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 breakdown at 12,000 miles. - 2007 Hyundai Accent
  By Daniel - August 30 - 1:17 pm

  Overall a decent sporty car for the money with plenty of standard features for the price and great economy, however some switches (headlights) still feel cheap, and the engine is downright asthmatic with the a/c on (which in Arizona is a lot). Youll find a lot of people riding your tail after green lights while you get up to speed. Drivers armrest on door is rock hard, what were they thinking? I cant even bear to put my weight on it because it hurts my elbow. Shifter is slow and balky. B&M shifter, yeah right, from their spare parts bin maybe. Love the styling, the SE rims really add a wonderful sporty look to the car, get the SE if you can, it totally transforms the look of the car.

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  Youve got what you paid for - 2006 Hyundai Sonata
  By Alex Novikov - August 30 - 7:10 am

  Overall - its a car worth its money, and I believe, problems with earlier production car will be fixed in the future. 15 MGP city/26 highway - come on - its ridiculous. Weird noises from the rear suspension and gas tank, driver seat gives me a backpain, my car is equipped with a subwoofer, yet, the bass quality is even worse then standard LX audio.

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  Buy it -- worth it - 2005 Hyundai Elantra
  By Steve J - August 29 - 8:03 pm

  I just recently purchased a Elantra GT and so far no complaints, I bought the car with 86 miles, and so far its up to 2,266 and I have not had one complaint (from me or friends). This car is a must! I will be purchasing from this company from now on.

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  My New Santa Fe - 2007 Hyundai Santa Fe
  By gutier - August 29 - 3:50 pm

  WOW is all I can say, researched the several other SUVs and the SantaFe has surpast my expectations in every category. Exterior has a sleek look. Interior is very well designed and looks great. Roomie, 3 row seating great with the kids, and a smooth ride. Sleek design and all the extras at an afforable price. Getting better gas mileage than expected 20 city, 24 highway. I look forward to driving this car everyday.

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  Must Buy - 2008 Hyundai Elantra
  By Big Dog - August 29 - 10:40 am

  This is a great car. Fuel economy is as advertised. Its a lot more sporty than advertised too. It has a huge trunk and both my kids carseats fit in very well. The blue lighting is great at night. The manual shift is very easy. I climb over the Blue Ridge mountain to and from work everyday and this car makes it up and down with no problems. I pass by the Yaris and Versa and laugh. This car is nice.

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  Top Quality - 2004 Hyundai Santa Fe
  By Hyundai Boy - August 29 - 10:00 am

  I have had my 2003 for over 1 year. It is performing above expectations. Wonderful to drive, good milage for an SUV (19.5) in mixed driving. 3 more of my friends have bought them. Engineer is outstanding, features usually limited to higher priced system. Look under the hood of a BMW! AWD system is excellent in Snow/Wet. BF GoodRich tires are high performers. I highly recommend this product and please note, Hyundai ranks with Honda in overall problems per 100 vehicles. 2nd only to Toyota. Imagine that!!!

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  Like the car BUT... - 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid
  By hasbro_t - August 28 - 8:31 pm

  I like my Sonata but to give an honest sober review I have to start off saying it is not as billed on the showroom floor. Sticker mentioned 37 MPG city when I bought it. I live in an area that gets well over 100 degrees in the summer and bought the car in June 2011. This meant I used the A/C quite a bit. Right out the door with the A/C on and learning the feel of driving for economy I was getting about 25 mpg in the city month or so. I did find however that with no climate control (or only turning it on when at cruising speed) and feathered driving I could get the 37 mpg after a while. Any AC from dead stops and that dropped to 32. Hyundai learned of the MPG issue and issued a software change that was intended to fix it. On a routine service I had them update the S/W and Hyundai sent me a $50 gift card for my trouble. I thought that was a good gesture, particularly since it did nothing to delay the normal service anyway. After the S/W update the best MPG I can get is about 32 but on the bright side, it wasn’t effected by the climate control as badly. I recently took it in for another service and the repair order mentions another S/W adjustment and now I haven’t been able to maintain an MPG above 29…Two software updates, two declines in gas mileage. Haven’t had it back long enough to determine all the impacts of the change. I might ask to see if they can set it back to original factory defaults. Additionally, I have also experienced the problem mentioned in a couple of the below posts with the lurching. When it was new, when stopped at red lights, if the gas engine clicked on at the stop, the car would lurch in a way that on a couple occasions, I looked into my rear view to see if I was rear ended. Also, once when accelerating to pass a vehicle on the freeway, when I pressed the accelerator, the car actually momentarily slowed rather than increase speed immediately. Again, this was at a point when it was running on EV mode and the accelerator caused it to shift to gas engine and the transition was not smooth and responsive, and potentially dangerous as noted in below posts. That only happened once and I don’t know if one of the S/W changes addressed it but Hyundai does need to acknowledge that issue. That all being said, it sounds like a negative review and maybe it is but, at the end of the day, I do like my Sonata. It is comfortable for me, has a reasonably smooth ride and I knew when I bought it that this was the 1st model year of the Hybrid and I expected it as such to be working out some issues. I’m sure the 2013 and beyond will have addresses much of these issues and become more refined. With the differences in the software I have had, I can see why these reviews are all over the map. I suppose if I were to be honest to someone looking for a Sonata, I would tell them to look at the regular gas model first as really, the title “Hybrid” in the 2011 is really just a novelty rather than a benefit and Hyundai is making good somewhat with gas cards for the mileage discrepancy.

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  I LOVE THIS SUV - 2005 Hyundai Santa Fe
  By Amanda - August 28 - 6:26 pm

  I bought this car 3 days ago. I have driven it 270 miles already. I am on a quarter of a tank. I think that is decent. I had an Elantra before this that got 320 miles to a tank. So for the size of the vehicle not too bad. The interior is so classy. Any one who didnt know the price would think you spent a fortune on this vehicle. Seats are so very comfy. And short people dont have to sit on top of the steering wheel to see where they are going or to reach the petals. Overall I LOVE THIS VEHICLE

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  Awesome car at an amazing price!! - 2008 Hyundai Elantra
  By Anthony T - August 28 - 4:29 pm

  I just bought this car because I will be commuting to college, and needed something more reliable than my 1998 Plymouth Neon. I got the SE model with the sportier wheels, fog lights, spoiler, etc. and I love it! It rides so nice and interior and exterior of this car are beautiful. I got the dark blue and I love it! I will have this car for the next 6 years of school!

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  Very Solid Midsizer - 2015 Hyundai Sonata
  By cruzefan1 - August 28 - 2:20 pm

  I traded in a 2013 Ford Fusion for a 2015 Hyundai Sonata back in mid October. After having the car for a little over a month I can say the new Sonata is a very solid choice in the crowded mid-sized car segment. Its very comfortable, has a smooth and quiet ride and also gets better fuel mileage than the Fusion I traded in. The car has adequate power and also is very roomy. The only cons I would say about the car is its not as exciting to drive as say the Mazda 6 and also the styling is a little more conservative than the outgoing model but is still a very sleek looking car! So far on fuel mileage Im averaging around 31 mpg combined and with the Fusion I got about 27.