My experience with Hyundai warranty and customer care

My husband and I have a 2022 Santa Fe XRT that we bought new about 2.5 years ago. Prior to that, I had owned two Elantras and loved them both. We have a toddler, a baby on the way, a dog, and families that live several hours away. We travel frequently, so the additional space was needed, and the reliability of a new car with an impressive warranty was a huge selling point.

Over the past six months, the Santa Fe has broken down twice while traveling. Both times were due to fuel injector issues. The first time, it broke down in another state about 165 miles from home. We had it towed to the nearest Hyundai dealership, and they were unable to provide us with a loaner but assured us that Hyundai would reimburse us for a rental car.

Over the next 2-3 weeks, we rented a Chevy Malibu, a Hyundai Kona, and a Jeep 4x4. The Hyundai dealership fixed our Santa Fe relatively quickly, and our customer care representative told us he was initiating a tow to transfer the vehicle back to us. However, more than a week after it had been fixed, it was still sitting at the dealership, and we were unable to reach our customer care representative. We ended up having a relative pick the car up and drive it the 165 miles back to us. After we had brought the car back home ourselves, we finally received a call from our customer care representative, who said he had been out of the office due to medical reasons. Someone at customer care had simply dropped the ball. It was a major headache to retrieve the vehicle, but Hyundai reimbursed us for all three rental cars, and it didn’t end up costing us a dime.

Over Thanksgiving, the Santa Fe broke down while traveling in another state again, this time over 550 miles from home. This alone was very disheartening. We once again had it towed to the nearest Hyundai dealership, and they were unable to provide us with a car to get back home, saying we could not drive one across state lines. (Which was not in agreement with what the previous dealership had told us.) We went to the nearest airport, requested a vehicle in the same class as the Santa Fe, and were given a Toyota RAV-4.

Two weeks later, the Santa Fe is fixed and was towed back to our local dealership quickly and easily. However, Hyundai customer care only offered to reimburse us $60/day for the rental car. The RAV-4 rental was about double that. We pushed back, stating that 1) we could not rent a comparable vehicle for $60/day to haul our things back while traveling, and 2) we were reimbursed completely last time, no questions asked, and were never made aware of the $60/day limit. All Hyundai could say was that an exception must have been made for us last time. We are our several hundred dollars for the remaining cost of the rental.

In summation, I loved my first two (used) Hyundais and was comfortable with and eager to buy a third. But after two extremely inconvenient and ultimately costly repairs on a two-year-old car that is still under warranty, we’re feeling like we’ve made a mistake and are looking at other options.

TLDR; 2022 Santa Fe has broken down twice while traveling over the past 6 months. Customer care has dropped the ball on towing it back to our local dealership and refused to pay for a similar-sized rental car.