2023 Santa Fe hybrid Limited
We’ve owned this car about a month and for the most part it’s been great. It has tons of tech features, rides smoothly, and has wonderful fuel efficiency. We have however come to find out several annoyances that were not disclosed to us prior to purchasing the car.
First, as this is a hybrid, when the car is put in reverse, it emits an exceptionally loud beeping noise from a speaker under the hood. This is an alert for pedestrians so we understand why it exists, however the beeping is so loud we’ve grown accustomed to parking in pull through spots whenever possible so we don’t have to worry about reversing and startling anyone. When pulling out of our driveway we worry that we’ll wake up the neighbors. It’s frustrating as other hybrid makers have found solutions for this that don’t equate to the sound of a service truck backing up.
Secondly, while wireless Apple CarPlay exists on lower end models, it apparently isn’t available in our limited model. This is a huge annoyance as we have to manually hard wire our phones into the car in order to use CarPlay. This is compounded by the fact that even though there is a usb port hidden under the center console that’s perfect for tucking phones away, it can’t be used for CarPlay integration - you’re forced to use the usb port that is front and center on the console, meaning we have a long cable dangling down by our console at all times. It’s almost insulting that our top of the line model doesn’t have a simple feature that lower end models have.
Finally, after fueling the car for the very first time, our check engine light came on. No big deal - called the dealership and brought it in to be fixed. After an hour we were told that they can’t fix it and we’d have to bring it back for a full diagnostic. Only issue is the shop can’t fit us in for a month and after they diagnose it they’ll have to order the necessary parts, only for us to bring it back for a third time to have it fully fixed. We understand that new cars can sometimes have issues, but after being sold white glove service, it’s frustrating to see that we have to wait this long on a fix while being inconvenienced and having to bring the car in 3 separate times.
We’re first time Hyundai buyers and we want to love this car - but our experiences thus far have left a sour taste in our mouths. We just hope that we can get this car fixed and maybe future software updates can address the aforementioned annoyances. For anyone considering purchasing this vehicle, be aware that there may be frustrating things waiting for you on the other side.