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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  Pass It on - 2013 Hyundai Genesis
  By Robman4ud - October 21 - 8:25 pm

  I purchased this car after looking at BMW, Benz, Audi, and GM. I found this to be the best value. I have had a couple of problems that were taken care. The front and rear bumper had what was described to me by auto body repair technicians was bleed through. A product used to keep the bumper from cracking was turning my white pearl bumper into orange spotted eye sore. They told me that it was fallout and I said "hell no" and they repainted the front and bumper. The arm rest is cracking and I have an appointment on Monday. The rear camera goes blue screen on at least 12 times and they tell me that I have to recreate the problem for their techs (Good luck) in the shop. well, other than those things, I have received many compliments on my Genesis.

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  good little car - 2013 Hyundai Accent
  By g.a.scalf - October 21 - 10:17 am

  I have had my car for just over two years. When i bought it new it had only 6 miles on it, it now has 113,000. I have done my own maintenance on it. I have replaced the tires once. I have also replaced the battery. The sensor valve stems are fragile and break very easily and are expensive to replace. My current issues are a vibration sensor that sometimes comes on and then goes off without me having to do anything. The cruise control switch is acting up, but other than that it has been a good little car. My complaint would be the road noise while driving and the radio only going up to 32. You see when you cant hear the radio because of road noise so you turn it up, you are out of luck once you reach maximum and still cant really hear. Also, car companies, not including a spare is really a bad idea. Yea it saves them money, but if you have a blow out in the middle of no-where that inflator that they include will not work, so again you are out of luck. Incidentally, to buy a spare from the dealer was over $200 so i went to discount tire bought a full-sized universal rim and tire for $70. The best mileage I ever got was 56 hwy, (I even took a picture of it since no one would believe me) now after so many miles I get around 37 combined.I fear that hyundai should focus on the electrical more and resolve the issues there and include a full sized spare tire or at least a donut instead of the blow up kit.

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  Horrible - 2002 Hyundai Sonata
  By Ashley Martinez - October 20 - 7:40 pm

  This car was honestly the worst thing I could have purchased. I spent a lot of money just to buy it and then ended up having to spend thousands of dollars to fix it the next week after purchase. Although gas mileage was great I would rather have something that would burn through gas then this. It was not reliable and had a mind of its own.

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  Horrible Car - 2011 Hyundai Elantra
  By Sarah - October 19 - 9:57 am

  I bought my 2011 Hyundai Elantra GLS last May with only 38,000 miles on it. For the first 6 months it was fine... in less than a year I had to replace all brakes, all rotors, all calipers, all the tires, all the coils, all the spark plugs, and get the seats professionally cleaned because WATER stains them... I was STILL having issues with it and no one could seem to find the issue... when we went back to the Hyundai Dealer and they drained my engine they found a ton of metal in the oil pan... the engine is done. Now I owe $10,000 on a car that needs a new engine that Hyundai would only give me $500 bucks for if I wanted to trade it in. I am, therefore, stuck with replacing the engine. I will hope that with a new engine they will give me at least $6,000 for it and I will take the loss so that I can trade in for a new car. This car has drained our savings and really hurt my work because Ive been stranded numerous times on the side of the road because he stopped accelerating (also a problem we could not find "why"). Even with winter tires, the car is so light is has swung out in the rear on the highway going 40 mph in the winter blocking the highway. I feel safer in our "beater" car which is a 2001 Jetta. Horrible car.

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  Wasted money when fuel system keeps failing - 2012 Hyundai Genesis
  By Ken Payne - October 18 - 10:26 pm

  Car looks & feels great until it stalls at the intersection, or sputters when accrlerating between 20 & 40mph after the repair. Hyundai doesnt seem too interested in repairing performance issues. Their solution is to keep having the customer purchase expensive fuel parts to guess a fix.

