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Hyundai Elantra/Sonata MPG Class Action Lawsuit Tentatively Certified
By Sarah Pierce
A federal judge yesterday said he plans to certify a class action lawsuit accusing Hyundai Motor America of falsely advertising the fuel economy of its Elantra and Sonata models.
Hyundai and Sonata buyers sued the Korean automaker earlier this year after discovering their cars were not receiving 40 mpg as advertised. U.S. District Judge George H. Wu said the case “is probably going forward as a class in some way, shape or form” after tentatively ruling the class action lawsuit should be limited to California consumers because Elantra and Sonata buyers in other states aren’t covered by California’s consumer protection laws.
Judge Wu based his decision on evidence the plaintiffs presented showing Hyundai engaged in an extensive advertising campaign that touted the Elantra and Sonata as receiving 40 mpg on the highway. Judge Wu said the marketing efforts were extensive enough that consumers could have relied on the ads in making their decision to buy the vehicles.
“Plaintiffs have exhaustively detailed the extensive scope of the challenged advertising,” Judge Wu said in tentatively granting class certification of the Hyundai Elantra/Sonata class action lawsuit. “It appears almost impossible for Hyundai to dispute the extensive sweep of its marketing efforts as to the fuel efficiency of the Elantra and Sonata vehicles.”
The Hyundai fuel economy class action lawsuit focuses on the way the company advertised its fuel economy numbers, alleging the ads did not comply with regulations about how EPA mileage estimates are to be displayed.
Hyundai has been the target of multiple class action lawsuits and an investigation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over its allegedly inflated fuel economy numbers for a variety of vehicles.
In November, the EPA announced that Hyundai and its sister company Kia has overstated the gas mileage on nearly 35% of their 2011-2013 model-year vehicles.
The tentatively certified Hyundai Elantra/Sonata Gas Mileage Class Action Lawsuit case is Kehlie R. Espinosa v. Hyundai Motor America, Case No. 12-cv-00800, U.S. District Court, Central District of California.
The Plaintiffs are represented by Richard D. McCune, Elaine S. Kusel and Jae K. Kim of McCuneWright LLP.
Updated November 30th, 2012
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38 thoughts onHyundai Elantra/Sonata MPG Class Action Lawsuit Tentatively Certified
I bought a 2011 sonata about 5 months ago and within the 1st week I noticed that I was only getting about 18 miles to the gallon. I am so disappointed and mad. how do I join the lawsuit. I drive the same distant everyday going the same speed 60 mph and it is all highway. On the weekends when I’m off I just park the car because I can not afford the gas. My car has 42,000. I lve in NJ and travel the turnpike so can someone please tell me why I am not getting at least 27 miles to the gallon
I leased a 2013 Sonata hoping for the 24 mpg city claim. After 1700 miles, my lowest has been 14.6 with an overall average of 21 mpg (after a few long highway trips). That’s about 90 percent city and 10 percent highway driving. Clearly, in my opinion, false advertising on Hyundai’s part. I’m an older male who drives carefully with no hot-rodding. On the other hand, my wife’s 2009 Hyundai Santa Fe gets an average city mpg of 15.6. It’s registered for only 15 city. The dealership gave me the same “BS” about the mileage, “Oh, it’s a new engine and really tight, wait until about 3k miles and we can investigate”, and my favorite, “Valero gas is as bad as Arco, you need to use Chevron or Shell”. The service tech couldn’t even look me in the eye whey they made those statements.
