I agree this door lock behavior is kind of annoying in my 22 Sonata. My wife's 20 Santa Fe doesn't do this and allows the normal door locking you mentioned. I've gotten in the habit of touching the door handle pad to lock the Sonata when I get out.

 

Thanks for confirming the behavior! And it IS the Sana Fe that my friend has that works differently than mine. When I wrote the post I couldn't remember the model name.

 

2015 Sonata, I do exactly that, step out of the car with the fob in my pocket and my body about 1 ft away from the car - press the lock button on the door arm rest- locks all car then just slam the door and goodbye. Now on never models it appears H changed several things - probably to the worst. It also looks like you can no longer disable the Smart Cruise Control function. And perhaps others.

Maybe try to keep the fob further away from the car when pressing the lock button ? Like keep the fob with your left hand away from the car and stretch right hand to the button, just for fun.

 

2015 Sonata, I do exactly that, step out of the car with the fob in my pocket and my body about 1 ft away from the car - press the lock button on the door arm rest- locks all car then just slam the door and goodbye. Now on never models it appears H changed several things - probably to the worst. It also looks like you can no longer disable the Smart Cruise Control function. And perhaps others.

Maybe try to keep the fob further away from the car when pressing the lock button ? Like keep the fob with your left hand away from the car and stretch right hand to the button, just for fun.

So, this appears to be a newer change over the past number of years. I've owned only Toyotas since the late 70's. I wanted a Camry Hybrid but first there was a 6-8 month wait list for the model I wanted, and then there was NO bargaining on price....AND (lol), the model I wanted was ONLY being made with expensive extras that I didn't want. One dealer called me all excited that he had the model and color I wanted: $44,000 for a friggin CAMRY! That was MSRP, plus the expensive extras I didn't want, PLUS $2500 additional dealer markup. I checked with about 6 dealers within a 100 miles of me and they all said the same thing about the wait for the car, and that they would not bargain below MSRP. Some added ADM and others didn't.

I bought my Sonata at about $2,000 below MSRP, they gave me $1000 more than anyone else offered for my old 2013 Camry (in great working shape), and I got a 0.9% financing rate...only around $270.00 of interest over the three year loan!! How could I pass that up? With that deal I was glad to try a Sonata which so many of my friends have been happy with over the years.

 

I just bought a 2023 Santa Fe and find the driver's door lock extremely frustrating. I too had the habit of pressing the driver's lock button as I began to get out of the vehicle.

Now I have to get well out of the vehicle and lean back I in to where I just came from to press the button order to lock the door. If I try it even while standing in the doorway, it won't work -- that's not far enough away to be successful.

Even then it often does not work! I have to wait and wait and wait until my wife's purse is also completely away from the vehicle too.

Grrr....

 

So glad I'm not the only one annoyed by this! And if it's such a great safety feature, why does the Santa Fe operate the interior door lock the way we expect it to?

Hyundai says this is a safety feature. I don't see it as that, at all! My 2013 Camry, that I sold to buy this car, would unlock the driver's door at the first push on the key fob while the 2nd time would unlock the other doors. That's a great safety feature to prevent an unwanted person from getting in passenger side when the driver is unlocking the driver's side door. Wish Hyundai had that....

We're all creatures of habit, and it will take me a LONG time to break the habit of trying to lock the doors using the interior door lock button when I exit the car!!

 

I have noticed that the interior door lock button doesn't work on the Sonata, if the driver door is open.

This is bad design on Hyndai's part. My 2023 Hyundai Tucson Hybrid behaves the same way. The door lock button is totally useless for locking the car. It does NOTHING when I am exiting the car and need to lock the doors. It only works if I am sitting in the car with all the doors closed. That is the only time the lock doors button works.

Pushing that button to lock the doors is the lofical thing to do. All my Subaru Outbacks locked their doors by pushing the door lock button while exiting the car.

But Hyundai makes us get out hands durty, cold and wet in order to lock the doors by slamming the door shut and then holding our hand on the door handle for 3 seconds. And even that sometimes doesn't work. I have to repositoion my hand once or twice before it finally works.

 

I just discovered this problem is worse than I thought,!

