Hyundai Sonata

Which Hyundai Sonata years should you avoid?

Going by 16,108 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, the Hyundai Sonata years to avoid are 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2006.

• 20113,380 complaints, 16.5× a typical Sonata year, most often about the steering.
• 20121,559 complaints, 7.6× a typical Sonata year, most often about the engine; and 2.1× the usual share of fires, crashes and deaths for a car of its age (95 fires, 51 crashes, 1 death).
• 20131,917 complaints, 9.4× a typical Sonata year, most often about the engine.
• 20151,154 complaints, 5.6× a typical Sonata year, most often about the engine.
• 20061,047 complaints, 5.1× a typical Sonata year, most often about the airbags.

7 more years cleared the same bar; they are marked in the table below.

Better bets: among years old enough for a low count to mean something, the 2021 drew the fewest complaints without an unusual share of serious ones.

Too new to judge: 2025 and 2026. Complaints take a few years to arrive, so a new model year looks better than it is.

How this is worked out: each year is compared with a typical year of the same model, which takes most of the difference in sales out of it, and its share of serious failures is compared with every other car of the same model year, because older cars were complained about differently. A year needs 25 complaints to be judged at all. Complaints are unverified owner reports. Full method →