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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  Dont buy a Hyundai - 2013 Hyundai Elantra
  By jodyy - September 11 - 2:24 pm

  Hyundai is making defective vehicles that destroy tires. They will not acknowledge the defect. A few customers have been lucky and had their rear axles replaced at no cost, but most customers will just be told nothing is wrong and it must be the way they are driving or some other nonsense. I have 40k miles and have gone through 3 sets of tires on the rear. The set I have on now cupped badly within 5k miles and makes the car vibrate and very noisy. Both the dealership and the company will not acknowledge or fix the problem. Do your research before you buy this car. You will see there are many people having problems with rear tire wear/ handling/ noise/ rear axle problems.

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  Badly worn rear tires, fishtailing and slipping since day 1 - 2013 Hyundai Elantra
  By ellegirl - May 8 - 9:27 am

  How do I get the dealership to acknowledge this issue? Both rear tires are extremely worn and cupping causing a deafening roar on the inside of the car. The rear slips and fishtails over bumps in the road (regardless of whether we are going 35 or 60 mph). I thought it was something we needed to get used to, but after much research we realize there is a serious issue. Finally took the car in yesterday to Rick Case Hyundai and the service tech told me it was normal because the rear axle is a solid fixed axle so it cannot be out of line and that the fishtailing/slipping is just because the car is lightweight. Rear tires are visibly pigeon towed and roll slightly inward.

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  Should have kept the 2007 - 2013 Hyundai Elantra
  By on_target - April 23 - 8:53 am

  I had a 2007 Elantra with 140,000 mile and only minor problems. My daughter still drives it. 2013 Elantra has been terrible: 1) persistent rough idle 2) the bluetooth, time, radio stations and other electronic gadgets keep resetting almost daily and I have to re-enter everything 3) I lose power steering while backing up. The dealers both say there are no error codes reporting from the car and Hyundai keeps telling me to allow the dealers to handle it.

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  Im so sorry to buy this car - 2013 Hyundai Elantra
  By georgewahba - March 31 - 8:47 pm

  Car acceleration is to bad and very slow. MPG is just 22 mpg. I had before camrey 1995, I was averaging 23 mpg . I regret to buy it.

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  Hyundia sucks. and has the lowest resale value of any car i have owned - 2013 Hyundai Elantra
  By rickpettry - February 23 - 8:49 pm

  Hyundai marketed the Elantra at 40 MPGS> when In reality it gets about 35 MPG"S. I bought a 2012 Elantra based on the 40 MPG"S quoted. this car was suppose to save me up to $120.00 a month in gas. my last car cost me $58.00 a week to drive and so dose the Elantra. it is uncomfortable loud poor handeling. and has a poor stereo system. you can also find other poor reviews on Edmondson.com. facebook, and other sites just type in Elantra reviews.. Hyundai compairs the Elnatra to the Honda Civic. at a higher price tag than the civic. after resently driving other cars I found the elantra to be in a lower class such as the Mazda 3. the Corolla. and the Dodge Dart at about $16,000.00 which is a

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  Extremely Unhappy with my choice - 2006 Hyundai Elantra
  By mike794 - January 14 - 1:00 pm

  I bought a Hyundai Elantra in 2006. About 11k miles on the car that I noticed my right rear tires treads are exposed. I TOOK THE CAR TO FIRE STONE ON TALBERT AVE. IN FOUNTAIN VALLEY CA., TO BUY A NEW TIRE, THE ATTENDANT BEFORE SEEING THE CAR ASKED ME IF I NEED TO REPLACE THE RIGHT REAR TIRE OF A HYUNDAI. I asked how did he know about the exact tire of the specific car he told me this is a common problem with HYUNDAIS Shortly after my driver side door handle broke while under warranty TUTTLE CLICK HYUNDAI said it is vandalism and not covered under warranty. I followed all procedures and finally went to SMALL CLAIM COURT where the judge ruled no one is responsible for the warranty work

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  At least they are cheap. - 2002 Hyundai Accent
  By irclark - January 10 - 2:25 pm

  Pros: Cheap. Lots of interior space and head room. Good on gas. Actually did well in a freeway accident with a dump-truck. Cons: Very small and poor breaks (never balanced properly between front a rear causing rear breaks to lock up way before the fronts) Really scary in slippery conditions. poor handling (both body roll, and the suspension wore out quickly). Transmission (manual) would clunk or grind into gears between 1st and 2nd gear. Water leak into trunk which was found under warranty but they failed to fix it twice. Then the warranty expired and they said that I would have to pay for it. They did end up fixing it for free, but not without a fight.

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  Vibration while idle--poor customer service - 2012 Hyundai Elantra
  By imaupin - November 16 - 7:37 am

  I bought my 2012 Hyuandi Elantra almost 2 years ago and I feel like I should have kept my previous vehicle. My car has been giving off a vibration while idle for over 6 months and every single time I come and complain the service people do not find anything wrong with my vehicle. I met with the service manager and he test drove my car and stated that the vibration is normal. I am not sure how vibration is normal, my car literally shakes. I am almost at 30000 miles and then after that my warranty will be up! I am done with Hyuandi and if I could drive my car through the dealership to show my frustration I would. I do not recommend this car That is why they provide all these warranties!

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  RUN dont walk!!! - 2002 Hyundai Sonata
  By celestial - October 17 - 3:41 pm

  We bought this car second hand from an owner who did maintain the car and brought it in for all recalls. We have owned it for 4yrs and have only put on 20,000kms. Within the first year of having it, wheel bearings needed to be changed. Then it started to spudder, shorted out and died in the driveway. Turns out there is a problem with the battery connectors and one had almost completely rotted off. I have heard of this issue with these cars. During this escapade it blew the main fuse of the car which was hard to find. Now the transmission is finished, the catalytic converter(S) need to be changed, yes there are 3 on this car and it will cost you 2000+ to change them, there is electrical

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  Door Liner broken within 3 weeks for New Car - 2013 Hyundai Genesis
  By suhasbhat - October 4 - 7:05 pm

  I brought Hyundai Genesis 5.0 R-Spec on (09/07/2013). Within one month (10/04/2013), I noticed that the rubber lining on driver side door which is glued has come off. Very disappointed that such thing happened. I compare it to my 18 year old Honda Civic which has 150,000 miles on it. Honda Civic which is one third the cost of Genesis and 18 years older has all its liners still intact. I got a reply from their customer support. Surely the reply was not drafted by a person who is in customer support but was by a lawyer because language was not apologetic but it was stating that customer misuse can lead to such problems.