2023 HYUNDAI SANTA CRUZ — Complaint #2135223
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about SUSPENSION:REAR:SHOCK ABSORBER filed September 30, 2025
NHTSA complaint #2135223 (ODI reference 11690576) concerns a 2023 HYUNDAI SANTA CRUZ and was filed on September 30, 2025. The owner reports the failure occurred on January 30, 2024. The vehicle had 7,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Indiana based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as suspension:rear:shock absorber, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same HYUNDAI SANTA CRUZ cohort independently describe similar suspension:rear:shock absorber failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2023 HYUNDAI SANTA CRUZ shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2023 Hyundai Santa Cruz. The contact stated that while hauling a trailer and attempting to accelerate at various speeds, the vehicle was bouncing, and the tires was losing traction before being able to accelerate. The contact stated that the vehicle failed to raise and lower as the shock absorbers needed to perform. The vehicle was taken to the dealer to be diagnosed, and it was determined that the rear shocks had failed to allow the vehicle to self-level. The rear shocks were replaced; however, the failure persisted. The contact reported the persistence of the failure and was advised to go to another dealer, Greg Hubler Hyundai (6200 W Hometown Blvd, Muncie, IN 47304) who also replaced the rear struts. The manufacturer was informed of the failure and opened a case. The failure mileage was approximately 7,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2135223 |
| ODI Number | 11690576 |
| Date Filed | September 30, 2025 |
| Failure Date | January 30, 2024 |
| VIN | 5NTJDDAF0PH |
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.