NHTSA Complaint #11499583 — 2016 HYUNDAI SONATA

My 2016 Hyundai Sonata is sitting at the Red Hoagland dealership in Winter Haven, FL after the engine started knocking. Rather than continue driving it and risk an accident with our 19-yr old child driving it, or risk worse damage to the engine, I had it towed to Red Hoagland service department. This occurred less than a week after we had it at the dealership for the third and final oil consumption test. These tests were being conducted as part of Hyundai’s process to identify the known engine issue with this model. Each 1,000 mile test revealed that the engine was consuming approximately 3.5 quarts of oil per 1,000 miles (approximately 1 month timeframe). Despite the results of the tests and now the engine failure, Hyundai has denied the claim on the lifetime warranty of the engine. Their stated reason is “out of warranty caused by time in service and mileage on the vehicle.” The mileage on the vehicle was 143,260 on 10/29. Apparently to Hyundai a “lifetime warranty” on an engine that is known to fail due to this oil consumption issue does not mean “lifetime” but only less than 145,000 miles. I will appeal this decision and if they do not honor their lifetime warranty on this known issue they will hear from my attorney and hopefully the NHTSA will also help to enforce what Hyundai should have already done rather then making me go through this additional effort and trouble.