Other visibility problem on the 2008 Hyundai Sonata
1 injury 1 of the 93 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.
When other visibility problem gets reported
Owners of the 2008 Hyundai Sonata report other visibility problem at a median of 57,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 42,500 miles and a quarter after 70,000 miles, from 74 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 75,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 25,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 95,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 70,200 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
18% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24,300 miles | 42,060 miles | 57,340 miles | 70,000 miles | 94,500 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 $150–$1,400 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 15 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2012, at a median of 300 miles, and latest on the 2018 at 125,000 miles.
By volume the 2006 carries the most reports, with 176; the 2008 has 93. 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.
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.
Problem: visor, windshield, driver. Plastic sheath around metal bar, which is part of the visor position control mechanism, broke during normal use. This resulted in visor not staying in position set by driver. Visor will drop down unexpectedly and partially obstruct driver's visual field and distract driver's attention. *tr
The sun visor on the driver's side on one of the first 80 degree days of the year gave a few cracking sounds and then went limp. Now the sun visor doesn't retract back to the tucked away position. It also doesn't stay up against the window. It stays rather low and slightly obstructs my vision when I am driving. This probably should be replaced under warranty, but I found many instances of this problem on the internet on this site: http://www.howtomendit.com/answers.php?id=157121 it seems like it is a major design flaw. The NHTSA should pressure hyundai to make a recall for this particular minor yet potentially dangerous design flaw. *tr
Driver side sunvisor failure on my 2008 hyundai sonata 22908 miles. It began with a week of 'cracking' when I used it until it finally broke today. It won't stay up or down completely and it is affecting my field of vision. It is just flopping in the middle. I have moved it to the side but it is still affecting my field of vision. *tr
Also reported on the 2008 Hyundai Sonata
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other brake problem
Other engine problem
Oil leak
Other driver assistance problem
Seat belt or retractor failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 93 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 visibility problem happen on the 2008 Hyundai Sonata?
Across 74 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 57,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 42,500 miles and a quarter after 70,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other visibility problem on the 2008 Hyundai Sonata?
93 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.7 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