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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  Cheap car/ Poor quality/Bad Service - 2004 Hyundai Elantra
  By KrisMJ - December 21 - 2:00 am

  My current milage is only 10,000, but when I stopped by Hyundai repair center to fix my brake sound and steering wheel vibrating, they chrged me about $600, which is out of warranty. Its very funny. Ill never buy Hyundai any more and dont recommend anybody. Please dont buy Hyundai.

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  Awful - 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe
  By Carrera - December 17 - 5:12 pm

  We recently purchased a 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport 2.0T Ultimate and i am so very sorry. We do a lot of interstate driving and the wind noise is unbearable. It also gets pushed around even on a day that is not windy. The turbo is inadequate and spacey. The stereo is awful - all highs no lows.

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  never buy in your life hyunadi Equus - 2016 Hyundai Equus
  By raj - November 16 - 10:16 am

  stay away from this vehicle.The major problem is with service.Buyers think they are buying a premier car,however the dealerships are not geared to a premier experience.The dealerships are not familiar with this car,and service is generally poor.My car was in the shop for long periods,parts were readily avail in one year my car in shop for 6 month even diner doesnt know about any thing they change every things problem is still there However, the critical fault of the Hyundai Equus is that it handles and drives very poorly.It also has a weak chasis that cannot handle.My car swayed and vibrated at and the dealers could not fix it. My wife just would not drive it on the highway because it drives so poorly. Stay with Lexus and/or Mercedes , never buy equus worest car

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  I agree...transmission problems - 2008 Hyundai Santa Fe
  By jd - September 8 - 7:36 pm

  This vehicle has the absolute worse transmission I have ever experienced. It is defective between 1st and 2nd gear. What makes this more aggravating is that the dealers "acts" like nothing is wrong when the mechanics clearly experience the problem. They "allege" all the codes check out but this transmission has a slippage problem. I think Hyundai is out to screw the consumer and knows about his problem but will not acknowledge it. I am hoping that the government investigates some of the transmission complaints. This is a horrible vehicle.

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  Do not purchase this auto - 2011 Hyundai Sonata
  By Jeff - August 16 - 9:13 am

  All my service was performed on time and engine began to burn oil. The dealer found bad ring and recommend to Hyundai of America to fix. The tech line from Hyundai said it was normal for the engine to use 1 qt of oil every 1 k miles. I have never heard of such. If this happens the engine would lock up before the next oil change. Do not by this car as the company will not honor the warranty. The dealership also took my engine apart and found that it was extreamly clean and had been service on time as it should. They also sent pictures to the Tech line and they still would not stand by the warranty.

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  Lemonade - 2008 Hyundai Veracruz
  By hyundaisux - August 9 - 2:52 am

  What a disappointing piece of junk. If you buy Hyundai, you best buy two as one will always be in the shop. I made lemonade with mine!

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  2016 Tucson DCT - 2016 Hyundai TUCSON
  By Bob - August 5 - 11:15 pm

  The DCT is an accident waiting to happen. There are reviews about the transmission on NHTSA, Hyundai Forum, and other web sites. It only took one time to happen to my wife that I decided to get rid of this car. As expected, dealer couldnt replicate the problem (because it is a design flaw that needs to be addressed by Hyundai). Decided it was too unsafe to drive off the dealer lot. With only 3700 miles on it, decided to trade it in on a 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe. Had 2 Santa Fes before with no problem.

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  Bad Transmission - 2008 Hyundai Santa Fe
  By steph - May 12 - 7:23 am

  I agree with all the other posters as there is a definite problem with this transmission design. It does not function properly when cold. It is absolutely stupid that Hyundai would put a vehicle on the market with this transmission design. They knew this problem existed and stuck the fools (like me) who decided to purchase it. Never again. I will never buy another Hyundai. This is not a trustworthy company.

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  Who wants a Sonata that needs a new engine?? - 2012 Hyundai Sonata
  By Kathryn - April 30 - 2:28 am

  Our 2012 Sonata with regular maintenance records experienced a sudden catastrophic engine failure at 74,000 miles. No warning lights have ever come on in the car but it suddenly began to lose power and make a terrible noise. Since it was still under warranty, we had it towed to our dealer who told us that the engine had to be replaced and it was covered and the engine would be replaced within a few days. Subsequently, Hyundai changed their mind and chose not to honor their warranty stating "customer neglect". We provided all our service records showing oil changes basically every 4 months but they still said it was our fault. We have since found out that this is happening all over the country to cars with the 2.4 liter Theta II GDI engine. Edmonds should research this because this is a widespread problem. I would not buy another Hyundai because they do not honor their warranty.

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  Premature transmission & engine failure - 2002 Hyundai Accent
  By TD - March 25 - 11:13 pm

  This car was good for the first few years then fell apart! Transmission started ti disconnect & buck. Took to dealership at 85000 KMS when this happend-and they just changed the fluid, told me the car would be fine. But it wasnt! Hyundai didnt want to fix the car at all! Had to fight to get them to cover just the part (paid labour). Then the timing belt went prematurely at 91000 KMS, and did almost $2000 damage to the engine. Hyundai insists there is no problem with their vehiles even though there was a TSB announcement on the 2002 Accents transmissions! The sensors had to be replace on my car too at 80000 kms.