NHTSA Owner Complaint Log
This page lists owner-reported complaints filed with NHTSA for the 2022 Hyundai Kona. Complaints are unverified consumer reports submitted to NHTSA and do not by themselves prove a defect or defect rate.
The horn does not work. The fuse is fine, it is the horn itself that does not work.
22’ Kona N DCT Base US spec. 5,600 miles est (2nd Kona) Fuel used: Shell Premium Outside Temp: 76F/Dry-Clear Sky. This is my 2nd Kona N, this is the 4th experience I’ve had with my Kona N’s. Towed the first on Vin# [XXX] to dealer, engine stalled after refueling during a road trip. 6/7k miles. Misfire. No replaced parts, car started acting normal. Then I traded it in for another Kona N in June 22’. The vehicle in normal mode is fine. I believe. Switching from N Mode is where the engine starts misfiring and runs on 3,2cyl puffing out white smoke. Leaving me stranded. The codes all show via car touch screen, and OBD reader/history. All electronics perform properly, including active safety features. I am Hyundai affiliated but I do not know how to relay the message. All of the Kona N/Elantra N/Veloster N DCT. Need software updates. It’s a bug, I honestly think. INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
While on the highway the transmission completely stopped shifting and stayed in first gear and would only rev up the engine when the accelerator was applied. I was able to get up to 50mph and slowly make my way to the dealership where I bought it 2 months ago. I turned the vehicle off went inside to talk to the service center where I was told that it'd take 2 to 3 days to even get my car in to get looked at and they did not have any loaners to give me. I still had to work and couldn't take time off so I went back to my car and restarted it after a few minutes and it drove regularly.
This is my 2nd report on the same issue. There is another report from me on the first and I will be discussing this with my Hyundai dealer today. On a 250 mile road trip, on the expressway, two separate times, the car suddenly braked hard and the emergency warning flashed on the speedometer. Each time it was about 3-5 seconds. On the second incident, my passenger thinks she noticed it happening in conjunction with a car appearing on my side. She said the side mirror warning lit up at the same time the car started braking. It could just be a coincidence though. Thankfully, neither time did the brakes fully stop the car, but DAMN, it is very scary when it happens on the expressway and I am very nervous to drive with the feature on.
Incident #1: Auto Emergency Breaking System sensed false situation and auto braked nearly causing high speed accident. Caused while exiting I-80 West Bound off ramp with two lanes Ramp that exits. I was in the inside lane and there was another vehicle in the outside lane. Assuming the system thought I was going to turn into the outer car and braked suddenly. Incident #2: Lane keeping system, constantly fights me for no known reason. While in Las Vegas on Flamingo Road on Oct. 10, 2022 the system suddenly jerked the car to the left and nearly into a head-on crash. My family is very lucky to be okay. Car has problems when road markings are not consistent or when using reflectors (vs painted lines) or when there are exits. It's safer to leave the system off in my experience.
When I pull up to my driveway, which is on a 45-degree angle from the street for approximately 100 feet, and stop the car with the vehicle brake, take my foot off the brake and leave the transmission in drive, the car sits for approximately 15 seconds and then, without any input, the car will climb the hill. I was curious, so I turn the car around and backed into the driveway, and it did the same thing in reverse. I hate to think that a small child would be sitting in the driveway and the diver didn't see them. My question is would the car keep going and run over the child?
On 9/20/2022 I was driving on the expressway at approximately 60 mph when my car suddenly applied brakes and slowed considerably without reason and started flashing the emergency braking notification with alert noises. The notifications stopped after about 6 seconds and the car did not come to a complete stop, as I probably would not be here today, but it rattled me and now I have lost confidence in my car and feel this can cause a serious accident. The car has 1,322 miles and I have noticed one other incident at speed under 10 mph approaching traffic light.. I called my dealer to let them know. They made a note in my profile because they didn’t think they would be able to do anything. I searched Google and found others have discussed the exact same issue with the same model. This should be addressed! I will be turning this feature off.
