CSR

Hyundai · NHTSA safety record

2026 Hyundai Santa FE

Every safety complaint, recall and defect investigation the US government holds on this vehicle.

30

Complaints

0

Crashes

0

Fires

1

Injuries

0

Deaths

Owners of the 2026 Hyundai Santa FE have filed 30 safety complaints with NHTSA between November 2025 and August 2026. The most complained-about system is forward collision avoidance, named in 5 of them (17%). The typical failure was reported at 6,087 miles, the median across the 2 complaints that gave an odometer reading.

NHTSA has issued 4 recalls covering this vehicle.

Recalls (4)

SEAT BELTS:FRONT:ANCHORAGE

26V218000 · April 6, 2026

The defect
Hyundai Motor America (Hyundai) is recalling certain 2023-2025 Hyundai Ioniq 6, 2023-2026 Genesis G90, 2024-2026 Hyundai Santa Fe, and Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid vehicles. The driver and passenger seat belt anchors may detach.
The risk
A detached seat belt anchor will not adequately restrain the seat occupant, increasing the risk of injury in a crash.
The remedy
Dealers will inspect and reinforce or replace the seat belt anchors, as necessary, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed beginning May 29, 2026. Owners may contact Hyundai customer service at 1-855-371-9460 and Genesis customer service at 844-340-9741. Hyundai's numbers for this recall are 298 and 032G. Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs) involved in this recall became searchable on NHTSA.gov April 8, 2026.

Hyundai Motor America · up to 294,448 vehicles across all model years covered

ELECTRICAL SYSTEM: INSTRUMENT CLUSTER/PANEL

26V047000 · January 27, 2026

The defect
Hyundai Motor America (Hyundai) is recalling certain 2025-2026 Tucson Hybrid, Tucson Plug-In Hybrid Electric (PHEV), 2026 IONIQ 5, Santa Cruz, Kona, Palisade, Palisade Hybrid, Santa Fe, Santa Fe Hybrid, Sonata, Sonata Hybrid, and Tucson vehicles. Due to a software error, the instrument panel display may fail. As such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) number 101, "Controls and Displays."
The risk
An instrument panel display that fails to show critical safety information, such as the speedometer or warning lights, increases the risk of a crash.
The remedy
The instrument panel display software will be updated over-the-air (OTA) or by a dealer, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed March 24, 2026. Owners may contact Hyundai's customer service at 855-371-9460. Hyundai's number for this recall is 293. Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs) involved in this recall became searchable on NHTSA.gov on January 28, 2026.

Hyundai Motor America · up to 41,651 vehicles across all model years covered

AIR BAGS:SIDE/WINDOW:CURTAIN

25V809000 · November 21, 2025

The defect
Hyundai Motor America (Hyundai) is recalling certain 2025 Tucson, 2025-2026 Santa Cruz, Santa Fe, Santa Fe Hybrid, and 2026 Genesis GV70 vehicles. The side curtain air bags may not have been installed properly, which can cause the air bags not to deploy as intended.
The risk
Side curtain air bags that do not deploy as intended increase the risk of injury in a crash.
The remedy
Dealers will reinstall the side curtain air bags, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed beginning December 29, 2025. Owners may contact Hyundai customer service at 1-855-371-9460. Hyundai's numbers for this recall are 289 and 029G. Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs) involved in this recall became searchable on NHTSA.gov on November 22, 2025.

Hyundai Motor America · up to 258 vehicles across all model years covered

ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING:CRITICAL FASTENERS

25V549000 · August 26, 2025

The defect
Hyundai Motor America (Hyundai) is recalling certain 2025-2026 Tucson and Santa Fe vehicles. The connecting rod bolts in the engine may have been improperly tightened, which can cause a loss of drive power and engine damage, possibly resulting in an oil leak.
The risk
A loss of drive power increases the risk of a crash. An oil leak in the presence of hot engine components can increase the risk of an engine compartment fire.
The remedy
Dealers will replace the engine, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed October 23, 2025. Owners may contact Hyundai customer service at 1-855-371-9460. Hyundai's number for this recall is 281.

Hyundai Motor America · up to 29 vehicles across all model years covered

What owners report

Complaints naming each system. One complaint can name several, so these add up to more than 30.

UNKNOWN OR OTHER 6 20%
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 5 17%
SEATS 5 17%
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 4 13%
VISIBILITY/WIPER 3 10%
LANE DEPARTURE 2 7%
POWER TRAIN 2 7%
STEERING 2 7%
TIRES 2 7%
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL 2 7%
BACK OVER PREVENTION 1 3%
ENGINE 1 3%

When the complaints arrived

By the year NHTSA received them, which is not the year the failures happened. They peaked in 2026 at 28.

