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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  what was I thinking - 2002 Hyundai Santa Fe
  By heis - June 19 - 10:00 am

  Its a Hyundai- what was I thinking. guess we wwere influenced to much by the exterior design- The car looks really cool. However only after a short time we had the car thing are falling apart. The screw to the oiltank had a hairline crack. The motor needed readjustment. The engine noise is now transmitted to the interior and the plastic parts inside are vibrating. not much but I guess it will get worse. The car seems to accelerate pretty slowly- We ignored that when we bought the car. The actual economy is 24. (Much higher). We are really dis-illusioned

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  Nice car for the money but watch out - 2011 Hyundai Sonata
  By mitchellf - June 19 - 6:05 am

  This was the second Sonata I purchased this year. I have Sonata SE with Nav/Sunroof and recently purchases a Turbo version. The first Sonata spent 7 days at the shop fixing interior rattles oh well nothing major it happens lets give it another shot. Decided to buy the Turbo big mistake. The car has a suspension/steering issue that causes a constant drift t the left. The dealer and Hyundai are stumped on how to fix it. The car has been back twice for alignments and other assorted "adjustments" problem persist ..This issue has been reported by multiple buyers all complaining about the same drift to the left. All I can say Buyer beware you are warned!

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  Beware of a Tucson - 2006 Hyundai TUCSON
  By Sue - June 11 - 4:00 am

  I purchased my 2006 Tucson new. I was expecting a great vehicle. Instead I got a vehicle with a lot of problems. The rotors warped at 300 miles and again at 14,500. I have had to have the radio replaced because it drained my battery on two occasions and left me with a dead car. The moonroof whistles and they cannot correct it. That is why they give you a deflector with the vehicle because it is a design flaw. The interior marks extremely easily and if very hard to clean when marked. The best I can get on gas mileage if 21.7 even though it was rated 19 and 24. I would never buy another Hyundai and cannot wait to get rid of the vehicle. The alarm system makes no sense.

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  problem with the paint - 2004 Hyundai Tiburon
  By Nancyowner - June 10 - 10:00 am

  Loved my new tiburon when I first got it 3 month ago. But now I have only 2000 miles on it and had bird droppings on the car for 2 days. Ate the paint off the car was told this is not covered under the warranty as an act of god. I was told by they dealer and from the Hyundia national service number they cant do anything for me because it is an act of god that a bird left its dropping on my car. What isnt an act of god. If this way about paint warranty how are they going to stand behind the power train warranty. I have owned 3 new car before this one and have never had this problem. And I have never been treated so rudely as I was by this dealer.

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  Serves its Purpose - 1998 Hyundai Elantra
  By to dust - June 5 - 1:47 am

  I bought the car(new) because I was saving for a house. Now 3 children later, I use it to commute 70 miles a day. It now has 110,000 miles and it is a perfect car for my needs. It does not handle great, it is not the most comfortable car, and over 70 mph it sounds like the rubberband is going to snap. Overall, it has been very reliable and I still get better then 33 miles to the gallon. I have been very satified with the decision to buy this car.

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  Never Again Jeeps for me - 2005 Hyundai Santa Fe
  By Rick - June 1 - 12:23 am

  Only half the vehicle a Grand Cherokee for 3/4 the price. Comes with lots of options but they dont preform very well. The 4wd drive dosent work well if you spin your tires. It cuts in and out and at times the pauses leave you with no power going to any wheel. The interior is roomy but components are lacking in quality. The rear seat bottems are made entirely of foam (no frame) and dont lay flat when folded down. The floor carpet and mats are econo big time. The vehicle must draw its outside air close to the road because the exhaust flumes from other cars get sucked inside big time. Lots of AC in the winter because of using the recirculating feature. The body and doors are quality.

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  2011 Hyundai Veracruz Problems - 2011 Hyundai Veracruz
  By afred - May 24 - 7:08 am

  Three days ago my 2011 Veracruz with 27K miles just quit while on the road. It had a total electronic chassis failure. First the ECM warning light and then all the warning light and then car came to a stop. Towed to dealer, the next day I was told it was a loose battery cable(??), strange since no one had touched it. Drove it out next day before I got into the freeway, same thing, car quit, same warnings. Towed to dealer. They said they had 3 code and it has a throttle position sensor, after they changed it they called and said that was not it. Need to keep the car and see what it is. Three days without a car, dealer has offered to rent one though. Car is totally unreliable to take out.

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  Swing....and a miss. - 2015 Hyundai Sonata
  By KenB - May 19 - 4:38 am

  For the first few months, I was happy with my purchase...then I started noticing little things that made me wonder if I made the right decision. One of my early concerns happened on the first rainy day that I needed to get something out of the trunk. The design of the area around the trunk channels the water INTO the trunk when its opened...think wet bags of groceries. The more I used the car, the more I realized that some things were just dumb. Id start the car and back up, only to see that the backup camera cuts out after 5 seconds as the entertainment system boots up....the black screen lasts about 10 seconds. Occasionally I wont be able to use the entertainment or navigation systems at all for about 2 minutes as it goes through its initialization. Ever leave the radio volume turned up when you turn off the car? Now, imagine not being able to turn it down the next morning until the system is good and ready to let you do that. The safety system is questionable...is that a hill ahead? Better sound the collision warning! Ive been pulled over by a State Trooper because the auto-high beams turned on as our cars passed each other. (I dont use that feature any more.) The Blue Link system is spotty at best. The remote start seems to work fine during nice weather, but it fails about 50% of the time in the winter, when I really need it. (This is NOT an exaggeration...I have the "Remote start is not available at this time." emails to prove that.) The Blue Link features a great car locator, just the thing I want to be able to check that my daughter made it to the mall or to a friends house. However, it works only on the Mobile app...not from a browser...and, get this, the car has to be within a mile of your phone! Useless, useless, useless. Ive had to take it to the dealer a couple of times because the front rotors became warped and one of the brakes units failed....both when the car has had less than 18000 miles. Every day I detect a new rattle....in the door, behind the dash board, in the back seat. I plan to get a new car in a couple of years and you can be sure that it wont be a Hyundai.

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  not happy - 2002 Hyundai Santa Fe
  By 2002 hyundai santa f - May 17 - 11:43 am

  my hyundai santa fe stopped running in 2006 and i had to have almost three thousand dollars worth of work done on it in which the hyundai dealer ship did not honner the waranty. 2009 it stop running again, this time it cost five hundred dollars. now 2010 its not running again. same thing wrong with it. i am a older lady that has always taken care of my cars and just wanted something i did NOT have to keep putting money into,and also i cant afford to get it fixed so here i am without a car to drive.the body and the interior look like new.this has not been a dependable car and i would never buy another one again and would never sell the idea to anyone else. VERY UNHAPPY!!!

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  Engin starting is not properly working. - 2009 Hyundai Sonata
  By SK Joo - May 15 - 4:50 pm

  I purchased the brand new sonata 2009 model GLS on march 2009. Current total mileage is 3545 mile. But I found the critical issue which is related to engine starting. Since we bought we had met several time "Engine starting is not properly working" Symptom: When it comes to not engine staring well, Accelerator, brake pedal is on stuck, and all electric power down include radio & clock memory was disorganized. I think the key- holder or electric system is something wrong. To be honest, I dont want to recommend this model to other person until US made Sonata include parts quality proved.