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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  great car! - 2003 Hyundai Tiburon
  By groove911 - May 25 - 10:58 pm

  bought the car in 2004 with 12k miles on it. It now has 144k and with normal maintenance it has been a great daily driver. Coast to coast several times. The door bottoms and wheel wells are starting to rust, but who cares! This car owes me nothing after all this time. Went with an auto because of the manual transmission design flaw. The auto had been flawless with normal 40k mile transmission services.

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  Unbreakable - 2001 Hyundai Elantra
  By Chicago Dom - May 25 - 12:45 pm

  Bought this car for my daily commute, inexpensive and good fuel economy. Not a single problem with this car, absolutely nothing has gone wrong with it. Have changed the oil only 7 times during 205k miles and still get the same fuel economy as new. Still have yet to change the clutch!!!!!! I didnt think they made cars this solid at this price point. First Hyundai Ive purchased but it wont be the last. For the price, youd have to be insane to pass on this car, its built like a tank. I will be a Hyundai supporter for life.

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  Awesome Sedan - 2007 Hyundai Sonata
  By James - May 24 - 9:13 pm

  This is an outstanding car for the money. I love the styling and performance let alone the build quality of this vehicle. Hyundai has really stepped up to the plate with offering that rival Toyota and Hyundai. As a matter of fact, the Hyundai Initial Quality ranking by JD Powers came in third to porsche and Lexus. Toyota and Honda lagged behind Hyundai. With the V-6 you will really get a kick out of driving and for all of those sport sedan enthusiast, this Sonata comes with the triptronic shifter, so that you can drive it like it was a manual. This vehicle also beat out the Camy and Accord in the family sedan shootout a few months ago.

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  Accent or Scion XA - 2006 Hyundai Accent
  By Mark - May 24 - 8:51 pm

  Test drove XA and Accent, both great little cars. Accent had a tad more pep (5spd),more room for sports gear or groceries, more driver leg room. Shifted great, fun to drive and A+ on gas mpg.

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  Move over lexus - 2008 Hyundai Veracruz
  By Joseph Dibenedetto - May 23 - 1:46 pm

  I just recently bought the Veracruz and last week just to break it in my wife and I drove to Tampa from N.Y to start off the fuel economy was better than expected it cost about 75.00 each way that was driving at or about 70-80 mph the comfort was great although would have liked just a little more leg room Im 6-3 but by far more room than the lexus.I bought the base gls fwd model a left over 2008 It has excellent road handling perfect interior and 7 passenger seating and has alot of bells and whistles for the base model lots of storage space as well as oooohh and the price about 20,000 less than the lexus which I looked at first but to be honest this drives better

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  Hyunday Tibby GS Manual - 2005 Hyundai Tiburon
  By ltstoby - May 23 - 12:26 pm

  Love it! bought this car today and its my first manual car. Ive only driven stick 3 times in my life and I already got the hang of it. Shifting is easy and fun to do, it has a great kick to it even though its only a 4v. I cant say anything bad about it other then the fact that theres almost no room in the backseat but hey, its a 2 dr. I recommend this car to anyone with a desire to drive a sporty looking, fun coupe.

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  cool car - 2004 Hyundai Tiburon
  By chemwarrior - May 23 - 10:00 am

  An exciting car that is very easy to learn to drive fast. Perfect for the first-time sports car owner

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  Elantra Sedan - 2004 Hyundai Elantra
  By RAA - May 23 - 10:00 am

  Purchased an 04 preowned Elantra with only 10K miles and saved even thousands more for a really nice car. Comfortable, secure, good mileage, love it.

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  A winner! - 2004 Hyundai Sonata
  By Gregg Glassey - May 23 - 10:00 am

  The Sonata may not get all the press of an Accord or a Camry, but at the price you get a lot of car. It is quite comfortable to sit in and is a lot of fun to drive. The interior is nicely appointed and with everything power including the moon roof the car offers as much as those other brands. The seats are very comfortable and the driving position is excellent. The sound system is first rate. The trunk is spacious and with the 60/40 split more than adequate. The finish both inside and out is excellent. The warranty is also something to consider with this car, too! We liked it so much that we bought two!!

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  great for the money - 2004 Hyundai Santa Fe
  By artier - May 23 - 10:00 am

  drove to mississippi 2 times without a single problem, good handling and gas milage was great, even with towing a boat the v-6 did the job and then some, I test drove a 4 banger and this I felt was almost dangerous as it was underpowered greatly, buy atleast the v- 6 and you will have no problem.