Emergency braking system stopped the car suddenly. There weren't any cars in front of me or next to me. Thankfully I was driving slow through a road in our parking lot and there were no cars behind me. It has only happened once so far. Obviously it startled me and made me wonder how safe the car is to drive. I haven't said anything to the dealer, but plan to when I go in for yearly maintenance in a week. There were no warning lights or symptoms prior to this happening.
The lane assist tries to drive me off the road multiple times every day putting the safety of myself and others at risk. The car has not been inspected by insurance or police. The problem has been present since the first week of owning the car.
Was driving on the freeway when lost all power when the gas pedal was pushed no power then the rpms would shoot to 7000 was able to get off the freeway the check came on had the car towed to the dealership after waiting 2 weeks was told the transmission needed to be replaced this was on a 2022 Hyundai kona with only 7000 miles on it
The contact owns a 2022 Hyundai Kona. The contact stated while driving approximately 70 MPH, the front passenger’s side window exploded without impact. No medical attention was needed. The contact was able to drive the vehicle to her residence where the vehicle was then towed to the dealer. The contact was informed that the vehicle would be repaired under warranty. The vehicle was not yet repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and the contact was provided case number. The failure mileage was approximately 2,000.
The contact owns a 2022 Hyundai Kona. The contact stated that the check engine warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer and the contact was informed that there was bad fuel in the vehicle. The failure reoccurred and the vehicle was taken back to the same dealer who reset the codes. The failure persisted. The vehicle was taken to the dealer and diagnosed with a cylinder misfire. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not contacted. The approximate failure mileage was 5,500.
Around 8,000 miles, mid-drive my check engine light came on and immediately the ability to speed up became very shotty. I have a 2022 kona n-line. I could put my foot on the floor and it would take forever to get up to speed if at all. It was very here and there and seemed to have a mind of its own when it would do this. I’ve had it into the shop 5-6 different times since then to have it addressed and I’m still having issues with it. They replaced some valance, the solanoid, and just recently completely replaced the entire turbo system to try and fix the problem. It seems to have helped, but I still have this ongoing clicking sound since this started when the car downshifts it seems like, that has yet to be diagnosed. It’s not a normal car sound at all and nobody seems to even notice this sound I mention every time I take it in. I’ve read similar stories with this same model of car, yet there’s no active recall on it. I’ve been dealing with this for months and it’s aggravating the amount of time I’ve put in to trying to fix this. I travel for work which only makes things so much more frustrating to work around.
I was driving on the freeway at about speed limit. I was at a safe distance (3 car lengths away) from the car in front of me. The emergency brake activated. It did not stop the car, but I felt a pause in the drive. The message on my dashboard stated "emergency brake activated". A few minutes later, the emergency brake activated again. Again, it did not stop the car, but I felt another pause in the drive. The message "emergency brake activated" also came on the dashboard. I had a passenger in the car.
There are multiple issues with the Adaptive Cruise Control: -When setting the cruise control speed, it can drop 10-15 mph until it kicks in. -When a car pulls in front of you with the Adaptive Cruise Control on, it takes to long to recognize it has to slow down and has to abruptly decrease speed when it finally does. -If the Adaptive Cruise Control does slow down because of a driver in front of you and that driver changes lanes, the Adaptive Cruise Control can again take 10-mph drop until it kicks in. https://www.konaissues.com/ https://www.hyundai-forums.com/threads/2022-kona-cruise-control-unusable.680949/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Hyundai/comments/q80vhz/cruise_control_in_2022_kona_limited_is_whack/ https://www.carproblemzoo.com/hyundai/kona/2022/adaptive-cruise-control-problems.php
It is called a "Smart Cruise" and it does not hold the speed. When driving on the interstate and the speed does not hold that would cause a risk of collision by other vehicles that are driving the appropriate speed. I took the car to my Hyundai dealer and a tech drove it. He said he got the same result of not holding the speed it was set at. I was told this is a problem with the Smart Cruise and that there was nothing that could be done at this time. There was nothing to say the cruise control was not working correctly
Cruise control on the 2022 Kona is not viable. In the standard cruising gears the cruise control is unresponsive for a long duration resulting in reductions of speed of up to 11 MPH at highway speeds, in traffic. The response of the cruise control to following a car can take up to 1 minute to actually try and recover speed.
