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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  GT ----------ROCKS - 2002 Hyundai Elantra
  By Chad-indy - April 29 - 10:00 am

  I passed up 30k dollar cars for this fun little beast

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  Good Job - 2002 Hyundai Accent
  By Jermain - April 29 - 2:00 am

  I think the people at Hyundai have done a great job with the 2002 Hyundai Accent. It is a great car for its size and it is fast for the engine size also. However, the car disappointed me last Sunday, in that the transmission is slipping and it is high idoling. That confuses me because I have had no problems. Its only a year old. Besides that I cant complain with the performance.

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  Too much hype - 2006 Hyundai Sonata
  By Jim Sanders - April 28 - 5:43 pm

  Quality seems good, excellent paint job. Annoying rear noises when gas tank is full. Auto climate control makes noise when vehicle slows and door closures makes a secondary clang noise in trunk area. Dual exhaust is not aligned evenly. Power seems good altho trans to acceleration seems slow. Correction of these issue would make a great car. Mildly disappointed.

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  Cant get rid of it.... - 2006 Hyundai Santa Fe
  By B - April 28 - 2:00 pm

  I bought my first HY back in July of 2009. For $12K I got 2006 HY SF GLS 2.7 V6 2WD with 25K miles. Since then I have put 10K miles on it. This car has so far exceeded my expectations. As a guy, I have never fallen in love with exterior of the old style SF, but my wife did and since the car was mainly for her I relented. Gas Mileage is better than the Tahoe and even my current 2003 V6 Ford F150. To be honest, I tried very much to rationally to find a valid reason to upgrade to a newer vehicle with all the recent deals, but for what we paid for and how surprisingly functional it has been and how much the wife likes it, I canÂ’t justify letting it go. I have grown to respect it.

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  A compact SUV just as I wanted - 2006 Hyundai TUCSON
  By Benjamin - April 28 - 5:40 am

  I bought my car four months ago. It is a car exactly I wanted, a mainly city SUV that can be also be used to carry my ski equipment in snowy Canadian winter and camping bags in muddy summer. My Tucson is a quiet, responsive, reliable, spacious, and comfortable car that has almost all I need. It comes with 4WD, V6, stability control, shiftronic, front/side/roof air bags, leather seats, moon roof, mp3 player, roof racks, fog lights, alloy wheels, and much more. For a compact SUV, you cannot expect more. It does not just have COMPARABLE quality. Its build quality can beat many other cars carrying more recognized bands. I will not hesitate to recommend it to anyone.

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  Great vehicle - 2008 Hyundai Veracruz
  By foz682 - April 28 - 3:51 am

  Ive only had it for a few weeks now, but so far so good. Im getting around 19MPG with mixed driving. It has lots of little features that make life easier, such as the proximity key, power tailgate, cool box in console, placement of interior lights is grea,t very comfortable and powerful. The one this that does bother me just a little is that the rear dvd player renders your rearview mirror useless, it totally blocks the rear window when in use.

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  Funky, quirky little car - 2013 Hyundai Veloster
  By denjb - April 28 - 12:43 am

  Ive had my 2014 Veloster for 2 weeks now - and I gotta admit - I LOVE this car! Theres a few weird little things that Id change about it, but for the money, I am very satisfied with the purchase. Its styling is cutting-edge both inside and out. The standard features on a base model impressed me. It turns heads, and its fun to drive! I opted for the 6 speed manual transmission, and I"m glad I did, because with an automatic transmission, this engine wouldnt let this car get out of its own way. That aside, the fit, finish, and clean lines remind me of a much more expensive European car - Hyundai did something right with their new models!

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  An excellent car for the money - 2004 Hyundai XG350
  By WH35473 - April 27 - 10:00 am

  I ultimately chose the XG350 over a Honda Accord for several reasons: 1. Unlike the editors of Edmunds, I really like the look of this car; I thought that it was among the best- looking cars I had seen before I even knew what make of car it was. 2. It really does have a long list of standard features, including many that I would expect to find only on a true luxury car costing thousands more. 3. The warranty on this car is outstanding. 4. Considering how much car I got, the price I paid was incredibly low. I paid approximately $2700 less for my X2004 G350 than I would have paid for a comparably-equipped 2003 Accord.

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  The sporty looking car - 2013 Hyundai Veloster
  By Eric Stitt - April 27 - 8:04 am

  This car can catch the eye of young drivers. Looks like a small sports cars and drives well when hugging the turns. Not great in accelerating but this was expected. Great on Gas!!!!! A big plus and travels well on the highway. A good vehicle if you are concerned about your budget.

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  Great Car - 2006 Hyundai Sonata
  By WOZ - April 26 - 3:26 pm

  You must be an idiot not to want to buy this car. I got mine for 17K walk out and with the warranty, you cant beat it. The outside is a blend between a honda and camery, but still has its own style. People cant tell its a Hyundai until you tell them. The only two complaints are the front seat needs inprovement and the steering wheel sound control needs allow you to tune stations.