- An Ontario man who had the engine on his new Hyundai Elantra N fail is complaining the automaker’s warranty isn’t covering its repair
- The automaker says the ECU in the car – a six-speed manual – shows it was repeatedly over-revved, voiding the warranty
- The Internet reveals a long list of modifications made to (and abuses against) an Elantra N by a user with the same name
Most reasonable human beings accept the fact a car’s warranty is designed to help a driver should there be a catastrophic problem with the thing within the initial honeymoon of ownership. What warranties emphatically do not cover are incidents brought on by treating the vehicle in an abusive manner — a fact Christian Matzoros is finding out the hard way.
Earlier this year, the Pickering, Ontario-based mechanic’s apprentice apparently experienced an engine failure in his 2022 Hyundai Elantra N six-speed manual, a car he has seemingly owned since new. According to reports, Matzoros says the car went bang! during a highway drive. “It just stopped. I was stepping on the gas pedal and it wasn’t moving,” he told CTV News Toronto. At the time, there were less than 50,000 kilometres on the odometer. Matzoros had opted for a premium extended warranty of seven years or 140,000 kilometres, and so figured the bum powertrain’s replacement would be covered by Hyundai.
After the car loitered at a dealership for some spell whilst being poked and prodded by mechanics, a repair estimate of around $10,000 was presented—a bill Matzoros was asked to cover. Why wasn’t the repair covered by the carmaker under warranty? Hyundai claims the car was used improperly.
Specifically, a spox for Hyundai said “After reviewing the vehicle’s engine data, which was retrieved through the Engine Control Unit (ECU) – a system that monitors and records engine performance for diagnostic purposes – it was determined the engine experienced conditions exceeding its designed operational limits, resulting in significant mechanical failure. These findings point to excessive engine revving, which falls outside the coverage of the vehicle’s warranty due to improper use.”
Matzoros did admit to CTV News that he had taken the Elantra N to “Toronto Motorsports Park at Cayuga to race the quarter-mile,” but thinks that point irrelevant, saying “The car has been to the track, but that is not when this incident occurred. I was driving home when it blew up.” The Elantra N is also positioned in company marketing as a track car, he notes.
However, through the magic of a Google search, it didn’t take long for accounts associated with the name “Christian Matzoros” to be found on sites and pages associated with the Hyundai Elantra N. It’s impossible to say whether that user is the same Elantra N owner now venting to outlets like CTV News about being denied a warranty claim, but the details do seem to line up with Matzoros’. A post dated June 3 on a Hyundai N Owners Group page, for example, asks for help in getting a Hyundai dealer to “warranty my Elantra N motor no problem” and complaining about being given a hard time.
More damning is this response to a post in the Elantra N Owners Group which asked if anyone else in the enthusiast community has suffered an engine failure in their car. Responses were all over the map, including one from the aforementioned Matzoros user stating “I have had my Elantra N for 43000 kms and had every modification done to it and tuned and I beat it everyday no issue.” (We added the emphasis via italics.)
Further searches dig up a review in April 2024 by another Christian Matzoros about an electronic tuning device designed for Elantra N models called the EK1 Mini, where he praised the product and says he bought it “with the extra tunes”.If these Matzoroses are indeed one and the same, all of this points to a highly modified car whose engine was under stresses for which is was not originally designed.
Whatever the case may be, we have a totally unrelated, general word of advice: just be honest, folks. It tends to work a lot better — especially if you’re trying to sneak a replacement engine past the warranty department.
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