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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  deadly accelarating delay from a rolling stop - 2012 Hyundai Genesis
  By phunywun - March 4 - 1:59 am

  I have the 6 cyl sedan and the deadly delay from when you hit the gas pedal till the car moves is about 1-2 seconds from a rolling stop. Thats long enough to get someone killed not to mention every time you go over a speed bump and hit the gas it takes a whole second or two before the car moves. Thats not positive reaction by any means. Its deadly when you are trying to turn across traffic. Love the car otherwise but will not get another one if this issue isnt fixed. I guess there is no throttle cable and its an electronic accelarater for the deadly delay I gave it a 2 for reliability because the ac compressor stopped working at 3000 miles and it took them a week to fix it

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  Nice car , BUT... - 2011 Hyundai Genesis
  By balddog - February 26 - 4:41 pm

  Have owned 3 years now, 16,500 miles. Its a shame, as I really like the comfort, and value of this car, BUT ... I have had to have car jump started 6 times in 3 years. Hyundai claims that I dont drive the car enough to keep battery charged. I work part-time (1 day/week) and car may sit 2 - 3 days between use (average 100 mi/week). Was told that if car sits for a week (say at airport when on vacation) expect that battery will have discharged and need a jump. Dont see Mercedes, BMW or Lexus with this problem. Also, ride is a little stiff for my tastes.

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  Very good car... Except.... - 2013 Hyundai Elantra
  By 1ply - February 22 - 8:44 pm

  Ive owned this car for almost 7 months so far. At 16K miles the brakes started to make a strange noise, I thought that it must be due to the extreme cold temperatures weve been having. NOPE, at 17k miles Im being told that my brakes need service, and guess what its out of pocket! Never mind that this car is driven 80% highway with limited use of brakes (no heavy traffic). Dealer treats this as NORMAL. Ive had a mazda3 which only needed brakes every 60Kmiles. At this rate Ill be changing brakes every 8 months! Very poor design Hyundai. You may have just lost a(nother) customer.

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  Not a bad vehicle... Just nothing special... - 2007 Hyundai Sonata
  By meathead212121 - February 22 - 4:49 pm

  Purchased this vehicle used with just under 35k miles on it about 2.5 years ago and have put about 25k miles on it since purchase. The car is decently loaded... not as well as others but enough to keep the average person happy. with everything designed to be functional more than luxurious... basically theyre meant to go for the longhaul and/or help you not freak out as much do to the cost of the car. The Platinum model I bought has plenty in it and isnt exciting (not my style) but I will say if proper maintenance is done it that it can be EXTREMELY reliable. I cant justify trading it because Ive had no issues with it and for that Im keeping it.

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  Great car - 2013 Hyundai Elantra
  By mosin1942 - February 21 - 12:21 pm

  This was my first foreign car and I am very pleased with it so far. Bought it new in Oct. 2013. The gas mileage has been outstanding. On a trip to Denver from Longmont and back which took 96 miles the computer said we averaged 46 mpg. On average we are getting approx. 33 to 35 mpg.

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  So far, so good. - 2012 Hyundai Elantra
  By topperman - February 17 - 4:34 pm

  I bought this Elantra over 2 years ago and have about 47k miles on it now. I have not experienced any of the mechanical or noise problems described in other reviews. The original tires were bad (noisy) and I replaced them after 40K. As far as gas mileage, I have found that there is a huge discrepancy in mileage depending on many factors: speed, outside temperature, wind, vehicle load. and terrain. I have found that headwinds or sidewinds will affect mpg up to 5 or 6. I probably average 35 mpg hwy and 28-30 city. Under optimum conditions I have consistently achieved 36-38 hwy. Would I buy another Hyundai? Maybe. Next time Ill go into something a little bigger. I am over 6.

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  Best car I have owned - 1997 Hyundai Accent
  By ataylor13 - February 15 - 4:28 am

  I actually got this car from a friend due to my honda breaking down and I needed a car for school and work. It was completely not my style in a car, I would have never been interested in purchasing it before. BUT THEN I realized how amazing this car was after 6 months of owning it and not one problem/issue. Amazing on gas, never had to fix a thing in the car, the most reliable car I have ever owned. Even at 260,000 miles it commuted me 100 miles a day for over 6 months with NO ISSUES.

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  Disappointing in the end - 2013 Hyundai Elantra
  By bast2112 - February 10 - 12:05 pm

  When researching which new car to purchase, the deciding factors in the end were that I had an Elantra for 12 years and it was very reliable, and I wanted a car with decent gas mileage. So far its been reliable, though a few small things have failed already. But the gas mileage is just plain terrible. If I had known, I would have gotten the car I really wanted that had weaker gas mileage instead!

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  Elegant Elantra for featherfooters - 2013 Hyundai Elantra
  By litesong2 - January 27 - 11:55 pm

  Worst feature, youll have to dump 3 gears before you finally get Elantra to go. Poor rear suspension. Beware of potholes, & rear wheel skip! Comfortable, less so with lots of weight. Elantra is the best looking car in 20 years, inside & out! Using ethanol-free gasoline & careful driving, accurately AVERAGED 39+mpg (high-43mpg), May thru early December, Seattle weather. Presently, with cold & winter blend gasoline, its dropped to 38mpg. Should still be above my hoped for 35-36mpg after the first year. Elantra has lots of road & tire noise, but very quiet on "experimental quiet pavement". Widest rear seat shoulder width of any car getting nearly 40mpg. 100%, no problems.

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  Takes my beatings, and keeps on ticking! - 2002 Hyundai Elantra
  By washadair - January 25 - 3:44 am

  Bought new, and never babied! It gets neglected and abused! So the fact that its still going strong, with nearly 230,000 miles on it, and hasnt needed any major repairs, is AMAZING! Oil changes done when I get around to it, often after 10-15k miles. Never brought it in for scheduled maintenance, but did get a complete Tune-Up once or twice. Original clutch lasted for over 200k miles! The radiator and thermostat were replaced the year prior. A few things have worn out, or about to: Drivers door wont lock (bad relay switch) making key fobs useless the motor for the drivers power window is slowly dying cant change time on clock high-beams turn on randomly when using the turn signal.