While at a stop light, the engine of my 2022 Kona died. No warning lights came on prior. It just died in the middle of the street. Then took several minutes and several tries to get the car to restart. Accelerator didn’t work at first either. Driving on highway warning light for tire pressure came on. Diagnostics said everything was fine. Then the warning light turned off. More and more frequent trouble accelerating onto highway. Car-play does not stay connected. Often doesn’t connect at all. Car dying in the middle of the street, not accelerating onto the highway was extremely frightening and I felt very lucky that it didn’t cause an accident, or worse. I have contacted my dealership about the issues and was told that I could have an appointment in 2 months! They don’t care about the safety of the people driving their cars and, clearly, they no longer care about the quality of their cars. As far as the CarPlay goes, they looked at the screen and then didn’t fix a thing. It still isn’t working properly. This is my second Hyundai and the quality has really diminished over the years and the problems have increased exponentially. The car dying while driving and accelerator not working properly has now happened several times. Today was only the most recent.
During collision, airbags did not deploy. In attempt to avoid collision, automatic breaks failed and did not stop the vehicle, cruise control continued to attempt to drive the vehicle despite collision warning and did not stop- coupled with my manual breaking, the car did not stop. Car is currently at a tow lot waiting for insurance. My safety was put at risk due to airbags not deploying during serious collision, the breaks malfunctioned. At this time, the car is in the beginning stages of insurance. My car did not display any prior failure features.
I was driving on the freeway the car in front of me was at least 4 car lengths away. My car flashed emergency breaks and locked it’s breaks coming to a stop on the fast lane of the freeway. Nearly avoided an accident. This has happened twice- both with no reason and no issue in front of me to cause the car to think it needed to suddenly use emergency brakes.
While at a complete stop at and intersection the idle stop and go system shut the engine down. When I took my foot off the break the engine started but as soon as I stepped on the gas pedal, the engine shut down. The cluster gage told me out the vehicle in neutral and restart. This issues has happened numerous times. Most times were while stopped in traffic and could have been a factor in a car rear ending me. I have taken the vehicle to the dealership. They are very helpful and were able to replicate the issue. After conferring with a Hyundai Motors tech line, who said this has been a problem with other 2022 Konas, the dealership did replace a solenoid but the issue remains. The were no warning or check engine light at all.
Transmission failure. Car is 10 months old with 4000 miles on it. Extremely dangerous because this happened on the garden state parkway. This needs to be categorized as a catastrophic failure
The adaptive cruise control does not engage in a timely fashion when activated. The speed reduces 8-12 mph before it kicks in. Speed always decreases 5 to. 21 mph on every hill. This inconsistency causes traffic to bunch around me. The dealership says nothing can be done to fix the problem. This problem is so frustrating and dangerous that I no longer use the feature.
Engine began knocking/shaking suddenly while highway driving, service engine light came on. Pulled over, turned off ignition. Tried restarting and would not start. Towed to dealership and diagnosed as engine failure, possible timing chain failure. Complete engine replacement recommended by dealer service dept. Dealer service dept. will replace engine free of charge as vehicle is well under warranty from Hyundai. The vehicle had less than 4000 miles on it. Safety of myself and others was put at risk due to failure happening while highway driving, fortunately I was able to pull over on shoulder before the engine completely seized.
The low bean headlights are where the Brights should shine. The brights shine in the tree tops. Every time I go out at night I get flashed by almost all passing cars when the low beams are on. The dealership told us there is no way to adjust the lights. How am I supposed to drive this at night?
Randomly the check engine light turns on and the car begins to violently shake. This is the second day this already happened and only happened while on the highway. The car is only 3 weeks old with just over 1000 miles on it. After pulling over on the side of the road and turning the car off and on, the problem disappeared and the check engine light turns off. The vehicle does not acknowledge that there was an issue. After doing some research, it seems to be consistent with a common issue with Hyundai vehicles having defective ignition coils. Common issue in multiple Konas, Elantras and other Hyundai vehicle The danger of the control of the car on the highway when this issue occurs at random is sufficient enough to ensure that all these vehicles are recalled to get the problem fixed.
