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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  Great Car - Even Better Price - 2001 Hyundai Elantra
  By Pastor Ken - September 4 - 10:00 am

  My 2001 Elantra has performed beautifully as basic transportation and more. It has a solid build quality, decent performance, and has been reliable so far. After two years, it still looks and drives as well as my buddys Civic, purchased at the same time. He paid $3K more than I did!

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  Good and Bad - 2002 Hyundai Elantra
  By rocky03 - September 4 - 10:00 am

  The Hyundai rides nice and has pretty good power. We have had issues with a connector to the fuel tank, and with a sensor that caused the car to sound out of gear at certain speeds, and with a low idle. The car looks nice and for under 13K is still a pretty good deal, especially with the warranty.

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  2003 Elantra GT - 2003 Hyundai Elantra
  By Dujybug - September 4 - 10:00 am

  I purchased my Elantra GT in February 2003. Having driven it for several months now, I love the way the car handles. It is wonderful to drive on the freeway or in city traffic.

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  Dangerous and done with Hyundai - 2016 Hyundai TUCSON
  By Phil - September 3 - 5:00 pm

  Dangerous car. I bought a 2016 Tucson and after owning a 2012 Tucson and New Genesis I thought this was a Quality product. Not so with this vehicle. Transmission would not go in gear when I stopped at lights or would slow down to 20 mph on the open road. Very dangerous. There is no fix at this point. The dealer who was great changed the clutch actuator and it worked for a month. After almost getting hit by a truck I decided I had enough of Hyundai pretending they never heard of this while there are hundreds of owners on the web complaining that they can not drive their cars, I decided to take a loss and traded it in on another brand of vehicle. I guess corporate profits over customer safety.

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  Dons opinion - 2006 Hyundai Sonata
  By donald - September 3 - 11:23 am

  The vehicle has poor suspension in the rear and the seats are not comfortable. The seats should have more padding and the interior is too plain.

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  magnificent - 2008 Hyundai Elantra
  By robert - September 2 - 11:03 pm

  My wife had a Toyota corolla with 110.000 miles and I told her, its time to get rid of this garbage, we had problem with the corolla since we bough it, battery death less than a year, window motor broken after 3 years, so 3/36.000 warranty is not good. I check for two month the new corolla, matrix, yaris, civic, sentra, versa, etc, etc and I decided elantra se full loaded. I did a good choice, I feel so good driving this car, wow, the seats feel better than my kia sedona, minivan. The instrument lights are beautiful. I know its not perfect, but with so many stupid expensive cars out there that just take our money, elantra is perfect choice. Im very, very happy, I almost forget, has leather seat,

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  anwsome car - 2011 Hyundai Sonata
  By Daniel L. Moreno - September 2 - 8:24 pm

  Great vehicle has all the comforts for me. Roomy fast great looking chose it over Honda Accord.

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  25,000 and climbing - 2007 Hyundai Elantra
  By limee925 - September 2 - 7:50 pm

  Have had the vehicle 2 years. Absolutely no problems with anything. Put gas in the car and drive with oil changes every 5000 miles. Not a creak, groan or rattle. Very happy with everything that I use the car for. Its comfortable with great gas mileage consistently in the low 30s with mixed driving. Best so far has been 39.8mpg on a 700 mile drive to Washington state. Would certainly recommend to anyone who wants a solid, dependable, reliable, comfortable car who has an aversion to dealers workshops!

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  Best In Class - 2007 Hyundai Sonata
  By Jeff - September 2 - 6:26 pm

  This car excells in all categories. In all the test drives and research that I performed, the Sonata LX came out on top.

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  Best crossover suv - 2008 Hyundai Santa Fe
  By sandyc1 - September 2 - 4:33 pm

  I love the way my new suv drives , its so smooth and my family and I love the space it provides us on long rides . The safety features are incredible and rides great in the snow and on our off road street to our home . I could not be any more pleased .