NHTSA Complaint #11515777 — 2022 HYUNDAI SANTA FE PLUG-IN HYBRID

The accident took place on February 13 at approximately 7:40 a.m. My wife (the primary driver of the vehicle) had just dropped my son off at school and was pulling the vehicle into our garage as she has done at least four times a day since we purchased it in February 2022 for use as our primary family vehicle. She pulled into the garage, came to a complete stop, pressed the “Park” button and confirmed that the vehicle was in park, and removed her foot from the brake. The vehicle then lurched forward and collided with a storage cube adjacent to our garage wall, causing extensive damage to both the front end of the vehicle and the garage/dining room wall. Within minutes of the accident, I contacted Temecula Hyundai (our local dealership and service center), informed the Service Manager of what had just happened, and asked them how they wanted me to proceed given the fact that the malfunction was a warranty issue. They directed me to handle the accident through my insurance company. I specifically asked whether the vehicle needed to be preserved in place and not driven in order to maintain the scene and/or vehicle for investigation, and they said no. Nevertheless, we brought the vehicle to Hyundai that day to have it inspected and computer diagnostics run, since I suspected both might be necessary. They said the computer likely wouldn't capture this type of issue. We waited several weeks for our assigned Hyundai Case Manage (Tracy) to contact us with further instructions (which never happened, despite several requests for her and/or a supervisor to contact me), but eventually followed our insurance company’s instructions to take the vehicle to Caliber Collision to proceed with repairs, which were completed on March 30. We are still waiting for Hyundai corporate to address the issue.