 records for 2004 384
5. 2005 272 records for 2005 272
6. 2006 156 records for 2006 156
7. 2007 781 records for 2007 781
8. 2008 619 records for 2008 619
9. 2009 429 records for 2009 429
10. 2010 389 records for 2010 389
11. 2011 304 records for 2011 304
12. 2012 463 records for 2012 463
13. 2013 780 records for 2013 780
14. 2014 627 records for 2014 627
15. 2015 374 records for 2015 374
16. 2016 355 records for 2016 355
17. 2017 1,114 records for 2017 1,114
18. 2018 231 records for 2018 231
19. 2019 384 records for 2019 384
20. 2020 321 records for 2020 321
21. 2021 281 records for 2021 281
22. 2022 304 records for 2022 304
23. 2023 255 records for 2023 255
24. 2024 191 records for 2024 191
25. 2025 172 records for 2025 172
26. 2026 47 records for 2026 47

Counts are not adjusted for how many vehicles were sold in each year, so a taller year is not necessarily a worse year.

Reports mentioning outcomes

• 25mention a crash
• 17mention a fire
• 7mention an injury

These are counts of records whose report mentioned the outcome. They are not a severity rating and not a safety assessment of this vehicle.

Official records held

• Safety recalls NHTSA 1
• Manufacturer communications NHTSA 99
• Investigations NHTSA 6
• Transport Canada recalls Transport Canada 4
• Owner complaints NHTSA 353

Explore the underlying evidence records

Diagnostic codes found in evidence for this vehicle

These codes appear by explicit identifier in official records matched to this exact model and year.

• P0880 in 1 record

A code appearing in a record means the code was named in that document. It is not a diagnosis of this vehicle, not a fault this vehicle has, and not an indication of urgency. Diagnosis requires reading live data from the vehicle.