The brakes began feeling less effective the day before because the car crept forward at a light but the driver thought they may have just eased off the brake pedal. The next day during a 45-minute drive to work the brakes felt more ineffective and a dash display warned "Low brake fluid". The Parking brake light was NOT on while driving. Drove the car from work to the local Hyundai dealer in Alexandria, VA a mile away. The dealer refused to look at car at all and said to come back in 18 days. The dealer said no loaner cars were available. Drove the car back to work. On the way home the Parking brake light came on. Got home and saw the Owners Manual says to park the car and not drive it when the Parking Brake light comes on while the parking brake is released. Checked the brake reservoir and it was completely empty. The brake pedal went to floor and the only way to stop the car was to use the Parking Brake. The reservoir was refilled but all fluid was gone in a few hours of driving. The car was towed ten days later to the same dealer after a manager at the dealership got involved. The tow truck driver had to use the parking brake to drive the car out of the parking garage. The dealer advised the problem was a faulty caliper. The Owners Manual claims the car has a "dual diagonal" braking system as required by law but somehow a single leaking caliper resulted in a COMPLETE loss of pedal braking and ALL brake fluid from the master cylinder reservoir in a short period of time. Had this happened on a highway instead of city streets this could have been a fatal. THE BRAKE MASTER CYLINDER RESERVOIR DOES NOT SEEM TO BE A "SPLIT" RESERVOIR. It has a separator but the "wall" does NOT go all the way to the top of the reservoir. I believe that when the brakes were used the fluid splashed from the "good" half to the leaking half because the reservoir is not 100% physically separate for the two sets of brakes.
I went to use the horn at a car that blew through a stop sign and there was no horn sound. This was my first time using the horn since I bought it brand new. No warning lights no nothing.
While driving on a freeway, the drain plug fell out, dumping all of the oil onto the road. The vehicle had been serviced by just one facility and I had only had this brand new vehicle for 7 months when this occurred. This incident put the driver, any passengers, and anyone on the road nearby at risk. The drain plug loss was verified by a Hyundai certified service facility and then I was asked to tow it to the Hyundai certified facility that performed all of the services. I was told that Hyundai Motor America sent representatives to inspect the vehicle at both facilities along with the service staff at each facility. I have not been informed of anyone else inspecting the vehicle such as law enforcement or insurance representatives. There were no warning lamps or messages or symptoms prior to the drain plug falling out. There was no evidence of any oil leak, either. There were warning lamps immediately afterward. Blue link sent me a message as soon as the vehicle was turned back on after being turned off. The message said "a possible condition with your engine control system has been detected with your 2022 Hyundai Kona..." My 2022 Hyundai Kona is still sitting at the Hyundai certified repair facility over two years later. I had to hire a lawyer to try to get this situation rectified. No one wants to accept the responsibility for the drain plug falling out of my vehicle.
Adaptive Cruise Control is practical non-functional. There is a major delay when setting the cruise control speed before it actually kicks in. Speed can slow down upwards 10-15 mph below the intended set speed and take roughly 30 seconds. Once it engages its spotty with it's functionality. Depending on traffic scenarios it seems to reset the ability to re-engage cruise control and will again dropping down speed taking 15-30 seconds for before re-engaging.
12-3-21, with only 103 miles on my new car, the check engine light came on. I drove back to the dealer where I purchased the car - Fitzgerald, and spoke to Maurice the manager, and Garret in the service department. Garret informed me he "wiggled the wires" and the check engine light went off. On 12-5-21, with 129 miles on the car the check engine light came on again. I went back to Fitzgerald and spoke to Frank, who works in sales. Frank told me the service department was closed on Sunday and I have to comeback Monday 12-6-21.