I tried using my digital key -- fortunately only for testing purposes. The door would unlock using my digital key, but the vehicle would not start. The ignition would not recognize the digital key, despite the door unlock recognizing it.

I gave up and attempted to lock the door and leave. The doors would all lock when I pressed the drjver's door lock button, but immediately unlocked when I released the button.

The driver's door lock button simply refused to work, even without the phone or key FOB anywhere in the vicinity.

To lock the doors again, I had to go retrieve my key FOB.

 

To start the car using Digital Key 1.0, you need to place your phone on the wireless charging pad

 

Well, you have all realized that the genius' at H don't really use their cars, and thus don't realize the problems that they create.

BTW, I have Bluelink/app and within minutes of leaving my car unlocked (dead braincells) it txt my phone and reminds me, then I use the app to lock it.

 

 

It is annoying that I have to wrsle for my key fob to lock the car. Being some otehr hyundais models do work right..makes me think that the enginners who wrote the codes for this can fix it. If anybody had a dealer fix it please post. My dealer once showed me, to tun the headlight switch, somewhere, and it did make ot work. But who wants two steps to lock it?

 

Ryan: been there done that... The digital key simply dldnt work for ignition in my situation. Thanks for the reply -- I am sure many do not realize that function (and foor unlock too) uses NFC, which requires proximity of 2" or less.

 

I have a new 2023 Sonata Hybrid--purchased last month (May). It's my first Sonata and almost all my previous cars have been Camrys.

I have always have had a habit on all previous cars, that as soon as I open the car door to get out, I press the interior door lock button to make I don't walk away leaving the car unlocked. I have noticed that the interior door lock button doesn't work
<<snipped>>

EASY WORKAROUND!!

I have not seen this solution anywhere -- I merely stumbled onto it by accident this afternoon.

If all the doors are closed, and you have the key FOB in your purse/pocket, you can tap a sensor on either of the front doors of my 2023 Santa Fe Hybrid and the doors will all lock while the mirrors retract. This sensor is located in the handle about where you place your thumb when you open the door. You can see the spot if you look close. A light touch of the finger works fine. If all the doors are not closed, it instead sounds a long beep to alert you there was an issue.

So, for me it's merely a matter of developing a new habit. Instead of hitting the door look button as I exit the vehicle, I can now just habitually tap the door handle as I walk away (confirming it worked by watching the mirrors). And if my wife still has her door open at the time, she can tap her door handle after closing her door, since she has her key FOB in her purse at all times.

 

If all the doors are closed, and you have the key FOB in your purse/pocket, you can tap a sensor on either of the front doors of my 2023 Santa Fe Hybrid and the doors will all lock while the mirrors retract. This sensor is located in the handle about where you place your thumb when you open the door. You can see the spot if you look close. A light touch of the finger works fine. If all the doors are not closed, it instead sounds a long beep to alert you there was an issue.

Same for unlock.

65-year-old guy here whose first car didn't even have roll up windows, I just stepped over the door to get into it. It was a 1960 Austin Healey bugeye Sprite.

Going from that then a '57 Chevy Bel Air, I'm well trained to not lock myself out of a manual locking car. I am laughing at all the angst here about the need to actually have the key on you in order to lock the door. 21st century problems. 😆

 

I bought a new '23 Santa Fe Limited about 2 months ago and that front door lock button issue was very frustrating to be sure! In talking to the service manager he told me NOT to grab the door handle when exiting the car and pressing the lock button. Just press the button with your thumb keeping your fingers out from behind the handle and voila, it now works like a charm every time. The service manager said that grabbing the handle while pressing the button confuses the door handle sensors. Who knew?!!

 

I had the same sprite with it's plastic side windows and pull down top. Ran great until it rained.

 

I think the issue with the door lock pad on the outside handle starts at the dealership when the car was delivered. It is the sales reps responsibility to review all the features with the new owner which frequently never happens. The little pad on the outside of the doorhandle is not a button that needs to be pushed rather it is a NFC Pad that just needs to be touched, there is no button mechanism underneath. My wife had the hardest time getting used to that as she would grab the handle and touch the pad with her thumb but her fingers would also be touching the inside of the handle which would cancel everything out and the car would not be locked. Once you get used to it works very well.

