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Hyundai Santa Fe 2016: Multiple problems?

I have had multiple issues with my 2016 Hyundai Santa Fe, which is fortunately still under warranty. On the first service I mentioned to the dealership that the screen had gone blank all of a sudden and came back live once I switched the car off and back on. They said nothing wrong was found. In the subsequent services I mentioned again that the screen starts flickering between sat nav and phone screen, whenever there is a phone call made or received. Again I was told that nothing wrong was found, even though the screen still flickers. I had also mentioned that the air con is not working properly, after running it for a while, you can hear the fan, but there is no airflow. This was also checked by the dealership, but they found nothing. Even though it still happens. After the third service I started noticing that there was a bit of surge between shifting of gears. As the car moved you could feel a surge and snatch between shifting of gears. In December 2017, I received a letter from Hyundai, about the vehicle safety recall for the secondary bonnet catch cable. I booked it in and also mentioned this gear problem. The date given to me was 24.01.2018 to look into this issue and also replace the recall latch. I also took the Service Manager for a test drive and he confirmed that there was a problem in the transmission. They replaced the latch on the same day and booked me in again for 13.02.2018 to replace the solenoid in the transmission. I was asked to collect my vehicle on the same day at 4.00 pm. I went in to collect my car, but was told that the solenoid did not fix the issue and they needed more time, so they will call me the next day and give me an update. I had to keep chasing them to get an update, and was told on Thursday 15.02.2018, that they have not been able to detect the faulty part in the transmission, and now they would be sending my car to a transmission specialist, in Ringwood, who would be looking into it on Tuesday 20.02.2018 and come back to us. I called the Service Manager on 20.02.2018 to get an update and all he said was, he is waiting for an update from the transmission specialist and he’ll let me know once he gets some information. I called again on 22nd and was told by the manager, that the specialist thinks it could be the clutch in the transmission and he’ll open up the gearbox hopefully on 23rd and let us know. And if that is the faulty part then it would be ordered, and I might get my car back sometime next week. I followed it up with Hyundai customer care and all they said was I need to take it up with the dealer, where the car is. I asked them to escalate this further, and the lady on the phone said she was the only point of contact and she won’t take it any further and then hung up on me. I followed up with the dealership last week and now they have told me that the ETA for one of the part is 8.03.2018. Now, initially they gave me a Hyundai Accent as a loan car and after much persistence gave me a Hyundai Kona. My point is I bought a brand new top of the range 7-seater SUV for my personal and family use only just one and a half years ago. I’ve always held Hyundai in high esteem with their quality and workmanship. I used to own a Hyundai Getz and a Hyundai Santro in the past and recently bought a Kreta overseas. I have been facing so many issues with this new car within the first year of buying it and I’ve almost reached the point that I’m losing faith in the Hyundai brand. Luckily the car is still under warranty. The loan car given to me is nowhere close to what I bought. I can understand that for 1-2 days, but now my car has been with the service for almost 21 days. Can you please help and advise on this?

It is obviously frustrating you, and it would be nice to think that you wouldn’t have these problems with a new car, and that the dealer would give you better service. They don’t seem to be major problems, more annoying than anything else, and should be easily fixed. The good thing is that the car is still under warranty and the dealer appears to be attempting to fix the problems. If you are concerned about it ask the dealer for an appointment to go through the problems, what he is doing about them, and when he might be finished. You could also request that a representative of Hyundai be there at the same time.

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