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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  First car I got to drive: loved it! - 2006 Hyundai Sonata
  By Jessica - November 24 - 7:01 am

  This car is dependable. Our sonata is 10 years old and has seen its days, but still runs with a bit of noise and other issues. Nothing too major but theres so many issues that we are now buying a new vehicle. I will say this is hard to park because I took my driving test in it and always came close to the cones. If you know the car though parking is fine! I got to know my dads car. lol

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  White exl sweet car - 2012 Hyundai Elantra
  By Adele - November 21 - 9:57 am

  Low miles 43000

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  luvin it - 2015 Hyundai Genesis
  By philip prinzi - November 16 - 6:29 pm

  4th genesis and they keep getting better. Leased my 1st one in 2009 didnt think it would get any better until I got the 2015 Genesis. Now I know the only car that is better is my Equis.

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  needs a spare tire - 2015 Hyundai Elantra
  By LeRoy George - November 11 - 6:09 pm

  this car is very sharp.... every body checks out the car, great car for the money NEEDS SPARE TIRE!!!!.... thats my only beef with this car

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  2004 Hyundai Elantra redcrimson - 2004 Hyundai Elantra
  By BB - November 10 - 7:22 pm

  Has been a great reliable car!!! Would most def buy another Paid $5000 with 50,000 miles and now its has over 100,000 miles and still a great car!!!!

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  Problems with door locks - 2015 Hyundai Genesis
  By Francis Rosse - November 5 - 11:52 am

  I absolutely love my 2015 Genesis. Its performance and finish are well above average. For the money it is a very nice automobile. However I recently had a problem with the passenger and rear doors. They would not unlock unless you crawled inside and manually unlocked each door. I took the car to the dealership for repair. After more than a week they found the problem, but informed me that it would not be covered by warranty. They stated that it was caused by external sources. Close inspection of the car shows that not liquid has been ever been spilled on the driver side door where the dealer said liquid had been spilled. i dont know what the external sources could be. Anyway it cost me $500 to replace the door module. This makes me question the validity of the cars warranty. I have written it off as maintenance, but should another incident like this occur I will definitely trade this car even though I love it.

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  I just LOVE my Tiny Little Road Dawg ! - 2015 Hyundai Accent
  By Ted Adam Green - November 5 - 11:25 am

  I have had this for about a 16 months and have about 50,000 miles on it already as I drive a lot for work (over 60 hr a month on average), and I still just LOVE this car I have affectionately named The Tiny Little Road Dawg. (yes I am a UGA Alumni that why I call it Dawg). For many months I tracked the MPG and you can view it a FEULY.COM under Road Dawg. Basically I get about 35 mpg real world (the cars tracker is always about 3mpg high), up to 40+ if only doing long road trips at 55-65mpg. If going faster, or doing city driving it drops off. But if you drive the speed limit or near, you will do very well. We had a 2 door Accent in the mid-90s and even with a stick it only bested 27mpg. Things have come a long way. This car is waaaaay nicer and more advanced and gets better MPG without even trying. It is a perfect "inexpensive commuter car". The car is always comfortable and feels safe, even in bowels of Atlanta traffic as well as the country back-roads of deep-woods rural Georgia. For someone who is looking for a versatile hatchback to get around in, I could not recommend this car enough. It is the perfect combination of CHEAP and QUALITY and GOOD Lastly, with the USB port plus my iPhone on top of dash via a magnetic clamp, I have my own GPS, music streaming and podcasting ... all the tech I would want in ma car for short jaunts or looooong road trips.

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  Great vehicle - 2015 Hyundai Accent
  By joel - November 4 - 4:58 pm

  there is nothing not to love about this car, and this is coming from a Honda buff. Love this car, made a great decicion by getting this car, i drive it everywhere and like it more then honda accord sport with same manual transmition, i take 3 kids to school (including car seat in rear) and they all fit confortably. If you still thinking about Hyundai beeing that car company from 80s you wrong, test drive them and you will see.

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  Compares to my old Lexus LS 430 2006 - 2015 Hyundai Genesis
  By stuart Greenbaum - November 4 - 10:30 am

  Head lights do not go on when wipers turned on. Bluetooth sucks asking at least 3 questions sometime 5 to dial. Great move going to the low profile tires gives the Lexus ride without the power but hey its a 6 cylinder not an 8 real roomy inside and Im 300lbs plus which is why I went to the Lexus in the first place. I also miss the headlights that turned on the lexus when you made a turn. So far 4 month and 3000 miles I love it!

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  Changed my perspective of Hyundai - 2012 Hyundai Genesis
  By Jim - November 3 - 7:10 pm

  This is the first Hyundai I have ever owned. Ive been driving a couple of Mitsubishi Lancers and a Chrysler 300. So vehicles that stand out compared to the original smo joe car. I work at a dealership and this car came in well priced. Had to jump on it! Beautifully designed and amazing comfort. 0 complaints