Other visibility problem on the 2009 Hyundai Sonata
When other visibility problem gets reported
Owners of the 2009 Hyundai Sonata report other visibility problem at a median of 55,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 75,000 miles, from 17 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 75,000 miles. It is the 10th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 30,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 95,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 62,800 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.
12% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31,600 miles | 47,000 miles | 54,000 miles | 75,000 miles | 94,400 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
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 2009 has 19. 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.
I purchased a 2009 sonata for my wife's safety, driving the roads of texas to and from work. I notified hyundai about a serious and dangerous instrument panel control design flaw.. The sonata manual is self-explanatory starting at page 1-101 - addressing known and frequent fogging all windows issues. Briefly, it is unconscionable to ask the driver, while driving, take one hand off the wheel, look down, find, read and manually reset multiple exact positions in temperature, A/C and fan speeds to defog all windows. At 70 miles, or any MPH--this is a disaster waiting to happen. Sonata hyundai windows fog quickly, completely and frequently blinding the driver necessitating distracting changes to be made to balance multiple changes in outside to inside temps along roads. Defogging is achieved--only-- with outside air intake vents open. Life threatening maneuvers to drive safely are distractions designed into the hyundai instrument control system. In all my years I have not found such an incompetent, unsafe, unreasonable and life threatening design in any automobile, or over the road rig I owned. If hyunda's answer is they cannot fix or…
I purchased a 2009 sonata for my wife's safety, driving the roads of texas to and from work. I notified hyundai about a serious and dangerous instrument panel control design flaw.. The sonata manual is self-explanatory starting at page 1-101 - addressing known and frequent fogging all windows issues. Briefly, it is unconscionable to ask the driver, while driving, take one hand off the wheel, look down, find, read and manually reset multiple exact positions in temperature, A/C and fan speeds to defog all windows. At 70 miles, or any MPH--this is a disaster waiting to happen. Sonata hyundai windows fog quickly, completely and frequently blinding the driver necessitating distracting changes to be made to balance multiple changes in outside to inside temps along roads. Defogging is achieved--only-- with outside air intake vents open. Life threatening maneuvers to drive safely are distractions designed into the hyundai instrument control system. In all my years I have not found such an incompetent, unsafe, unreasonable and life threatening design in any automobile, or over the road rig I owned. If hyunda's answer is they cannot fix or…
Rear window shattered while commuting into work this morning on interstate I-95. The glass repair man stated new cars sometimes have a faulty wire that causes these windows to shatter. I was using the heater & had the defrost activated outside temperature: 27 degrees c. 2009 hyundai sonata gls. West palm beach, fl. *tr
Also reported on the 2009 Hyundai Sonata
Other brake problem
Other body or interior problem
Other engine problem
Other electrical problem
Other driver assistance problem
Other powertrain problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 19 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 2009 Hyundai Sonata?
Across 17 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 55,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 75,000 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 2009 Hyundai Sonata?
19 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.5 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