We purchased a 2013 Hyundai Sonata on 12-13-2012. The primary reason was the EPA gas mileage of 28 overall, 24 city, and 35 highway. After almost 9000 miles the mpg has been 21 overall, with several tanksful under 20. Our driving is always a mix of freeway and city. For 12 years we got 20 to 21 mpg overall from a 1999 Avalon – a much heavier luxury car with a V6 engine. Yet both Hyundai Motors and the dealers claim that it must be the way we drive. They also claim that it will improve after 10,000 miles which is contrary to all of our experience with other cars. It is also contrary to what other drivers are posting on the internet. Early on they claimed that COSTCO gasoline was the problem. We have been using mainly Chevron and Shell for the last 6000 miles and have had no improvement. This is a nice car, but the mpg ruins our experience. If we wanted luxury car mileage, we would have bought another Avalon. We wish we had.
what can I expect from this law suite
I have 2007 sonata
I recently bought a 2013 Sonata and the sticker states an average of 28. I drive mainly city; it stays anywhere from 28 to 32. If you gun the gas pedal on take off and stopping hard then you are killing your mpg. I love my car and every new car I have bought has never given me exactly the mileage stated.
Love the 2011 Sonata have had great service and friendly people to work with at our local dealership in Mattoon IL Am disappointed that fuel economy can not reach advertised number. Only other item that bothers me is the inability to add remote start do to only having the ability to have two pods on push to start model.
We have a 2013 Hyundai Sonata that gets horrible gas
milage. City and highway is 19.90 and all highway is
27.75.
No where near what Hyundai advertized. This is our
third Hyundai Sonata and by far it gets the worst gas
mileage of them all.
Went for service with filled out mileage forms for over
1200 miles. Dealer said car is fine and told me to call
Hyundai. Result of call to Hyundai a waste of time.
Next step is my filling out the Consumer Report form I
received in the mail yesterday.
I am now researching class action lawsuits.
Herb Thau
yes i have a 2012 sonata hybrid i got it 9-30-12 poor mileagee from the start. i to got it for the mileage hey 35/40 sounded great. but i get 24.30 c/h i was told i needed tog et to the first ol change 3500 milea did it and the mileage got wors. i complained to the saleman so much that they gave hime a new email address and i don’t know it. even the service manager will not return my mail. or calls. so now i’m all over the internet running down this car and telling everyone i see not to get one. my 06 cobalt blows the doors off the hsh for mpg. sad day. and they tell me i don’t drive it correctly i even offered 100 to anyone that can take my car and get it to 35 mpg and prive it to me no takers. even the hyundai forum has people with this problem and some there say we don’t drive it correctly and that site will not take my offer either can’t be done and theya ll know it.
I bought my first new car ever in Aug 2012-a 2013 Hyundai Sonata. The car was purchased for gas mileage and handling. I also bought extended warranity. Have had car back several times and was told I have poor gas mileage because of the way I drive . They test drove and claimed to get 34 mpg highway and stated car needs to be broken in with at leastat 5000 miles. I calculate mileage the old way with no Computer and avg 16-18 mpg overall. Disheartened and paying for more gas than with my 16 year old 6 cylinder Lumina. Hope lawsuit makes things right!
I purchased a 2012 Hyundai Accent about a year ago with my top criteria being MPG. They were only our first choice because of the lower MPG. I have a long daily drive and MPG is critical in our budget. The salesman not only touted the 40 MPG but also the highest resale in its class. We were never able to achieve even close to the 40 MPG advertised, even after being more aware of our driving habits. We received a letter from Hyundai admitting to the error and offered to compensate our MPG difference in the form of a gas card. Feeling insulted and betrayed we returned to the dealer asking for them to buy it back. At the time we owed $16,300.00, they offered $11,500.00 stating that they had reduced the sticker price of new ones that were now advertised at a new lower MPG and in turn now our car was at a lower value. I exclaimed that I was selling them back a “40 MPG car”. We are now driving our 10 year old Mazda that gets about the same mileage and no car payment. I will accept nothing less than a buy back from Hyundai and will never own or suggest anyone buy any of their products. So now we have a car sitting in the driveway that we are making payments on that neither gets close to the advertised MPG or has the best resale value in its class. I want the 40 MPG highest resale value car that I paid for. We are awaiting the outcome of the class action suit to see if our legal system will indeed protect us.