HYUNDAI - Clutch breaking down repeatedly

There is a reason why my family
does not want to travel in this car and I also see safety issues with
this.

Why this escalation?:

I drove this car in question for **-** mins on the highway and
suddenly the clutch became harder making it difficult to shift the
gear. Took the exit on local single lane road to find a safe place to
park and to inspect the vehicle. On this single lane road, I was in
the middle of overtaking a fully loaded slow moving lorry in front of
me and boom…clutch became so hard that it stopped moving. Wanted to
come back to a safe place as early as possible, so in panic applied a
little bit more pressure on the clutch to downshift the gear and the
entire clutch collapsed as a free fall. It’s a high traffic single
lane road. Immediately started hazard lights and signaled the opposite
on-coming speeding lorry; luckily it was not fully loaded so he could
stop it right in front of me. The vehicle was not maneuverable at all
after clutch failure. Never faced such an issue with such a new
vehicle especially when the technology is so advanced. It could have
been worse and fatal on high speed highways.

Condition of the car:

It is well maintained, low mileage - *K plus kilometers on odometer
and mostly city driven for medical/family usage.

Why is it a safety and reliability issue and my family does not want
to travel in this car again?

The exact same clutch failure occurred in **** when my pregnant wife
was on the way to hospital. She was stranded on the road in heat for
*-* hours before help arrived. The vehicle was in the garage with the
dealer for ** plus days leaving my family without a family car. The
loaner car was not provided then upon request. This really defeated
the purpose of having a family car at home. I see trust issues with
Hyundai here. My family doesn't feel safe to travel in this car and
now I feel the same as I have experienced the issue myself. I won’t
take this car to a long distance and especially in the area and at a
time where help is unreachable. And with kids, no way!

Lack of seriousness from Hyundai to solve this safety issue:

I see clutch failures in this manner is a serious safety concern that
needs to be addressed immediately through redesign and in the factory
itself at the time of manufacturing. In a country like India where
overtaking needs down or up shifting of the gear is de facto to
maneuver vehicles quickly to avoid collision with fast oncoming
traffic. Even a single fatal accident because of such a known clutch
issue is a cause of concern that needs to be brought to the attention
of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India.

Reliability issue with parts and repairs:

*. First time the failure occurred in June ****. The car was in the
garage with the dealer Akash Hyundai (Nagaon, Assam) for more than ** days. I am not able to find
any official record of the repairs done then. I was charged
using some fishy looking invoice (attached). I looked at the mobile
number on the invoice and for some reason couldn’t pay attention to
other details on the invoice.

*. As per the attached invoice, the entire
assembly was replaced on March **, **** at **** km on odometer. The
recent reading on the odometer when the clutch failed again is **** km. Such multiple failures
within a span of * months and within *** km with light usage raises
serious doubts on the quality of the parts used in Hyundai. It is a
main part that is a base of the vehicle movement which brings the
vehicle to standstill on failure. Doesn't the company need to look
into the quality and design of it?

*. In total, the clutch assembly on this vehicle was worked upon three
times since the first time failure occurred in June ****. It has lost
trustworthiness therefore.


Please help address the issue ASAP. Family has collectively ruled out
taking delivery of the same faulty vehicle/parts again because of
safety concerns. At the same time I am not willing to put my family in
an unsafe vehicle unless Hyundai takes full responsibility.