All They Had to Do Was Fix the Car
By Charles Jackson
I actually like my Hyundai. I just wish I felt Hyundai liked me back.
After repeated repair visits, recurring check engine lights, oil consumption and more follow-up calls than I care to count, I have reached a point I never expected: I am afraid to drive my own car.
I can smell what seems to be burning oil. I worry about what my children and I may be breathing. The car has stalled, leaving me scrambling to pull over and restart it. I no longer trust it for a trip outside the area. Now, I have parked it.
This is my family’s transportation. It is how I get to work, take my daughters to school and help keep our household moving. When the car fails, the consequences reach well beyond the repair shop.
I originally leased my 2020 Hyundai Santa Fe, then bought it when the lease ended. I also purchased extended warranty coverage because I wanted protection if something went wrong.
Something went wrong. What I have not received is a lasting repair.
The pattern has become painfully familiar: Take the car in. Receive an explanation. Authorize repairs. Get it back. Then, sometimes within days or weeks, watch the check engine light return.
My extended warranty has been billed for repairs, and I have faced charges myself. Yet the problems have continued. From where I sit, the process keeps producing repair bills without producing a car I can depend on.
The calls from Hyundai representatives have become another source of frustration. Someone calls while I am working, promises to follow up and schedules another conversation. Sometimes we connect; sometimes I miss the call. Either way, another week passes.
A follow-up call is welcome when it brings an answer. After enough calls without a resolution, it starts to feel like an appointment to keep waiting.
Meanwhile, I still have a job. I cannot spend every workday coordinating conversations about a car that is supposed to help me get to work in the first place.
Then there is the transportation problem while the vehicle is being serviced. I have repeatedly been told that no loaner car was available. Yet on one visit, I watched another customer leave in a dealership-branded loaner.
I do not know that customer’s circumstances or how the dealership assigned its vehicles. But after being told there was nothing available for me, watching someone else drive away raised a reasonable question: How are those decisions made?
Rental arrangements offered little relief. A preferred rental rate still meant paying for transportation while dealing with repairs, household expenses and time away from work.
During one breakdown around the Coachella festival period, I could not find an available rental car. I rented a U-Haul to get to work. Arriving in a moving truck created another problem at my workplace, but I was trying to solve the first one: showing up.
The costs have also been personal.
We have friends in Orange County we have not visited in about a year because I do not trust the car for the drive. My grandson welcomed a son in February, and I still have not traveled to the Inland Empire to meet my great-grandson. I want to see that child, but I do not want to strand my family on the way.
My twin daughters are 17. I had planned to give them the Hyundai as their first car. That plan is gone. I cannot hand my daughters the keys to a vehicle I am afraid to drive myself.
When one daughter wanted to visit a college campus in the Santa Barbara area, I rented a car. A trip to explore her future became another expense tied to our transportation troubles.
I also sought arbitration through the Better Business Bureau. The hearing schedule conflicted with work, and I did not attend. The arbitrator ruled in Hyundai’s favor. From my perspective, that process ended without resolving the problem that sent me there.
Now I am considering trading the car in. I dislike the thought of this vehicle becoming someone else’s headache, but I need dependable transportation. I cannot keep organizing my family’s life around the possibility of another breakdown.
To other owners facing recurring problems, my advice comes from experience: Keep your invoices, record each breakdown and seek qualified advice early. Do not let repeated promises of another inspection or another callback become your entire plan.
I bought extended coverage for peace of mind. Instead, I have spent my time arranging repairs, finding rentals, answering calls and wondering whether the next drive would end at the curb.
I did not want a fight with Hyundai. I wanted to keep a car I liked and use it to take care of my family.
All they had to do was fix the car.
After everything I have been through, I am still waiting for that to happen.
I originally titled this article as a cautionary tale. If they couldn’t fix it they were obligated to replace it. We all know about the lemon law rules. We also know that if you can stall long enough, you can bypass the lemon law rules all together, because you have successfully outlived the statute of limitations, and you have skirted your legal obligation to
conduct your business fairly.