2022 Hyundai Elantra Reliability Report

Hybrids show a "Check Hybrid System, Stop Safely" warning at highway speed and lose power, slowing to 20 mph until the 12-volt battery is reset. Software updates do not always end it. The 8-speed dual-clutch transmission shudders, slips, shifts harshly, and is slow to engage from a stop, with reports near 25,000 miles and one clutch failure at 28,000. Other reports describe stalling, a parked car that rolled out of a garage and hit another vehicle, a shifter moved into neutral without the brake pressed, and rodent-chewed transmission wiring.

Automatic emergency braking activates with nothing ahead, sometimes bringing the car to an abrupt stop on the freeway. One driver reports neck pain after a hard stop, and false braking shows up as early as 5,500 miles. A second pattern is a "Check Forward Safety System" warning with code C162078, which points to a misaligned front radar and turns off collision avoidance and smart cruise control. Dealers often blame an impact, charge for the radar alignment, or say warranty coverage is void.

Emergency braking engages at highway speed with no traffic ahead and drags the car to a near stop, sometimes steering it sharply left as another car passes. Dealers usually cannot duplicate it. Two crash reports appear here. In one, the car surged forward while the driver braked in a parking lot, causing an injury. In the other, brake assist and the parking brake both failed with no warning lights. Other owners describe a wailing noise at low speed in reverse and calipers that stick and heat the rotors.

Engaging cruise control sometimes sets the speed to 110 or 120 mph instead of the current speed, and the car accelerates hard toward it. The steering wheel buttons will not lower the setting, so braking or switching cruise off is the only way out. Several owners say this happens more than 10 times, with no codes and no dealer able to reproduce it. Other reports describe sudden acceleration under light pedal pressure and cruise control shut off by a front sensor fault, code C162078.

Power assist drops out and the wheel turns heavy, usually alongside a cluster of warnings for ABS, forward safety, stability control, and blind spot systems. One dealer traces the problem to an ABS sensor. In another case a flat tire triggered the warnings, and they stayed on after the tire was replaced, leaving a car with under 20k miles undrivable. One report filed here describes a hybrid battery warning and total power loss at 78 to 80 mph in the fast lane, with no hazard flashers working.

Lane keeping assist jerks the steering wheel out of the lane. One such report ends in a collision with 2 people injured, even though the lane lines were clear and the driver's hands were on the wheel. Other complaints describe driver aid warnings coming and going at random, the speedometer and tachometer dropping to zero at 80 mph, and false or missed forward collision alerts. After rain, a rear cross-traffic warning can turn off mirror alerts and the horn.

Only three complaints are filed here, and they do not form a clear pattern. One owner says the air bags failed to deploy in several collisions, including crashes in 45 mph zones, and that the automatic emergency call never contacted police. Another describes a deer strike at 68 mph at about 60,000 miles where the bags did deploy and the driver was injured. The third concerns the seat belt recall and the parts shortage that delays the repair.