2003 Hyundai Santa Fe Base Sport Utility 5-door 2.4l on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Hyundai fined $17.35 million for late Genesis recall

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has slapped Hyundai with a $17.35 million fine for delaying a recall on the 2009 to 2012 Hyundai Genesis sedan back in 2013. The recall grew from the original figure of 27,500 units to 43,500 sedans in November of last year, and focused on brake fluid that wouldn't prevent corrosion of the hydraulic control unit.
"Hyundai remains committed to making safety our top priority, and is dedicated to ensuring immediate action in response to potential safety concerns including the prompt reporting of safety defects," David Zuchowski, Hyundai's president and CEO, said in a statement.
Hyundai originally issued a technical service bulletin warning dealers to replace brake fluid. This was expanded to a full recall following NHTSA's involvement.

2015 Hyundai Sonata configurator powers up

Eager to get your hands on a new Hyundai Sonata? We could hardly blame you. With more mature styling and better equipment for less than the model that preceded it, the new Sonata makes a compelling case, even in a market segment this competitive that includes such rivals as the Nissan Altima, Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, Mazda6, Ford Fusion, Chevy Malibu, Chrysler 200, Volkswagen Passat and Kia Optima.
The first units are just arriving at dealers now, but if your local showroom doesn't have one for you to check out just yet, we've got good news for you as Hyundai has just launched the car's online configurator. The system lets you choose from four trim levels, nine exterior colors, a couple of equipment packages and an assortment of accessories to make your Sonata yours.
Pictured here is the top-of-the-line Sonata Sport 2.0T that starts at $29,385 (inclusive of delivery), but the base Sonata starts under $22k. Spec yours (or any new Hyundai, for that matter) in the online configurator linked here.

Sonata, Elantra driving down Hyundai quality scores

Hyundai was the butt of many jokes in the auto industry when it first entered the US market, but since then, it has forged ahead and built cars that stand with the best in their respective segments. The 2011 Sonata and 2011 Elantra were seen as the apotheosis of the brand's forward progress when they were introduced, but falling J.D. Power and Associates Dependability Study results may actually cause them to hurt the company's hard-earned reputation.
J.D Power's study examines three-year-old vehicles for problems per 100 vehicles. Since the 2011 study for 2008 model year cars, Hyundai has fallen from 10th overall with 132 problems to 27th in the 2014 survey of 2011 model year vehicles with 169 problems. It was also Hyundai's second consecutive year of an increase in reported problems. According to Automotive News, many of these problems are due to faults with the Sonata and Elantra, but J.D. Power didn't identify specifically what issues caused Hyundai's dependability to tumble so far down the list. However, the study found that, on average, reliability fell throughout the industry for the first time since 1998.
Getting the Sonata and Elantra right are vital to Hyundai. In 2013, they were the company's best-selling cars. "We'll be closely going through the data to see where improvements need to be made. Hyundai's goal is nothing short of quality leadership, and the report shows we have work to do," Hyundai spokesperson Jim Trainor said in an email to Autoblog.