Unclassified problem on the 2010 Hyundai Sonata
7 crashes 7 injuries 2 deaths 16 of the 37 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.
Only 30 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When unclassified problem gets reported
Owners of the 2010 Hyundai Sonata report unclassified problem at a median of 42,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 22,500 miles and a quarter after 100,000 miles, from 30 reports that carried an odometer reading.
It is the 54th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 10,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 125,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 117,088 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.
37% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9,012 miles | 21,250 miles | 41,700 miles | 99,254 miles | 126,100 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, 7 a crash, 7 an injury and 2 a fatality are 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.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 24 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2023, at a median of 100 miles, and latest on the 2001 at 120,000 miles.
By volume the 2011 carries the most reports, with 333; the 2010 has 37. 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.
Tl*the contact owns a 2010 hyundai sonata. The contact was driving approximately 30 MPH, entering an intersection when an opposing vehicle crashed into the passenger's side front end. The air bag failed to deploy. The contact sustained a minor injury to the knee and chest area. A police report was filed. The vehicle was towed to a collision center. The approximate failure mileage was 15,000. Updated 06/16/11*lj updated 1/19/2012 *ln *tr
Tl* the contact owns a 2010 hyundai sonata. The contact stated that while driving 5 MPH and exiting an alleyway, another vehicle crashed into the front driver's side and the air bags failed to deploy. A police report was filed. The contact sustained neck, head and wrist injuries. Also, the contact mentioned that the other driver sustained unknown injuries. The vehicle was destroyed. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure and current mileage was 42,817. Updated 05/28/14*lj updated 05/30/2014 *js
Driver side - outside door handle just fell off in hand. This is the 3rd handle that has fallen off in less than 4 years - when it does there is no way to open the door from the outside. You ask why it is a safety hazzard - when there is only one person and you go some where in the car - the only way you can get in is to open another door and release the broken handle door by the inside and then walk around and get in - this is not safe in parking lots at this day and time - by that time some one else can slide into the car with you - please look at how many people are having problems with this - most of us have had more that one break - this is way to many and the car manufacturer needs to do a recall and get this straight - a door handle that you use to get in and out of everyday (the hinge) being made out of plastic - to me if feel like they designed it to break
Also reported on the 2010 Hyundai Sonata
Other body or interior problem
Door latch or handle failure
Other powertrain problem
Other brake problem
Other engine problem
No-start or intermittent start failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 37 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 37 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 unclassified problem happen on the 2010 Hyundai Sonata?
Across 30 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 42,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 22,500 miles and a quarter after 100,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is unclassified problem on the 2010 Hyundai Sonata?
37 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.0 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