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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  Killer Seats! - 2017 Hyundai Elantra
  By Bill - January 13 - 4:02 pm

  Such a handsome car, but.....the seats are very poorly designed and extremely uncomfortable. I have the powered drivers seat with 8 adjustments and still cannot find a comfortable position! The seat bottom is very hard (like a cinder block) and keeps your knees above your hips at its lowest angle setting. According to all I have read, this is position tilts your pelvis back and puts all your weight on your buttocks. After about 15 minutes in this seat I feel like I weigh about 500 lbs. ...and its all concentrated on my bottom bones! I find myself squirming trying to get comfortable. After about a half hour, my feet fall asleep and my right hip starts to ache. Its so bad that Im going to have to get rid of it at an extreme (poor resale value too) loss. I also find the steering to be too light and vague at lower speeds. I dont feel confident when I have to squeeze through tight spots at low speeds and I often feel like the car lurches left and right on curves and startles me. I did not experience these issues in my last car and wish I bought another of the same model. Ive also come to find out that my former car has all the advanced safety features like, collision braking, lane departure steering and smart cruze control as standard equipment! This car cost thousands more with those options.

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  Hyundai Lease Problems/ Shady Business Practices - 2015 Hyundai Sonata
  By Mark H. - January 3 - 8:24 am

  Consumers, I am reaching out to you pertaining to lease issues I am having with a 2015 Hyundai Sonata as it pertains to shady business practices by Hyundai. I wanted to bring various items to your attention in effort to help warn other consumers of what they could face when leasing or buying through any Hyundai dealership. Since Ive leased my car back in October of 2014, I have had to have two tires replaced and a third tire now has two patches in it. I have had one windshield crack from something hitting it on an highway, and when I tried to get it replaced under a warranty sold to me by a dealership, they tried to void it by not allowing me to bring in my car soon enough for the warranty to cover it. By the time the dealership accepted my appointment, the crack spider-ed out, which voided the warranty. I had to e-mail Hyundai Consumer Affairs to get them involved. They ended up sending me $500 to cover the cost of my deductible to fix the repair. Currently, my car is at the dealership getting repaired because I am now facing problems with my second windshield as well as another major problem that I will talk about later. Overnight last week, the windshield cracked within the glass itself by the radio antenna. I believe it had to due with the sudden change between the hot and cold weather. When I contacted a person with Hyundai Consumer Affairs, he informed me today that Hyundai is ordering the glass for my car, but is only willing to pay half of the amount. The glass would cost $750 so they would cover $375 and they want me to cover the other half. The rep told me that his area manager looked at the pictures and said the glass isnt defective, but he couldnt provide the rep nor myself a reason as to why its not defective. I told the rep that his manager needs to provide me with a proper and professional response as to why its not defective and to inform his boss that I am not at fault for the glass cracking, and its clear that its defective. The rep looked at the pictures sent from the dealership and could tell it wasnt my fault as well as the dealers manager. The rep also informed me that they have this same problem with windshields with other Hyundai models, but not the Sonata. I told him, that alone means it could happen to the Sonata if its happening with other models. In addition, if the company did not feel that it wasnt defective nor were they at fault, then they wouldnt be offering to pay for half of the cost for the windshield repair. I told the rep to tell his boss that the company needs to cover the full cost of the defective glass as well as provide me with a better explanation other than, "its not defective." Please also note, I did not give permission for Hyundai to order and replace the glass at a cost to me. Its something that they chose to do on their own terms. Furthermore, if they are wiling to cover up to $375 for the repair, then why cant I bring in an outside company like I did the first time and Hyundai pay for the repair? I dont understand why Im being forced to go through Hyundai and for the windshield to cost $750. In addition, my Bluetooth system has gone out and I had to reset it twice for it to work. Also, the car was advertised to get 37 mpg on the highway and it only averages 27.7 mpg. Finally, the biggest problem I am facing and warning consumers is that my car has had several little misfires that have turned into bigger concerns. The little misfires cause the car to give a burst of acceleration while driving. However, the bigger concern is that when I have been stopped in morning or rush-hour traffic coming off the highway or being on the highway, the car randomly shakes, revs up, and tries to accelerate while the car is stopped and the brake is applied. There has been no set pattern of occurrence. Every time this has happened and the car has been taken to a dealership, I get told that the dealership could not duplicate the situation and to bring it in if it does it again or as its happening. Ive contacted the BBB about all of this. They have sought out a manufacturing rep from Hyundai for mediation. The mediation has not taken place yet, but I was told by a BBB rep that the Hyundai rep said all that they will do is to honor my "New Car" Warranty, which protects the car up to 5 years and 60,000 miles. Its a basic warranty that you can get with the car and the company must honor if its purchased. Hyundai is not offering to help me, except to honor a warranty that they must honor in the first place which does nothing for me in this case. The danger is whats happening with the car. Its life-threatening to myself as a driver, any passengers riding with me, as well as drivers around my vehicle. It seems to be that in order for Hyundai to take a costumers safety seriously, something dramatic must happen first. Otherwise, they offer no help nor support.