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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  They dont make them like they used to! - 1996 Hyundai Accent
  By KWest - April 17 - 2:00 am

  As soon as warrenty ran out, car broke down. 105+ miles on my car, blue book value $800, repairs $1400, and still have 3 payments to go. Disappointed to say the least. 2 mechanics said its not worth investing the money into for repairs. I did enjoy driving it while it was running, but $9981 is too much of an investment to throw it away after 5 years.

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  Faster than you think! - 1999 Hyundai Elantra
  By Randal - April 16 - 2:00 am

  I purchased this car because it had the most bang for the buck. It has 140 horse power stock and now after a few modifications my car will give a $19k Honda SI, a run for the money. I have 120,000 miles on my car and it still running strong. I never had any problems with the car.

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  Good but... needs better interior finish - 2007 Hyundai Sonata
  By Good but... - April 15 - 5:16 am

  This is a very good car for the money that you pay. I love everything except that i am noticing a lot of squeaky noise from multiple areas inside. This is very annoying to me. But i think it will be difficult to convince dealer to fix it...

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  Great cheap car - 2001 Hyundai Accent
  By beman - April 15 - 2:00 am

  I have now driven this car more than 35,000 miles and nothing has required a trip to the shop. My Neon had been in the shop 5 times by then. I bought this car for the warranty and have never regretted my decision. It has performed so flawlessly that I think my next trip to Hyundai will be to purchase my next Accent when this one uses up the warranty.

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  Features at a lower cost - 2005 Hyundai XG350
  By Clarks - April 14 - 2:50 pm

  We bought the XG350L when we were looking to replace a fully loaded 1999 Chrysler LHS. Would have loved the new 300C but the price was prohibitive. The XG350L had all of the options our LHS had (and more) and was under $22,000. What a deal!

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  2000 Hyundai Accent - 2000 Hyundai Accent
  By Owner1 - April 14 - 2:00 am

  Reliable basic transportation.

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  Not as good as it seems - 2001 Hyundai Santa Fe
  By ed - April 9 - 11:26 pm

  We bought this car about two years now, at the begun everything seem so be ok but problemas started.. alternator need to be change, two transmissions sensor were bad so all the transmission blew up, then the time chain, the radiator have a leak, the factory alarm fail, the ac compresor fail... everything fail in order all this in abour 2 months, i like the feel of the car but to me at least kia wil not be a brand to recomend i have own 4-5 GM cars and thay have had the same problems but maintance end reapairs are lot cheaper

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  a little car great gas miles - 2008 Hyundai Elantra
  By Michael Perry - April 8 - 9:31 pm

  Not good on long trips!!

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  MPG? - 2011 Hyundai Sonata
  By Brian Milkovich - April 8 - 11:13 am

  I traded in my Accord for a Sonata, one reason was the 35 MPG hwy rating. That beat my Accord by 3 MPG. Unfortunitly, Im getting less gas mileage. My driving habits are the same so Im not sure how Hyundai earned that 35 MPG rating?? Other than the MPG issue, I like the Sonata.

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  Surpirsed - 1996 Hyundai Sonata
  By Stewart - April 7 - 3:00 am

  I bought the car as the cheapest car in which I could comfortably seat 5 people. It has turned out to be a longterm dependable car. At 100k it hos only been in the shop a couple times and still runs strong.