AtWhatMileage
Transmission · 8 owner reports

Other powertrain problem on the 2007 Hyundai Sonata

1 injury 1 of the 8 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.

Reports of this failure 8
With an odometer reading 8
Reports per 1,000 built 0.1 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 50%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 1
Typical repair $400–$4,500
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 20th

When other powertrain problem gets reported

Owners of the 2007 Hyundai Sonata report other powertrain problem at a median of 55,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 20th most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 25,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 115,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 93,100 miles across the middle 80% of reports.

A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.

50% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 8 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
24,200 miles 34,250 miles 52,500 miles 83,750 miles 117,300 miles

Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.

What a percentile can and cannot tell you here

These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.

What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.

Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.

What happens, and what it costs

Of these reports, 1 an injury is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.

Putting it right typically runs $400–$4,500 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.

The same failure on other years

The same failure is reported on 24 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2020, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2008 at 105,000 miles.

By volume the 2011 carries the most reports, with 121; the 2007 has 8. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.

If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.

Median
  1. 1996 Hyundai Sonata other powertrain problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  2. 1997 Hyundai Sonata other powertrain problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  3. 1998 Hyundai Sonata other powertrain problem 41k
  4. 1999 Hyundai Sonata other powertrain problem 69k
  5. 2000 Hyundai Sonata other powertrain problem 64k
  6. 2001 Hyundai Sonata other powertrain problem 72k
  7. 2002 Hyundai Sonata other powertrain problem 76k
  8. 2003 Hyundai Sonata other powertrain problem 5k
  9. 2004 Hyundai Sonata other powertrain problem 35k
  10. 2005 Hyundai Sonata other powertrain problem 60k
  11. 2006 Hyundai Sonata other powertrain problem 76k
  12. 2007 (this one) 53k
  13. 2008 Hyundai Sonata other powertrain problem 105k
  14. 2009 Hyundai Sonata other powertrain problem 35k
  15. 2010 Hyundai Sonata other powertrain problem 30k
  16. 2011 Hyundai Sonata other powertrain problem 49k
  17. 2012 Hyundai Sonata other powertrain problem 88k
  18. 2013 Hyundai Sonata other powertrain problem 47k
  19. 2014 Hyundai Sonata other powertrain problem 50k
  20. 2015 Hyundai Sonata other powertrain problem 53k
  21. 2016 Hyundai Sonata other powertrain problem 57k
  22. 2017 Hyundai Sonata other powertrain problem 48k
  23. 2018 Hyundai Sonata other powertrain problem 42k
  24. 2019 Hyundai Sonata other powertrain problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  25. 2020 Hyundai Sonata other powertrain problem 3k
  26. 2021 Hyundai Sonata other powertrain problem 22k
  27. 2022 Hyundai Sonata other powertrain problem 9k
  28. 2023 Hyundai Sonata other powertrain problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  29. 2024 Hyundai Sonata other powertrain problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  30. 2025 Hyundai Sonata other powertrain problem 38k

Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

Tl*the contact owns a 2007 hyundai sonata. While driving various speeds or idling on an incline, the vehicle spontaneously rolls backwards as if it had a manual transmission. This increases the risk of a serious crash or injury. The contact took the vehicle to the dealer and they stated that it was a common characteristic. He called the regional representative, who acknowledged that there was an issue, but never took any action. As of october 8, 2008, the failure has not been remedied. The failure mileage was 32,000 and current mileage was 36,000.

32,000 miles NHTSA complaint 691495 filed 2008-10-08

The 2007 hyundai sonata gls with a 2.4l i4 engine and 4 speed transmission has serious shudder issues at 45mph. The vehicle almost becomes undriveable due to the shudder and has to be sped up to speeds above 45 MPH which is beyond the posted regulatory speed limit on the roads. *tw

6,000 miles NHTSA complaint 754846 filed 2010-01-28

Car began "jerking" motion while doing 45 MPH to 50 MPH. Dealer says they are unable to locate problem as there is no code. Transmission fluid was changed and temporarily "fixed" the issue. Two different dealers have looked at the car and have both said without a code, they can't find anything. The tach does not fluctuate when the problem occurs. After 50 MPH, the jerking motion stops. This is a 4 cyl, 2.4 liter engine. *tr

35,000 miles NHTSA complaint 1003256 filed 2013-08-19

Also reported on the 2007 Hyundai Sonata

Other visibility problem

135 reports median 60k

Other brake problem

52 reports median 29k

Seat belt or retractor failure

51 reports median 100k

Other driver assistance problem

40 reports median 100k

Other body or interior problem

33 reports median 46k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 8 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.

Questions this page answers

At what mileage does other powertrain problem happen on the 2007 Hyundai Sonata?

Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 55,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is other powertrain problem on the 2007 Hyundai Sonata?

8 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.

What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars

Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed