It is unusual for transmissions to have such serious problems so early in the game. But, things do happen and like the guy says it can happen and it will !
The same trans in one vehicle may never give any trouble and yet in another the bottom falls out. Sometimes these things get explained as a 'Monday morning vehicle".
That could include anything from a single part to how it was assembled to how it was driven onto the carrier. Thankfully , this doesn't happen too often.
Even the most expensive vehicles have a service dept. Some do manage to run longer before problems develop. Aircraft have multiple duplicative systems to prevent having ," To get out and walk".
You have received a valuable education with this situation and now that you know how to handle these things, you probably will not need to use the knowledge too often.
As for me, I'm still looking for four leaf clovers and a rabbit's foot and haven't found the Genie's lamp yet . Best to you.

 

I want to give an update to the situation. After two months waiting for a replacement transmission to be built and shipped in from South Korea, it got to the US two weeks ago and made its way to the dealership. They installed it htis past week and I picked up the car this weekend. Runs like new. I guess I hadn't noticed it before, but the transmission now is almost impossible to tell when it's shifting (I guess I didn't get the full CVT experience before since the transmission was faulty).

I will say the dealership handled it as well as they could, and kept me up to date. Their hands were tied, I more hold Hyundai responsible, and their handling has been less than stellar from a corporate level. I contacted Consumer Affairs at HMUSA back in early May. I opened a case, and was told it'd be assigned a case manager for discussion regarding compensation options within 7-10 days. It's now been 45 days since I contacted them and nothing. I called last week and was told that I had a case manager assigned, but they never return calls, and I even spoke to someone who said the case manager had a call scheduled for me, and they never called. At a loss now what to do.

Obviously there's some compensation due. It's unreasonable to have been without my car for 2 months, and the loaner I was given got half the gas mileage as mine and I drove 6000 miles so do the math on fuel I burned that cost more than expected. Additionally, I had to do the 700 mile round trip to where they had my dead car twice, and stayed several nights in hotels while they determined if the issue would be covered. So there's some compensation due, and it's leaving a bad taste in my mouth about the backing of the brand from a corporate level. Whenever I call to get through to the case manager I get voicemail and no calls back. Not sure what to do.

 

This is exactly how customers are lost.
Since you have been unable to get complete satisfaction , I would not hesitate to let them know this and consider purchasing a different brand of vehicle..
There are manufacturers that will stand behind their product and there is plenty of competition for customers.

 

I agree. And the issue is this sort of thing happens when companies become too comfortable with their position in the market, or market factors drive them to not care then they wonder why their market share slips when times are bad. I totally get it. There is a massive shortage of cars globally right now. But that's all the more reason for them to aggressively keep the customers they have loyal. And when I say I'm a Hyundai Loyalist, I am now on my 5th Hyundai brand new in 15 years... I'd say that's more loyalty than most to many brands, so you'd think I'd be the customer they want to keep happy... but it doesn't feel that way. And I get it, things happen, and I'm ready and willing to forgive and accept the problems I'm experiencing but when they ignore me, ouch.

 

There is something to , "The squeaky wheel gets the grease" ! Persistence pays,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,most of the time !
If you can , keep after them and don't give up ! Eventually, I believe they should respond favorably.