'I’m Literally at My Breaking Point:' Woman Gets White Hyundai Painted After Huge Chunks Peel Off. Then It Happens 4 More Times

"I'm done with Hyundai playing with my feelings."

Photo by: alyssaakay_ & SALEH

By: Mustafa Gatollari

Jan 3, at 4:00am ET

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A Hyundai owner says she’s at her "breaking point" with the brand after bringing her white vehicle in five times to fix a recurring paint-peeling issue.

TikTok user Alyssa Kay (@alyssakay_) says she’s been working to fix her Hyundai Elantra’s paint job for two years.

Kay says her exterior aesthetic woes were compounded after her mother took her car to get washed for her birthday. Afterwards, she noticed that large chunks of paint were missing from both the roof and door.

"Mind you, the door was painted six months ago," she tells her followers. After bringing her vehicle in for inspection, dealer reps purportedly told her they found additional paint peeling on the trunk.

She says that she’s been in constant dialogue with Hyundai’s corporate offices and that "70 percent-80 percent" of her vehicle has already been repainted. She adds that Hyundai sent her Elantra to AW Collision in Las Vegas, and accused the business of "botching" the paint job. She also claimed the company had cut the lines to her car’s backup camera as a result of what she describes as shoddy workmanship.

Kay went on to state that she had to involve corporate yet again after the business refused to speak with her about the work on her vehicle. After multiple paint jobs, she requested that her Hyundai have all of its paint "stripped" and re-painted.

"I’m done with Hyundai playing with my feelings, playing with my car, playing with my time," she says in her video.

Additionally, she asked that AW Collision be kept away from her vehicle as she wasn’t happy with the service it provided. Her third ask, which she calls negotiable, is to have her Hyundai repainted another color. That’s because she believes white paint is more prone to peeling.

There are some anecdotes online that support this theory. Consumer Reports received several complaints from white sedan owners who said paint sections fell off their vehicles.

Hyundai Paint Problems Persist

Later in her video, Kay says the Hyundai rep told her her vehicle would have to be returned to AW Collision. That’s because, Kay explains, the warranty program listed the company as the one to fix the paint. This confounded her. She says AW Collision told her that Hyundai wouldn’t be working with them any longer.

What’s more, Kay says, is that the automotive aesthetics company "overcharged" Hyundai and claimed to perform work they didn’t satisfactorily provide.

She also claims that Hyundai urged her not to communicate with AW Collision out of fear that her issues with the company would "escalate." She feels this request took away her voice in advocating for proper work on her ride.

After the call, Kay said her vehicle was once again in AW Collision’s care.

After they took the car, she remembered her child’s Christmas presents were in the trunk. As she considered retrieving them, she says she was shocked to see it was being painted at a gas station. But because Hyundai told her not to contact AW Collision, she opted not to retrieve the presents.

Hyundai Acknowledges Paint Peeling Problem

Hyundai hasn’t issued a recall for paint peeling. However, it did issue extended warranties for its factory paint jobs on "seven of its vehicles," Repairer Driven News reported. The outlet quoted Hyundai as saying that "manufacturing issue[s] with…paint on Hyundai[s] is extremely rare and…only occurred in isolated incidents."

The models that received protracted paint coverage are as follows:

2020-2023 Palisade
2021-2023 Santa Fe Hybrid
2019 Santa Fe
2017-2018 Santa Fe Sport
2017-2021 Tucson
2015-2019 Sonata
2015-2018 Elantra

Motor1 previously reported on a Palisade owner who noticed large chunks of paint missing from her vehicle. Unfortunately, the dealership experience wasn’t ideal, and she says she had to bring the car in multiple times to address the issue.

Other Irate Hyundai Owners

The issue is widespread enough that social media forums, like one Facebook group, were established just so Hyundai owners could raise awareness of the alleged problem. One concerned Elantra driver wrote on the r/Hyundai page on Reddit that they, too, had heard of "some kind of paint recall" and wanted to know whether their 2015 Elantra was included in this warranty extension.

Others who replied to the post said they had a terrible time getting their paint fixed. One advised people dealing with this issue to bypass dealership workers altogether and contact Hyundai corporate for assistance instead.

Another complained, "I got told to kick rocks for my 2019 Elantra’s paint peeling."

In an update earlier this week, Kay said the matter has yet to be resolved. "I’m still waiting to see if I can get my entire car repainted, but at this rate, I don’t think it’s going to happen," she wrote.

Motor1 has reached out to Kay, Hyundai, and AW Collision via email for further comment. We’ll update this if any of them reply.

Update Jan. 13: AW Collision rep Shawn Azam told Motor1 they initially never spoke with Alyssa, and had her car sent to them twice. Further, they were only ever instructed by the dealership to paint specific portions of the vehicle, and were only in communication with Kay recently. As evidenced by Kay's updated TikTok, Azam said that directly communicating with the Hyundai owner culminated in a much better experience because many of the paint peeling portions in her vehicle that Kay referenced in her previous videos weren't painted by AW Collision at all.

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Azam remarked that he wishes Kay wasn't instructed by Hyundai not to contact them, as they welcome speaking to car owners regarding the work on their vehicles. He also explained the purported damage to her vehicle's aftermarket backup camera. Azam stated that the third-party solution's initial installation was "spliced" in a way that "came undone" while AW Collision employees were painting the trunk lid. Attempts were made to put the camera wires back in place, he continued, which is what probably resulted in her camera not working. Azam said that Kay was already reimbursed for her car's back-up camera.

In a text conversation with Azam, he says Kay stated that she believes AW Collision "really stepped up and made things right when [they] didn't have to," which she appreciates greatly.