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 believe the gas mileage hype - 2013 Hyundai Elantra
  By rws0292 - October 29 - 8:52 am

  Recently purchased a 2013 Elantra Limited under the premise that I would be getting a fuel efficient vehicle for a decent price. I traded a 2012 Camaro to make this deal as I travel 65 miles a day to work and back in hybrid traffic. I drive pretty conservatively and live in Florida which is predominately flat. With the first 1,000 miles down, I am getting 25.4 MPG which is a far cry from the 28C-38H-32Hybrid they are so fond of telling you about. My Camaro was getting 20.6 hybrid, so I gained far less car with no real savings. The Elantra is a great car for what it is, but if you are seeking this vehicle solely for gas mileage, dont make the mistake. You wont see the stated mileage.

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  My Sonata - 2004 Hyundai Sonata
  By jg_cool - October 17 - 4:31 pm

  For sure the head lights have a problem with having to be replaced. I also had to have the steering assembly replaced at over $1000. Now after 14 months it is starting to leak again and makes a buzzing noise due to that. Ive never owned a car where I had to replace such a component. Not happy about this at all.

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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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  Been driven hard in 1 year - 2013 Hyundai Elantra
  By donjo13 - October 15 - 11:05 pm

  I bought my 2013 in Sept 2012. I am a courier and drive 250 miles a day. At this point in time I have 62000 miles on it here in NC. So far it has been a very reliable car and I have only had to replace one tire. The main complaint I have about it is the engine is very noisy. I have had it to the Hyundai dealer twice and they say its normal operation. I know its not because it didnt sound this bad when I bought it. When the car starts up for the 1st time each day it knocks like it has no oil for the 1st 3 miles or so. I have changed the oil regularly and use synthetic. I even left it overnight at the dealer so they could start it in the morning and here what I am saying.

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  Some Issues - 2008 Hyundai Elantra
  By ocd4deals - October 5 - 9:53 am

  I bought my Elantra brand new. Since owning it we have replaced each headlight at least twice and each foglight twice. We had to replace the first headlight on day 2 of owning the car. We had the dealer replace it whie it was under warranty but after 36k miles we were on our own. This was the most frustrating until we had issues with the brakes locking up the rear driver side tire. Upon doing a brake job we found that the brake bracket wasnt up to factory specs so when installing brake pads. the pads had to be filed down. With the seizing of the tire we have had to replace the hub assemly, bracket, and caliper. But other than these 2 issues the car has run great and we are at 78k.

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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.

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  2013 Hyundai acceleration malfunction - 2013 Hyundai Elantra
  By torry4 - September 28 - 10:09 pm

  2013 Hyundai Elantra unsafe to drive, accelertion malfunction. I have purchased a brand new 2013 Hyundai Elantra which has accelerated unexpectedly 2 times and the last time, the car was not able to be stopped before it crashed into a concrete wall. We have had the car checked by Hyundai through their 6 week process and they have come back to us with a letter stating nothing was wrong. When we asked for a copy of the testing they said they were proprietary and they could not give me a copy. Where do you go from here?

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  So Sorry I Bought One - 2013 Hyundai Elantra
  By citrushtsgirl - September 28 - 11:30 am

  I needed a good gas mileage low cost car to get to for work as my top priority. I got a little over what I wanted in payments, not bad but here is the worst part. It gets 19mpg on my commute and 17 if I am late and racing the car. Going back to the dealer they just point out on the sticker (I kept) that even though it says 30-40, in very small print by that it says 13-99mpg. Best vehicle rates 112 mpgs. Depends on how you drive. I just go to work and back! The cars do not come with spares & during my deal I was told they dont make them. So no offer was ever made to get me one. The next day I called back and they said they would sell me one.

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  blows smoke - 2011 Hyundai Elantra
  By seprfi - September 23 - 11:36 am

  i have seen multiple comments online about the elantra blowing smoke. i have had the same problem,almost causing an accident on the freeway at 65 mph. people were swerving behind us. the dealership said we were blowing the carbon out, but we were doing 65 mph for quite a long time before i had to go into passing gear to change lanes to get off the freeway. Who do we escalate our complaint too ?

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  Too Loud and Although Mostly City MPG Averages 28/30 - 2013 Hyundai Elantra
  By alabamaautoguy - September 21 - 8:55 pm

  Hi! Youre probably getting ready to upgrade or make that big purchase for the first time. As a new Hyundai owner I dont recommend the Elantra or any Hyundai because of the noise (you can hear the engine when you hit the gas), it doesnt get that great of gas mileage (always look at the bottom city number and think that most of the time), the way it wears (Im worried how it will feel in a couple years), the weird policy of Hyundai to replace things rather than make them good in the beginning, no spare tire, etc.