Hyundai Motor America
Santa Fe from hell

My wife has a 2003 Santa Fe which suffered a catastrophic connecting rod failure at just over 100K miles. The car was worth between $2K and $4K before the rod went. The car now has only a scrap value. I have numerous service invoices dating back though where my wife had complained of a lack of power and loud engine noise. I have all the service records except 3 or 4 for oil changes where I paid cash.

I spoke to Hyundai and asked them to honor the 100K miles warranty. They initially were sympathetic; however it soon became apparent that they were looking for an excuse to reject the claim. They said I needed to show receipts for all oil changes at 3K mile intervals. When I pointed out the owner's manual maintenance schedule frequency for oil changes is every 7.5K miles, they reluctantly agreed. However, they latched on to the lack of the oil change receipts to reject the claim. I asked if their response would have been the same if the mileage had been under 100K, they said yes. I spoke to a supervisor and was told that regardless of the situation, as the warranty had expired, they did not have the authority to help.

My wife liked the Santa Fe even with the problems. Due to its age and the time spent at repair shops we were in the process of trading it in for a new Santa Fe, when the catastrophic failure occurred. I explained this to Hyundai and asked them to reconsider. It seemed to me they would want to resolve this issue amicably, after all they were only looking at a $2k to $4K liability, which is small considering the incentives all the car manufactures are offering these days. They get to sell a new car and keep a couple of happy customers (I also own a Hyundai).

They said no. So now they have a situation where it is clear their warranty is basically useless as they will use any excuse to void it. They have my wife, who won't even consider buying a another Hyundai, and I intend to get rid of my 2005 Hyundai incase something goes wrong, as it ages, as I have zero faith in Hyundai's highly proclaimed warranty. All together a very sad ending and I believe very short sighted of Hyundai.

Company: Hyundai Motor America
Country: USA
State: California
City: Fountain Valley
Address: 10550 Talbert Ave
Phone: 8006335151

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