Federal complaint record · Hyundai Elantra · model year 2009

2009 Hyundai Elantra

Owners submitted 247 federal complaint reports about this model year, placing it at the 41th percentile for complaint intensity within its 2007 to 2011 compact sedan cohort. The largest reported component group is steering. Sample sizes and limitations are shown below.

Steering · 42% · group n = 131Airbags · 13% · group n = 42Brakes · 8% · group n = 25Electrical · 8% · group n = 24Speed control · 6% · group n = 18
247
Complaint records on file
77,300
Median mileage at the reported problem · 183 complaints reported mileage
42%
Of classified component reports name steering · group n = 131
41th
Complaint-intensity percentile in a cohort of 33 model years

Steering · 4 in ten classified complaints

Where this record concentrates

All failure files
Component group 01 · Steering42%

Steering reports

Hyundai Elantra · model year 2009

Reports in this group131
Share of classified reports42%
Component groups on file6
Open the failure files

Adjacent model years · same badge, different data

The complaint signal has a shape

Compare model years
2008
0.2complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
314 matched incidents
This car
2009
0.2complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
247 matched incidents
2010
0.2complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
378 matched incidents

The line compares submitted complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years, not failures per 1,000 cars. Vehicle-years use compiled US sales, a 0.25 prior-calendar-year plus 0.75 current-calendar-year model-year allocation, and the shipped survival curve. Rates appear only where estimated vehicles in operation are at least 5,000.

From the record · recurring narrative clusters

What recurring complaint clusters describe

How clusters are built
Steering effort · 94 reports

Reports describe steering effort or control concerns

Cluster 1 of 32009 Hyundai Elantra
Brake performance · 33 reports

Reports describe braking performance concerns

Cluster 2 of 32009 Hyundai Elantra
Airbag concerns · 32 reports

Reports describe airbag warning or deployment concerns

Cluster 3 of 32009 Hyundai Elantra

Cluster summaries paraphrase recurring symptoms reported to NHTSA. They are aggregate descriptions, not individual verbatim reports.

Records through 2026-07-19Published 2026-08-02 · Updated 2026-07-19

Published model-year records · free · no login

Check the next car before the test drive

NHTSA consumer complaint records can reveal recurring patterns across published model years. MotorCensus summarizes those records as one complaint-signal index, with a 95% interval and sample size, updated with each data snapshot.

Browse all Hyundai records How the index works