2025 Hyundai Santa FE

Too new to assess

The 2025 Hyundai Santa FE is too new for this measure. Almost every complaint about a vehicle this recent is a first-year complaint, because that is all the service life there has been, so the figure cannot separate a genuine early defect from simple youth. The complaint counts, systems and recalls below still stand on their own. The most-reported system is electrical system (28 complaints), typically at 1.3 yr or about 6,000 miles.

Complaints: 195
Median age at failure: 1.3 yr
Median mileage: 10,024 n=14
Crash / fire / tow: 3.6% of reports
Safety recalls: 5

Safety recalls — NHTSA campaigns

26V218000 2026-04-06

Seat belts:front:anchorage

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.

A detached seat belt anchor will not adequately restrain the seat occupant, increasing the risk of injury in a crash.

25V808000 2025-11-21

Back over prevention:display function

Hyundai Motor America (Hyundai) is recalling certain 2024-2025 Santa Fe and Santa Fe Hybrid vehicles. The rearview camera may not have been installed properly, which can damage the wiring harness and cause the rearview camera image not to display. As such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) number 111, "Rear Visibility."

A rearview image that does not display reduces the driver's view behind the vehicle, increasing the risk of a crash.

25V809000 2025-11-21

Air bags:side/window:curtain

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.

Side curtain air bags that do not deploy as intended increase the risk of injury in a crash.

25V659000 2025-10-02

Electrical system:starter assembly

Hyundai Motor America (Hyundai) is recalling certain 2024-2025 Santa Fe vehicles. The B+ positive terminal cover on the starter motor assembly may be improperly installed, which can cause an electrical short during a crash.

An electrical short increases the risk of a fire.

25V549000 2025-08-26

Engine and engine cooling:critical fasteners

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.

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.

In owners’ own words

Other mileage not reported 7 mo in service

When approaching red light at low speed, about 3mph, the engine cut off in traffic, "apply brakes" or similar, started strobbing across the screen and then it said to put in park. The pedals were not working for brakes. Car came to a stop and put it in park and started it again. The Sante Fe has 3150 miles on it. No other issues.

Other mileage not reported 10 mo in service

The climate control screen is difficult to see, especially in sunlight. This makes it unsafe to change things like fan speed while driving. Interestingly all other screens are very bright but this one screen is not bright and dealer says no adjustment available.

Other mileage not reported 1.1 yr in service

Wearing any kind of polarized sunglasses prevents you from seeing the Heads-Up display and will abruptly disable the adaptive cruise control. The Santa Fe forum has hundreds of complaints about this, yet Hyundai has not done anything to correct the problem. I have asked three different dealers about this problem, and they just repeat the company line (you need to find sunglasses that don't cause a problem). This situation is dangerous and unacceptable.

Collision avoidance mileage not reported 6 mo in service

The sensor always goes off stating my eyes aren't on the road to the point it trys to stop the vehicle in traffic. This prevents me from being able to use cruise control because the sensor is causing issues by not detecting my eyes

Other Santa FE model years

How to read this

This is what owners reported, not a reliability rating. People file with NHTSA about alarming failures, not routine ones, and complaint volume tracks how many cars were sold.
Failure ages come from the incident date on each complaint, populated on about 83% of records. Mileage is shown where reported — NHTSA’s 2021 system change cut mileage capture to roughly 15%, so it thins out sharply after MY2020.
Every rank compares this vehicle only against others of the same model year. A 2025 car has not had time to accumulate five-year failures, so comparing early-failure share across years is meaningless.
Fourteen make-months distorted by media storms and mass recalls — Toyota in February 2010 ran 11× normal volume across 33 models — are excluded.
Recalls are manufacturer actions and authoritative; complaints are not. A recall listed here may already have been performed on any individual car. Check a specific VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls.

2025 Hyundai Santa FE

When each system is reported — middle 50% of complaints

Safety recalls — NHTSA campaigns

In owners’ own words

Other Santa FE model years

How to read this