I have a 2018 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport. 110k miles. I bought the car in 2018 with 13k miles on it, and since done pretty regular oil changes myself. When I bought this car I intended to run it to 200k if I could, but I'm getting worried about reliability.
Every year this model seems to have more long term engine concerns, and although I haven't had an issue YET, Hyundais have gotten a pretty bad reputation in the last 5 years for engine quality, with several models having absurd oil consumption, engine failure, etc. Although Hyundai will cover some of these, I can't get a straight answer from dealers on how much of warranty and what type my car actually has. Being a single income family, with two cars, and the other at 80k miles I'm starting to wonder if it's smart to consider selling my Hyundai, valued at Edmunds for $9500, and buying a used Honda or Toyota that offers significantly more reliability. The Hyundai is up to $2500 worth of maintenance in the last 6 months alone between a few error codes, trans fluid work, etc.
The worst case scenario is that my car suffers engine issues that get me spending 3k/year or more and with Hyundais reputation for 2018, it has me wondering if buying a used Honda Pilot/CRV now and cutting the Hyundai is a better move. I'm really trying to make sure I'm not talking myself into just getting a newer car for the sake of it.
780 credit, aiming for a newer Honda at 26k for lowish mileage. 5 year loan likely. The current car is valued at 9500. Am I being dumb by considering selling my current car?
It it smart to sell my car and buy a newer used one due to potential engine concerns long-term?
byu/HC-Oca-Ru inpersonalfinance
Posted by HC-Oca-Ru
3 Comments
Start saving money for a new car, drive this one until the engine does go. You don’t have any actual problems yet, you just have concerns about problems.
Unlikely you have any kind of warranty at 8 years and over 100k miles.
Look your service bulletins up by vin [https://autoservice.hyundaiusa.com/campaignHome](https://autoservice.hyundaiusa.com/campaignHome)
I would just run the car until it gives you a reason to sell. The hit to resale is already there. At this point even with a blown engine the car is still worth $4-5k. If you haven’t had an issue yet and you’ve been on top of oil changes then I would imagine you’re not likely to explode tomorrow.
If you have one of the problem GDI engines, I would absolutely dump the car now as it is going to be trouble for you sooner or later. Just make sure that whatever you buy to replace it isn’t also going to be a bunch of problems… Certain Newer Honda’s are a bit hit and miss- The newer CRV honestly isn’t super amazing due to the problematic turbo engines, and the CVT transmissions are not very robust. If I was going to get the CRV, make sure that it’s a non turbo engine, and that the transmission has service records for regular fluid changes. The Honda Pilot that you mentioned is a solid choice though, they are pretty good as long as they haven’t been abused or used for towing.