Hyundai Is Urgent to Reform Its Image with Active Response
A person with a last name Park, who purchased Santa Fe The Prime on the 5th of November, discovered that water was leaking in his trunk. Floor of trunk was soaked due to rain from day before. After taking it to official service center for inspection, he found out that trunk door’s fixed bolts and faulty nuts were the main causes. Although he wanted his car to be replaced, Hyundai replied that it could not replace his car since his went through a formal registration. He is currently preparing to report this problem to Korea Consumer Agency along with club members that had similar problems.
Hyundai, which had terrible experience like this in 2013, is facing water leakage problem once again in just 2 years. Number of people who suffered loss as water leaked through trunk and roof of mid-sized SUV ‘Santa Fe’ and mid-sized sedan ‘Genesis’ is increasing.
According to industries on the 7th, many reports are being received by Santa Fe Club, Consumer Protection Agency, Automobile Defect Report Centers and others about water leakage problem in 2016 Santa Fe The Prime. Water is mainly leaking through trunk, roof, and dashboard and this is similar to water leakage problem in 2013.
Victims found out about this problem a day after rain or after a carwash. In case of water leakage in trunk, water leaked from roof and some cars had water leak from bottom part of a spare tire. Some victims that had water leak from roof tore roof apart and built a new roof. Although Victims that had water leak from dashboard had their cars stored in warehouse because footrests of passenger seats were wet after a carwash and were able to stop water from leaking, some of them received absurd responses from service centers that they will not repair victim’s cars.
“Hyundai cars are receiving recognition from global markets after starting with Chairman Chung Mong Koo’s ‘Quality Management’ in the past and its value is increasing more as luxury brand ‘Genesis’ is launched.” said a person from this industry. “It will be helpful for Hyundai for its gentrified strategy to make an official apology and enforce a recall when there is water leakage problem from major products Santa Fe, Genesis and others and recover people’s trust.
After suffering from water leakage problem in 2013, Hyundai is responding sensitively towards water leakage problems because Hyundai’s ‘Quality Management’ suffered bad effects as this problem escalated to a problem with defect car body and sales volume of Santa Fe decreased about 30 to 40^ compared to usual. Although Hyundai was trying to respond with free repair rather than recall, it only received criticism for only trying to temporarily patch up a problem. Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport did not issue a recall since it did not lead to safety problem.
“It is true that Hyundai is more sensitive towards water leakage problem with Santa Fe after an incident in 2013.” said a person from Hyundai. “Although we are doing our best to respond to customers by completely repairing a vehicle with water leakage problem, so far we only received one official report about defect of 2016 Santa Fe The Prime.”
There are also many water leakage problems being discovered with luxury mid-sized sedan Genesis. Water is leaking after rain or carwash because sealant process on trunk is not done properly. Although there have been same problems with certain type of cars that were recently delivered, Hyundai is seeing faulty assemble rather than manufacture defect as a main cause. In last March, Genesis recalled about 5,000 and 26,000 cars from South Korea and North America respectively due to water leakage. It discovered possibility of manufacture defects such as temporary delay in change of speed and warning engine light being lit after large amount of water is flowed in through rear lamps.
Staff Reporter Ryu, Jongeun | rje@etnews.com