Complete transmission failure on the 2016 Hyundai Tucson
1 crash 1 of the 27 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 complete transmission failure gets reported
Owners of the 2016 Hyundai Tucson report complete transmission failure at a median of 15,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles, from 12 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 98,000 miles. It is the 15th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 2,200 miles at the tenth percentile to 95,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 91,754 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.
67% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2,246 miles | 7,040 miles | 14,000 miles | 91,000 miles | 94,000 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 a crash 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 $2,800–$8,000 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.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 4 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2006, at a median of 1,000 miles, and latest on the 2025 at 90,000 miles.
By volume the 2016 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
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.
When accelerating from a stop the car hesitates and will not go. I have almost been in a wreak 2 times due to this. It doesn't happen every time. I was stranded with no shoulder to pull off onto in bumper to bumper traffic while on vacation twice. The car alerted me the transmission fluid was hot and to pull over safely. I did not have that option so it just stopped. The display read I could contiue after 15 mins I am scared every time I drive that these issues will cause a wreak. I have taken it in 3 times now for the same problem and they tell me they can not recreate the problem and there are no codes and send me away. I told them someone is going to get in a major wreak due to their new transmission in the 2016 vehicles. I am not the only person having the issues. The internet is full of the same problem. When do they become liable to do more than look for codes before someone is injured. This is a major safety problem.
Yesterday 8/10/16 while returning home from park and ride , driving 1/2 into traffic my transmission failed again for a few minutes leaving me in a traffic situation in the middle of the road where cars had to weave around me causing another dangerous position to be in. As a matter of record once again my safety driving this car was in jeopardy with no resolve from hyundai. Hyundai states that my case is in escalation which has no true definition as to resolve. I have no choice but to involve every government agency that handles safety and any form of media to let them know that they will not be safe in vehicles produced by this company based on the handling of my case. This is the third incident I have encountered with less than 2100 miles on the car. It is important to inform all as to the danger it puts people in. In addition there are multiple complaints publicized with the same problem , dangerous unsafe positions people have encountered and no results from hyundai. When safety is concerned , generic generated emails from hyundai will not prevent unsafe situations that can result in serious injury and possibly loss of life. I…
10.10.15 I purchased a new 2016 hyundai tucson limited fwd 1.6l turbo dtc. I noticed the hesitation and lag issues with the transmission as documented in similar complaints; however, when these issues where mentioned to the dealership they were dismissed as being normal for this type of transmission. I have made 3 trips to the dealership; although, I continued to experiencing the same issues with the transmission, I was never informed of any transmission issues or that hyundai had issued a fix in december 2015 to address the hesitation issues in the transmission. 07.25.16 my mom was driving my vehichle and was left stranded in the chic-fil-a drive thru because the transmission failed to engage. My mom was in drive with her foot on the brake, but when she removed her foot from the brake to move up in line the vehicle did not move, even with excessive acceleration. The vehicle was placed in neutral, reverse, and drive again and failed to move in any gear. The vehicle had to be pushed out of line into a parking spot. 07.27.16 the dealership advised my vehichle was ready to pick up. When asked, they stated there was "no" issue with…
Also reported on the 2016 Hyundai Tucson
Other powertrain problem
Other body or interior problem
Other engine problem
Door latch or handle failure
Other electrical problem
Dual-clutch or clutch-pack failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 27 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 complete transmission failure happen on the 2016 Hyundai Tucson?
Across 12 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 15,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is complete transmission failure on the 2016 Hyundai Tucson?
27 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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