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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  Mene Mene Tekel - 2010 Hyundai TUCSON
  By Josh - February 7 - 11:10 am

  A little over two months, wishing it had better features than I have found. When I am in the drivers seat, I am comfortable but I dont like looking at my co-driver. REASON? Poor head rests, nonadjustable horizontally. You can only raise them up, but not side ways i.e back and forward! I have found it a little wanting, not exactly what I expected.

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  Elantra - 2006 Hyundai Elantra
  By Paul Pardesi - February 7 - 7:56 am

  So so

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  All things considered, its not great - 2008 Hyundai Veracruz
  By Justice Peterson - January 30 - 6:50 am

  My wife and I like the comfy seats and they are easy to adjust. Theres plenty of room all around. The layout is good and the build quality and materials on par with the Ford Edge and Saturn Outlook. Good A/C. The ride is fairly smooth and its quiet inside. We were surprised to see the gas go so fast especially in the city when it returned only 13-14 miles per gallon average. Not very good. We are not impressed with the reliability or warranty coverage either. The dealers are all unethical. They charged us for things we never needed when we brought it in for warranty items; the trans would not shift out of park and was flat bedded, dealer charged us $850 for brake pads! Poor resale!

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  Dont Buy!!!!! - 1999 Hyundai Sonata
  By hanger1111 - January 28 - 2:00 am

  Replaced Ing. Coil 2 times Crankshaft. senseing unit. Crank Belt... Alternator 2 times.. Wont buy Hyundia Again...You get what you payfor I guess

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  Sadly Disapointed - 2004 Hyundai Santa Fe
  By jlb - January 24 - 10:00 am

  Ive had my Sante Fe since April 2002. So far its been back at Fairfax Hyundai for the following 3 times for transmission problems. I would be on the highway and the damn thing would stop accelerating. The air conditioning keeps going out. Its been in the shop 3 times for that and its doing it again. Now my speedometer as stopped working and no mileage accumulates. I had it in 2 times for the vibrations underneath the drivers seat. Also, when I bought Hyundai advertised a certain size engine only to find out that a class action law suit was filed because the size engine was advertised incorrectly.

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  Not a good car to buy, get the V6! - 1998 Hyundai Sonata
  By markman69 - January 24 - 2:00 am

  What ever you do, get the V6 if you are considering buying a used Sonata. The 4-cylinder model lacks in pickup, accelleration, and keeping a constant speed. The Transmission is taxed heavily because of the undersized engine. The car is much too heavy to have a 4 knocker under the hood, it needs at least a 6, maybe even an 8!

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  what brakes? - 2001 Hyundai Sonata
  By tutty - January 24 - 2:00 am

  since we bought this vechicle, we have experienced very squeeky and fading brakes. also, very sluggish when a/c is on with unusual shifting. other than that we find the car very comfortable, quiet and very reliable

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  good for its value - 2006 Hyundai Sonata
  By abdullah - January 22 - 3:06 pm

  steering audio controls are bit confusing and bold. when holding break anything on the seats is thrown down. it had skidded once when turninng but i found that tier presser was 42psi. good looking body but very easy damaged.

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  Dont judge a book by its cover - 2013 Hyundai Genesis Coupe
  By tirbid - January 17 - 1:26 pm

  A beautiful and comfortable ride ruined by terrible transmission and waste gate design. Shes quick, relatively inexpensive, comfortable to ride in but she has a fatal flaw. She sounds like a bucket of bolts after three thousand miles. My friends think theres something broke but there isnt. The waste gate rattles loudly and the transmission grinds. Hyundai claims this is normal and wont do anything about it, essentially their build quality lacks.

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  2000 Hyundai Elantra - 2000 Hyundai Elantra
  By Glenn Gillis - January 16 - 2:00 am

  Been a reliable car so far, but, I have this sneaking suspicion that the drive train will start having problems after the 100,000 mile warranty runs out. Only major problem has been a problem with the brake caliper sticking. Also a replacement battery was installed on 1/03, but, considering that this is a manufatcters battery....