2025 2026
2025 to 2026, the last of them a part year

In owners' own words

Quoted from NHTSA's complaint file. These are unverified accounts by the people who filed them, not findings of fault.

ELECTRICAL SYSTEM

1 injured

The right side power captain seat in the second row began to fold down without the button being pressed. It happened with and without the seatbelt plugged in. It came down while my toddler was in her rear facing car seat and began to crush the car seat and push on her feet. The chair would not stop the power seat motors even with both my wife and myself pushing back on the seat trying to free our daughter from the car seat. It continued to push down the moment there was more space to collapse. No errors or messages or engine lights of any sort were displayed anywhere. Even after removing our daughter it happened several times again.

NHTSA complaint 11735879. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
This vehicle constantly pops up an alert to "consider taking a break" on the dash. It mutes everything else and causes a distraction. This vehicle was operated at normal highway driving conditions. THERE IS NO WAY TO DIABLE THIS. After looking online there is a reddit post from 2 years ago where this first came into effect and people have been complaining about it constantly. This is a genuine safety concern as any unexpected change or alert causes the driver to look away from the road to see "whats wrong" and for this incident NOTHING IS WRONG. An hour long commute should not pop up 15 alerts because the road has ruts or its mildly windy or the driver is wearing sunglasses or any number of

NHTSA complaint 11757081, quoted in part. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM
Over the past month, on two occasions my vehicle has emitted gasoline fumes filling my garage, and today my interior cabin smelled like gasoline. Additionally, after warming up, my vehicle experiences acceleration drop/stuttering when accelerating after idling. This happens every day. I took the car to two dealerships (San Tan Hyundai and Chapman Hyundai Scottsdale) and they weren’t able to diagnose the issue.

NHTSA complaint 11754586. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
I left work and my car pulled back I looked at my dash I just saw all the lights on indicators telling me I may stop or not I was so scared I live 45 mins from my job and this isn’t the first incident after the second day I bought this brand new car my low oil light came on and the dip stick was dry on a brand new car the following day and from that point on my car is like a magnet and pulls to the right lane to another car this is causing me PTSD I BEGGED my husband to drive me to work in my 48 years I’ve never been afraid of a car when I let the dealership know they don’t care it’s a stupid woman well I’ve owned 2 brand new Palisades and they were amazing vehicles this one is just not

NHTSA complaint 11749658, quoted in part. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
-On [XXX] I was drivng on a highway while using cruise control. The car suddenly applied the brakes hard. I tried 4 times to use the accelrator and each time the brakes were applied hard again. -The car behind me laid on its horn and managed to shift to another lane thereby avoiding a rear end collison. -Fortunately I was driving in an outside lane and got the car to the shoulder. -I turned the engine off and then started the car again. -There were no warning lamps or messages that I can recall. It happened quickly. -This incident came very close to causing at least vehicle damage and possibly physical harm to the occupants of my car and the car behind me. -I took my car to the dealership

NHTSA complaint 11746383, quoted in part. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

WHEELS
I had a flat tire. When I recently bought the Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid, I did not think to ask about a spare tire, they have been standard on every car I bought in the past. However, this car did not have one and I had a flat tire. They provide a sealant which is supposed to get you to a tire repair shop to get the tire fixed. That was worthless. Not having a spare is dangerous if you are caught with a flat tire in a remote area with no cell service. In addition, I had to pay $144 to get towed to a tire repair shop to get a $15 repair completed. Common sense has been replaced with greed.

NHTSA complaint 11744626. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

VISIBILITY/WIPER
Driving down the road and the sunroof just exploded. No rock, no nearby cars that could have kicked something up. Just crumbled in.

NHTSA complaint 11743648. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

Compare

Other years of the Hyundai Santa FE

Model year Complaints Recalls Deaths
2025 124 5
2024 136 7
2023 204 1
2022 193 5
2021 164 6
2020 203 1
2019 192 2
2018 108 2
2017 951 6
2016 235 3
2015 254 2
2014 493 3
2013 605 3
2012 352 1
2011 181 2 1
2010 258 2 1

Other 2026 Hyundai models

Every Hyundai on this site — 201 vehicles, 276 recall campaigns and 3 open investigation s.

If this is your car and a dealer keeps failing to fix it, your state's lemon law may require the manufacturer to replace it or buy it back. What each state asks for , read from the statutes.

Where these numbers come from

A complaint is one owner's account and has not been verified by NHTSA or by us. A vehicle with more complaints is not necessarily worse: models that sold in larger numbers collect more of them. How this is counted.

Compiled and maintained by
Independent developer and analyst