My vehicle keeps shutting off with no warning and has almost killed me on multiple occasions The dealership keeps placating me about getting it fixed, saying that a repair is months out Meanwhile, I am driving a very dangerous vehicle that shuts off and shakes like it’s going to explode
While on the highway the transmission completely stopped shifting and stayed in first gear and would only rev up the engine when the accelerator was applied.I had to coast slowly off the freeway to an exit to safely park. I turned the vehicle off and restarted after a few minutes and it drove regularly. Apparently there are other customers that have experienced this issue and this raises a lot of concern on the safety of operating this vehicle.
The contact owns a 2022 Hyundai Kona. The contact stated while the vehicle was parked, he noticed while starting the vehicle and switching the headlights from automatic to manual, that the headlights failed to operate as needed. The contact stated that when the headlight switch was placed in the OFF position, the headlights would activate. The contact stated that the switch was working in reverse order. Additionally, the headlights operated properly while using the auto-headlights feature activated. The contact stated that while shifting from Reverse to Drive, the sensor failed to recognize that the vehicle was in Drive. The Reverse audible beep would activate for several seconds. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact called the local dealer but was not able to schedule an immediate appointment for the vehicle to be diagnosed. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 7,000.
The cruise control does not engage. When setting the adaptive cruise control I have had the car slow down 15-20 mph before turning the cruise control off because traffic is backing up behind me and I become a hazard on the road. I have taken it to 2 different dealerships, the one I purchased the car from and one that is closer to my home as I moved and now live in a different state from where I purchased the car. Both dealerships claimed they were not able to replicate the issue. However, every time I drive the car and try to use cruise control I have the same issue of the cruise control not engaging. The car dashboard's speed indicator is supposed to turn green and make a "ding" sound when you engage the cruise control at the posted speed limit. My car does not do this. The speed limit on the freeway here is 80mph and it will turn green and "ding" at 81mph but still not actually engage and maintain the speed. I have had numerous incidents where cars behind me honk and have to go around because I was slowing down so much. I spoke with another 2022 Kona owner and they stated that they have had the same problem and they were told the same thing by a different dealership that they bought their vehicle from.
I purchased in July 2021 todays date is Nov 22nd it has been 5 months and for the second time I get to my parked car and the power locks don’t work with the key fob and the engine simply will not start. The first time I had the tow truck guy jump start the engine and it worked up until today, I took it in for a diagnostic and they said the battery was healthy everything checked out. Today again Nov 22 I get to my car again won’t unlock and engine simply will not turn on with key entry model SE. This time I had them tow to the dealership for more evaluation. This is a road hazard what happens if the engine decides to stop working while driving the vehicle? Both times I double checked and I did not leave any lights on everything was shut off only thing blinking was the security alarm system. I believe it is a manufacturer defect in the engine since the battery tests out fine.
I purchased a 2022 Hyundai Kona brand new, and since day one it has had serious performance issues — specifically, harsh jolting during acceleration and occasional stalling. These symptoms are dangerous, especially when driving in traffic, merging, or crossing intersections. I discovered that a recall existed prior to my purchase, but it was not performed until after nearly two service visits — even though I had already reported these symptoms. I was never informed of the recall by the dealership before those visits. After the recall was eventually performed, the issues continued, and the dealership began doing software resets during service visits. However, these resets have not resolved the problem, and the symptoms return shortly after. The dealership claims there’s nothing wrong and refuses to escalate the issue. I have contacted Hyundai Consumer Affairs and am working with a national case manager, but there is still no resolution. I do not feel safe driving this vehicle. I believe this may be related to a defect in the transmission control system, electronic throttle, or dual-clutch transmission. I’m requesting that NHTSA investigate this as a safety-related defect, as it has persisted since purchase and affects both the safety and drivability of the vehicle.
The contact owns a 2022 Hyundai Kona. The contact stated while driving 5 MPH, the vehicle inadvertently shut off due to the idle STOP/START feature. The contact stated that there was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to a local dealer where but was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was informed of the failure and referred the contact to NHTSA to file a complaint. The failure mileage was approximately 5.
Transmission has extremely hard shifts from 1 to second when quickly accelerating. This can cause you to not be able to accelerate quickly enough to get out of traffic. I have heard this is a common issue from other Kona N-Line owners.
Data synced from NHTSA on May 4, 2026