Overview & Reviews

A relative newcomer to the American marketplace, Hyundai is a Korean automaker with a product line that has improved greatly over the past decade. Hyundai cars and SUVs provide a high level of content for an affordable price, and are currently backed by one of the industry's longest warranties.

In 1947, Chung Ju Yung founded the Hyundai Civil Engineering Company. Mere months later, the outfit was bombed in the Korean War. However, the company regained its footing to distinguish itself as one of Korea's leading construction enterprises during the 1950s.

By the late 1960s, Chung had turned his attention to the automobile industry. The Korean government at that time believed that it made more sense to import vehicles than produce them domestically, and had made its opinion known. Still, Chung opted to follow his own convictions, and in 1967, he founded the Hyundai Motor Company.

The company quickly established an alliance with one of the industry's oldest automakers, signing a two-year contract with Ford in 1968 to share assembly technology. Hyundai's first car, the Cortina, was created from that partnership. The manufacturer's first car to be designed and built in Korea was the compact Pony (although the car was based on Japanese technology courtesy of Mitsubishi). The vehicle made its debut in 1974, and the following year Hyundai began exporting it to overseas markets.

Hyundai entered the U.S. market in 1986 with the introduction of its subcompact Excel. The car was an immediate hit, with its supreme affordability being a primary selling point. More than 100,000 Excels were sold stateside in the first seven months. By 1988, Hyundai had begun to produce cars using its own technology. The midsize Sonata was the first fruit borne of this endeavor.

Unfortunately, Hyundai's nascent image was soon tarnished by the poor durability and reliability of its vehicles. Sales tanked. However, rather than abandon the American market in the '90s, Hyundai chose to invest heavily in new product designs and improvements in overall quality and reliability. In 1998, Hyundai also purchased Kia, another Korean automaker, to expand its business and economies of scale.

It all started to pay off by the start of the new millennium, with the 2001 Elantra in particular showing massive improvements in overall quality, reliability and performance. Other models followed suit and the desirability of Hyundai cars increased sharply. Providing an extraordinarily long warranty period didn't hurt either.

Today's lineup is indicative of Hyundai's complete turnaround. Hyundai has a vehicle for nearly every segment, including the economical Accent subcompact, the popular Elantra compact, the midsize Sonata sedan (also available as a hybrid), sporty Genesis and Veloster coupes and a couple of stylish SUVs. Hyundai has also expanded into the entry-level and premium-level luxury sedan markets with its Genesis and Equus sedans. Having gone from being the butt of late-night TV jokes in the 1980s to a well-respected manufacturer of quality vehicles, Hyundai has created a very inspiring rags-to-riches story.

User Reviews:

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  I love my Santa Fe - 2004 Hyundai Santa Fe
  By CarolyninOhio - May 7 - 2:00 am

  This has the smoothest drive I have ever had. Love it!!!!

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  Great Vehicle - 2004 Hyundai Santa Fe
  By carroll Huffine - May 7 - 2:00 am

  I am very pleased with the vehicle - it is the best overall car Ive owned - It lets you sit up higher and see the raod - its fun to drive and looks like a much more expensive vehicle.

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  the best - 2004 Hyundai Santa Fe
  By kent e smith - May 7 - 2:00 am

  tryed saturn and kia these is the best I found with options and milage in the suv 2hours a day or more no problem

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  More than a year and still love it! - 2008 Hyundai Veracruz
  By santa rosa - May 6 - 4:00 pm

  After over 1yr I have 14K on my 08 Veracruz Limited. The vehicle has been nearly flawless! Nothing has gone wrong - not even minor problems. The interior still looks new even with kids. The interior layout is completely intuitive and the best I have had on any vehicle. A minor complaint is acceleration from a stop. But, to my surprise, using premium fuel does improve this problem a bit. The interior space is exceptional. We cart 2 kids with child seats and gear and the VC has ample room. Ride comfort for long trips is great. My wifes vehicle is an 08 Lexus RX350 and I can say the 2 are fairly comparable. We usually take the VC for trips because it has more storage space and a 3rd row.

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  Excellent Car Excellent Value - 2005 Hyundai XG350
  By nativtxn - May 6 - 11:33 am

  This automobile is a very nice ride and is well equipped.

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  Get what you paid for... - 2009 Hyundai Sonata
  By Clark - May 6 - 4:00 am

  Should have paid more for a car to have a decent ride, these Kumho tires are stiff and out of round, when cold the tires are worse! Doors unlock when car put into park so someone can jump into back seat and hijack someone. Nice feature with child lock for rear doors, but even when that is on someone can open the outside doors and get in...scary for my wife when she is alone. Trunk items cant be secured from inside the car.

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  A great runner but maintinance Mucho $ - 2000 Hyundai Elantra
  By karloffb - May 5 - 2:00 am

  I loved the look of this car, the warranty and after reading the reviews on this site, how could I loose? After talking to the service personel at my dealership Ithink this car it will be TOO expensive to own.The list as follows: 1. Catalytic converter installed ($800! 2. Timing Belt (required after the first 60K) $400! and at first we were told several months ago $300 + 3. The infamous "o2 sensor" this is a known problem to every website on the internet except for edmunds.com $200 4. Change 4 spark plugs $99 (oh yes they also check a couple of things to, but if anything needs to be replaced extra$$$ 5. Transmission maintainence $169 6. Coolaint flushes $100 +

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  A Winner - 2007 Hyundai Santa Fe
  By jabbott - May 4 - 9:33 pm

  Car is new but already has shown good manners. Eye height is high, a feature we wanted. Entry and exit is easy, a feature we demanded. Full list of safety features was absolutely essential. Ours is the five person capacity model, which was our choice. The storage provided by the lack of the third row seat is much more usable to us that the seat would ever be. The exterior color is good, the name of the exterior color - khaki - is probably a turn off for some folks. It was time for the mini-van to go, hello SUV.

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  Ride quality NOT good, all else very good - 2011 Hyundai Santa Fe
  By greggtex - May 4 - 4:01 pm

  Traded in 08 Sonata. Hyundai quality and warranty is great. Ride quality on our Santa Fe is awful. If I had to do it over again, I wouldnt buy the Santa Fe until Hyundai gets the ride better. I know its an SUV, but ride should still be better. Plenty of power from V-6. Mileage is ok at best. We are averaging about 21.5 in mixed driving. About to take long highway trip, so intersted to see how the mpg is on highway.

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  MY SUV - 2006 Hyundai TUCSON
  By ELLEN - May 4 - 2:20 pm

  I love my Tucson. It is roomy, easy to drive and comfortable. I had actually thought about buying the Jeep Liberty but after test driving it I decided the Tucson was a much better vehicle.