2024 Hyundai Santa Fe Reliability Report

The driver attention camera wrongly decides an alert driver is not watching the road. It then shuts off adaptive cruise control, sometimes at 70 mph. Glare on regular glasses and dark or polarized sunglasses commonly set it off, and so does night driving. Owners say the setting to disable the feature switches back on when cruise control is engaged. Some reports describe the car slowing sharply, and one says it slowed to a crawl and shut off the engine on the interstate. Dealers have offered little help.

The brake pedal drops to the floor and the SUV fails to stop at low speed, mostly in parking lots, driveways, and car washes. These reports include 2 crashes and 1 injury, and one links the failure to the Auto Start/Stop feature. Another common complaint is front rotor vibration and shaking at highway speed or downhill, starting as early as 3,000 miles. Dealers resurface the rotors or say they cannot reproduce the shake. One owner reports the car rolling after being shifted into Park, followed by a "PARK malfunction" message.

Driver-assist systems take over steering or switch it off without warning. False attention warnings shut off lane following and steering assist, sometimes during highway passing. Owners also report uncommanded steering, lane keeping turning itself back on after being disabled, and a "Check Forward Attention Warning System" fault. One describes a false collision alert at 70 mph that braked and swerved the car toward the median. Others report hard braking when the camera loses sight of the driver's face, and one says the camera gets hot to the touch.

Windshields crack from small rock hits, and some owners have replaced two windshields in under 6,000 miles. Another report describes a crack that started at the top edge of the glass while the car sat parked overnight. The driver's wiper arm can come loose when snow or ice packs near its mount. It then overlaps the passenger wiper, and one arm was replaced under warranty. Washer nozzles also spray too low to clean the center and top of the glass.

Cruise control drops out suddenly because the driver attention camera falsely flags the driver as inattentive. That causes sharp slowing at highway speed. Reflections off glasses are a common trigger, but owners without glasses report it too, even with current software. One owner says the SUV sped up on its own to the set speed while signaling a lane change. Another describes the car seeming to slip into neutral above 70 mph after an hour or more of driving, which forced a stop and restart.

Most reports filed here describe transmission trouble. One owner saw the "transmission system error, check transmission oil immediately" warning on a nearly new car, along with hard shifting and a car that barely drives. Another says the symptoms match Hyundai recall 236, but the car was not included in it. A separate report covers a check engine light for an "active airflap issue" after the car sat for 2 days. That owner worries the fault could lead to overheating.

Factory tires develop sidewall bulges and blow out, and one report is crash-related. Owners find bubbles on several tires within months of purchase, sometimes on both tires on the same side. One owner had 5 tires replaced in 6 months, with a second blowout while still on the spare. Another found bulges on both passenger-side factory tires and had to replace them to keep driving. Both reports involve 20-inch tires.