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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  Nice car with minor problems - 2012 Hyundai Veloster
  By rf888 - March 13 - 10:19 am

  Have had this car for over one month and driven for over 1000 miles. This car is fun to drive, great gas milage, and pretty roomy on the front seats. I have no complain about the lack of power, thats what you have to sacrifice for gas milage. My complain about this car is the minor problems. The right rearview mirror cracked on the first day I drove this car, probably the heated mirror was overheated. Contacted dealer and got it fixed for free after almost a month. The second problem was the light in the cargo area. It stopped working about 10 days after I got the car. Hyundai service had hard time to diagnose the problem but told be it was fixed. However, the light stopped working two day

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  Anyone else have this issue?? - 2008 Hyundai Azera
  By Ron - March 13 - 6:34 am

  All features work well and car handles well. I now have about 13K miles on the car and the front rotors already show signs of wear. The dealer indicated that this was due to the hardness of the brake shoes. It would look as though the rotors would already need to be turned. Has anyone else had this issue? Gas mileage is less than impressive.

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  Good things in small packages - 2009 Hyundai Accent
  By Hako - March 13 - 6:23 am

  Ive only had the car for 8 days, but I am totally in love with it.....more so than any car Ive owned. Funny thing was, I didnt expect to be. I figured it was a nice looking, decent fuel economy and great warranty. I was stunned when the car arrived at the dealership. It was way more beautiful than the internet pics, and the interior seemed upscale in rich, textured black. The car itself is Ebony Black. I love the 16 inch alloy rims, satellite radio, and the B&m short-shifter. I assumed this car would be a yawn to drive. Wrong again. It has snappy acceleration, and is grippy through the turns. I am totally happy with my choice, and grin every time I sit in this cute car.

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  Vibrations at 65MPH and up - 2007 Hyundai Sonata
  By Poor Service - March 12 - 10:00 am

  Steering wheel vibrates at 65 and up, feels like wheels are not balanced. Dropped off for service and got it back the way it was. Dealer wrote: wheels rebalanced. I have marked the weights on all wheels, and they were untouched. Great car, bad service. If this will not change Hyundai will have to compete with Chevy not Toyota or Acura like they would like to. The service will make or brake the company, just ask Audi of Usa.

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  2005 Hyundai Elantra - 2005 Hyundai Elantra
  By KTM - March 11 - 9:56 pm

  My primary concern when buying a new car was warranty. That led me to Hyundai. I drove the Elantra, and the 06 Sonata. I liked them both, but went with the lower payment. Im impressed with the car and am enjoying it. I get great mileage, and a comfortable ride. If youre looking for a good car thats priced right, and has a fantastic warranty to back it up drive one. Best part about the warranty is you can make the 10 year 100k mileage bumper to bumper (less wear items) for only 700 bucks. A no brainer in my book. I

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  Id recommend Hyundai - 2005 Hyundai TUCSON
  By dwhawtho - March 11 - 7:56 pm

  Very dependable and peppy - great interior features design. If the Santa Fe would have had better styling at the time, I would have enjoyed the extra cargo space. But, this has been a great vehicle to date!

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  great small car! - 2007 Hyundai Elantra
  By sts7049 - March 11 - 10:20 am

  I was skeptical about buying a Hyundai at first based on past reputation, but Im definitely sold on them now. Great amount of features for the price you pay. The manual transmission makes it fairly sporty to drive, and Im averaging a solid 30 mpg in mixed driving. Plenty of room on the inside, spacious trunk. Have only had one minor issue that was fixed quickly under warranty, other than that no problems whatsoever. My only other minor complaint is I wish the gearing was such that the rpms on the freeway would come down a bit - at 70 mph its at about 3000 rpm, which is a tad noisy. Its not bothersome though.

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  Sharp, sleek, fun - 2004 Hyundai Tiburon
  By Easy E - March 11 - 10:00 am

  The 2004 hyundai Tiburon is nothing but fun. With a sporty six seed V6, you can expect to leave the competition in the dust. After closely shopping around it was between 2 cars, the RSX and Tiburon and I found my self likeing everything the Tiburon has to offer.

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  This car Rocks! - 2007 Hyundai Sonata
  By Frank R B. - March 11 - 5:05 am

  This car is the bomb. The 3.3 Liter power plant supplys more horse power than my old 74 Dodge Dart did and it had a 360cid engine. My Sonata has only been in the shop once, and that was for a warranty replacement of a head light. Its close to the 40,000 mile mark and still feels like new, the tires show little wear, and the leather seats make it smell like a new car every time I get in. Cant say enough good things about this car.

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  QUALITY GOOD/MPG BAD - 2005 Hyundai Accent
  By drew - March 10 - 8:29 pm

  Its a peppy fast little car for the size of the car and area that I live in which is nothing but steep hills. The car had 26,000 on it when I purchased it and I only put 10,000 on it since then and I did not need to repair anything for it so far. The gas mpg could be better, I drive in the city 99% of the time but I only average 20-22 mpg. When I drive the highway, the mirrors seem to roll down a bit causing air to seep in causing loud whistling noise