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  10 years on the road, still like new. - 2006 Hyundai Sonata
  By Amkor - October 12 - 6:58 pm

  Bought this car new 10 years ago, when Hyundai still had a shady reputation... But I fell in love with the design, and took a chance.... This model of the Sonata was the FIRST really quality car coming from Hyundai, and it turned things around... Though I have only 55k on the odometer, the car rides like new, smooth, quiet, adequately powerful, stable, relaible, no problem. We have owned Accords as well, and I must admit there isnt much difference in built quality (but huge difference in price).... This is a good car.

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  Not good - 2013 Hyundai Elantra
  By Percy - October 12 - 1:30 pm

  Steering wheel has to be replace, tires developed a bump on the side, now engine it is leaking oil.

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  The worst car I owned and the most expensive one - 2013 Hyundai Elantra
  By Bruce Para - October 11 - 5:37 pm

  The 2012 and 2013 Elantras will apparently always be able to write they get up to 38 MPH. They did lie to the EPA and over-inflated mileage. Thats fact. Hyundai (corp.) told me the old stickers (Monroney) shouldve been replaced on cars reflecting actual and lower mileage. That never happened I understand, however, from Edmunds that this slight of hands (my phrase) is quite okay. But I bought a car that "got" up to 38 MPH and no trip has come close. Problem 1. Under 500 miles had a hardware problem to my overpaid and larger GPS. It took time and effort to get that corrected and I read a review elsewhere when one person gave up on the GPS. Im back at my own dealer. I have well under 9k miles on my car and three things needed to be fixed. The dealer may have been somewhat confused but at least they agreed to correct it. The issue, however, is an old one. Bring it in. They see what the issues are. They order the parts or not. I bring it in and they got the wrong part and did little to nothing with my car. Do they care? Doesnt seem like it. I like the dealership at this time. I loathed them when I bought it and when we buy another, it will not be a Hyundai. But I held my breath. Maybe they improved. It appeared that way. The service dept. dont have to drive it back in three+ times to get things fixed that shouldve been done ONCE. It feels like the old days with the old very bad dealers and cars. The good news is I am dissuading friends from going to Hyundai. Its working so far.

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  My Little Hootie Hyundai - 1999 Hyundai Elantra
  By Luna Reneé - October 11 - 12:43 am

  I got my 1999 Hyundai Elantra with 52,000 miles (and some change) on it and I have NEVER had a problem with it. I got it almost 2 years ago and I plan on running it until it wont run anymore! It has fantastic handling in the snow (front wheel drive) and great gas mileage. It was a great graduation gift from my grandmother and I recommend it for anyone. Its such a reliable car and Im so glad that it was (and still is) my first car!

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  Finest Car we ever owned!!!!!! But un-reliable!! - 2011 Hyundai Equus
  By John Chavanne - October 10 - 5:49 pm

  This review is for our 2011 Equus. Prior to this we owned 4 Lexus LS sedans (1990,1996,2001,2005). The car is by far smoother and more comfortable and outperforms anything we have ever had. But------------At least 6 ot 8 times we have been faced with a dead battery. Why??? I think two possible reasons. When entering or exiting the car it is very easy to accidently touch the "Trunk Release" button. The trunk lid does not open, just moves up perhaps a 1/4" or so. So unless you grasp the trunk and try to open it and/or slam it you never realize this has happened. Trunk light comes on and a few days later---dead car!!!! Not sure about the latest model but some Hyundais (new Sonata and Genesis) when the button is pushed, open the lid all the way---obvious!! So two fixes--1- Retrofit to raise the lid completely or at least several inches and 2- Install what many competitors have which is a timer that automatically shuts down any accessories/lights that are accidentally left on!! Our dealer and we presume Hyundai refuse to consider this fix and instead are prepared to remove the trunk light!!!! Another contributing factor seems to be that if car is not driven for a couple of weeks the existing systems seem to run the battery down. I installed a trickle charger but the dealer removed it. Sadly, the dealer and Hyundai have spent more in service calls and battery replacements than they would have to do a fix to the problems! At this point we may be looking for a lesser car but one that is reliable!! It would be wonderful if someone at Hyundai or our dealer who is able to make decisions would contact us. Meanwhile the car is gone for at least 3-4 days----again!!!!!!!!!!!