 

Was going to mention this feature but this post and another already talked about it. When I bought mine the saleperson showed me the feature as you simply brush your finger on the door handle and it gives you a beep and lock the doors. Honestly never even tried locking the doors with the inside button when exiting the vehicles. On previous vehicles always just pushed the key FOB lock button as I was walking away from it. Prior to the keyless ignitions you always pulled the key out of the ignition and already had it in my hand anyway to didn't think it was a big deal to push the button on it. On some other vehicles the doors will lock automatically if you turn them off and exit the vehicle with the FOB in your pocket, which is kinda' nice. Also as mentioned, I have Bluelink setup on my phone and it will send me a notification if I forgot to lock the doors.
Slightly off topic but since we are talking about door locks. When first entering the locked car mine is setup to only auto unlock the driver's door (basically touch the handle and it will beep and unlock). If you had passengers I would then open the driver's door and hit the interior unlock button inside. The only problem is at night those buttons are not backlit and the interior roof light really didn't show them up, therefore I was fumbling around trying to find the button. Finally found out that if you basically double-touch the outside door handle when first getting in it will unlock all doors. First touch one beep and unlocks the driver's door, second touch beeps again and unlocks all doors.

 

I tried to unlock my door with the physical key, and it took my wife & I awhile to figure it out! I am glad we undertook that exercise before we really needed to, or one of us would have been really frustrated when our FOB battery went dead and were in a hurry to go somewhere.

 

Exactly! Something I read about replacement fobs caused me to look into it and then tried it out. No idea it existed.

 

There are 2 sensors incorporated into the door handle. One is on the backside of the handle between the handle and the door frame. The other is on the outside(that little square looking thing).
The outside will use the android app to operate the door or locks, or lock the doors by hovering your finger over it. The inside sensor will unlock the doors when you put your hand between the handle and the car door.

 

I have a new 2023 Sonata Hybrid--purchased last month (May). It's my first Sonata and almost all my previous cars have been Camrys. I have always have had a habit on all previous cars, that as soon as I open the car door to get out, I press the interior door lock button to make I don't walk away leaving the car unlocked. I have noticed that the interior door lock button doesn't work on the Sonata, if the driver door is open. Is this designed to work this way? I called the service department and, believe it or not, the guy couldn't positively tell me how it was supposed to work. He said he believes it works that way because most of the Hyundai's are like that, but he was going to check and call me back. I have a friend who has a 2023 Hyundai SUV and she told me that her door lock works when the driver-side door is open, and that mine is broken. Some may say that this is a safety feature to keep people from locking the keys in the car. I found that I have, many times, mistakenly walked away from my car, and realized later that I forgot to lock the car. I can lock remotely, if I remember that I didn't lock the car. It may be a feature to prevent people from locking keys in the car, but on the other hand it leaves the car open for burglary or intentional damage by kids having "fun".

Watch this video. You may have to change habits slightly.

 

I just got a new 2023 Hyundai Sonata and I have the same concern. in previous cars, I too alway used the interior lock button to lock my car after I opened the door, as you say - good habit to ensure door is locked. I have been trying to do same with new Sonata, and it does nothing. And I actually did leave car unlocked by mistake overnight.... I did quick check of the car settings for "Doors" but nothing seems to relate. I am very concerned that the button does not work as expected. My other car also had a feature to unlock door and make sound if I tried to lock with key in car. It did not try to accomplish this by disabling the interior lock button. I really do hope I just havent found the right setting for this on my new Sonata.

 

You have to change habits. Close the door, touch the button on the outside handle and you hear the click of the locks engaging.
Do you still pull up the emergency brake? No
Do you still reach for the shift lever on the column? No.
Do you unlock with a key? No

BlueLink can send you a message if doors are not locked too and they you can remote lock them,

 

I have a 2023 Tucson Hybrid and literally will not buy another for this reason.

 

There is nothing wrong with your Sonata. That is the way some software writer designed it. Also you can not lock any door from the outside until all doors are closed. I find that annoying too!