2006 Hyundai Sonata problems
Owners have filed 1,422 complaints with NHTSA about the 2006 Hyundai Sonata. Air bags is the most reported problem area, at 31% of complaints. Next are wipers, windshield & visibility (13%) and seat belts (7%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 1,422 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Air bags 31% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 55 and 13
- Injuries and deaths
- 58 and 2
- Typical mileage
- 74,000 miles 1,174 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 130 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 115 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 134 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 280 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 163 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 119 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 83 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 84 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 30 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 12 |
| 200k+ miles | 24 |
What the data shows
Of the 1,174 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 74,000 miles. For air bags specifically, the median reported mileage is about 70,000 miles (358 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 55 complaints mention a crash; 13 complaints mention a fire; 58 injuries reported; 2 deaths reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2006 ranks 5th most-complained-about out of 34 model years of the Hyundai Sonata with enough data (656 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 9 safety recall campaigns.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
91 year old was driving and hit by another car. The car drove him into a tree. The air bag went off and produced sufficient internal injuries that he died. The air bag went off too hard. If there were no air bag, he would have lived.
I was involved in an accident the front was smashed in the vehicle was declared a total loss and the airbags and not the ploy and I need help.
On this date it was unusually cold weather for our state at a high of 7 degrees plus wind chill ("the polar vortex"). I was leaving for work and had let my car run for about 5 minutes before beginning to drive. I was not even a quarter of a mile away (actually only about a street over) from my home when I stopped at a red light. There was an SUV in front of me. When the light turned green and the SUV in front of me began to drift slightly forward, I did the same.
2006 - 08 hyundai sonata sun visors break very early in car's life. Mine was around 41000 mi. Driver side visor broke when putting it down one morning in may 2009, now the passenger side visor is broken too. The plastic that surrounds the bar in the elbow just snaps and flies off, resulting in the visor flapping down limply in your face, blocking vision completely. This is a major safety issue and it is very common. Hyundai dealer acknowledged it is common and had plenty in stock.