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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  First one and Love it! - 2003 Hyundai Elantra
  By was266 - February 28 - 10:00 am

  Was unsure at first about the Hyundai line for when they hit the US shores in the 80s they were "junk" But,after alot of research and asking Hyundai owners i went for it and am very glad i did pretty much i am driving a Saab 900s for half the price! It has run FLAWLESSLY in the past year,I have never gotten below 30MPG and so far am very impressed with it!

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  dollarvalue - 2003 Hyundai Elantra
  By Blacky - February 28 - 10:00 am

  This car is a delight to drive responsive and the steering is instant The features installed are equil to any of the expensive cars on the market also the gas consumption is very good on the hwy and in town.

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  3rd Hyundai - 2011 Hyundai Sonata
  By tcy1 - February 28 - 7:33 am

  I have had my car for 4 weeks and have logged over 2500 miles. The first thing to all of you with the pull to the left,It can be corrected by moving the frame. Mine is now fixed and runs as straight as an arrow. Anyhow this car is freakin awesome. The turbo is quick,smooth,and great on gas and this a truly great thing at $3.39 a gallon. The bluetooth is the best invention since sliced bread! XM standard! Who would have thought you could have so much for so little. This is our third Hyundai and wont be our last.

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  Nice car! - 2012 Hyundai Sonata
  By willyut - February 27 - 2:48 am

  Was in the market for a fuel economical car and saw this little beauty sitting at the Chevy dealer. Traded in my 1996 gas guzzler Suburban for it. Wasnt sure about the brand Hyundai at first...so far Im impressed. The car is really sporty for a sedan and just has this clean & crisp feeling to it. It has plenty of gadgets to play with: blue-tooth, blue-link, radio with USB stick plugin, LCD display, etc. The automatic shifting in this car is a little weird but I think thats because its a 4 banger and it tries to keep you in lower gears so you have power. As for the power this thing GETS UP AND GOES! I thought getting on the highway was going to be a joke...I easily zoom past others!

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  Hyundai owner - 2007 Hyundai Sonata
  By hyundaiowner - February 26 - 7:30 pm

  I find the car fun to drive

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  Best car for the money - 2006 Hyundai Azera
  By dan - February 26 - 1:43 am

  Great looking car, plenty of power, sleek interior, nice lines, cheap price, nice extras, and love the heated seats

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  Really Good Car! - 2001 Hyundai Tiburon
  By Sally - February 24 - 7:56 pm

  Ive never had a moments trouble with my "sports car". This car is great to drive, and as far as the noise quotient - its a sports car! If you want an uber-quiet drive, buy your grandpas car. If you want a reliable, fun, good performing, and great gas mileage car, complete with loads of compliments, buy this car!!!

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  Nice quiet & smooth ride. - 2016 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid
  By Bing - February 23 - 8:17 pm

  I love the looks & body lines of this car. I have received many compliments. The limited with ultimate package offers many features that would cost thousands more from other manufactures. Mileage as been from 40 mpg to 46 mpg depending on how I drive and what gas I use. Lower octane gas with ethanol gets lower gas mileage. The vehicle is very quiet, smooth, comfortable, ride. My 40 minute commute is much more comfortable in the Sonata then in my previous 2012 Toyota Prius 4. There is a lot more room. The audio, phone, & GPS controls work well although they dont always work flawlessly with my I-phone 5. I dont always like how the car shifts. At times it shifts awkwardly in the 2nd & 3rd gears. I dont regret this purchase.

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  Much like the cla-250 except done right - 2015 Hyundai Sonata
  By Steve - February 22 - 1:21 pm

  There is a lot to like about this car. The ECO borrows a lot from the Mercedes CLA 250 which I also own. E.g. the trunk lid design is almost the same. I could trade in my benz for the ECO sonata,and probably not miss a thing. Pros: well designed, well executed car, a lot of common sense and standard options. 8 way automatic driver seat, quiet drive. A lot of torque, available all the way from 1500 rpm to 5K RPM. Same torque and torque curve as the CLA. (198 foot pounds) . Good fuel economy, takes regular gas. The standard tires are Michelin Energys now. Dual, scroll turbos, so no noticeable turbo lag. Smooth and fast shifting 7 speed dual clutch auto tranny. Again, similar to the cla 250, except the Hyundai is faster and smoother shifting. Nice standard telematics package with excellent iphone and android integration. Cons: The turbo is not covered untder the 100K powertrain warranty. This may be a reason for folks who want to keep the car post the b2b warranty to stick with the 2.4L engine ( ie the non-eco sonata). If the turbo goes, and you are out of warranty, it is an expensive repair. The car perhaps a tiny bit underpowered. No spare tire. More frequent oil changes needed (5k vs 7.5K). The turbo engine is more finicky than the 2.4 inline 4 engine, so fully synthetic oil is highly recommended. I wish the BSD side mirror was standard on the ECO. The lumbar support is not hgt adjustable. Service wise, Hyundai is trying to take a page from Mercedes, and bundle a long list of "check this and inspect that" with the oil changes, and charge you a ton of money. Mercedes has alternating A and B services, costing $200 and $400. (Effectively a glorified oil change. Looking at the service printout for the A service, they do not even bother to pretend they did anything other than changing the oil and the filter). Hyundai is trying to get you to have your service done at the dealer, and charge similar jacked up fees by bundling a long list of super-overpriced checks and inspections. They are trying to make it sound like they are doing all this work, to justify charging you a couple of 100 $ for an oil change. E.g.: they will change your wiper blades for 3x what it would cost you to do it yourself. If you buy into the concept, you can get some discount off their insanely priced maintenance. They have a service leaflet, you may want to peruse while you are at the dealer. I do all my own maintenance, following the users manual recommended service intervals and items, keeping detailed logs, and receipts. Do not be intimidated by a salesperson telling you that they will not honor the warranty unless you opt into their maintenance racket. By law they cannot force you to do your maintenance there. Update: I had a failed battery at 5K. The dealer service was total amateur hour. They admitted the battery was bad as they could see it draining down to nothing in 24 hours with no load on it. But they insisted the battery was fine, as their tester did not show a problem. Kept looking for a parasitic drain, despite of the fact that there was not one when monitoring the 2 battery terminals. They kept the car for a week, and wanted to give it back unfixed (no loaner) but ended up replacing the battery in the end after I yelled at them. 2 things I dislike about the car: the jack point markers can not be seen unless you neel down and bend way down to look for them. When need to change tires in the rain this is needlessly painful. It is hard to get at the drain plug and oil filter. Have to remove a panel with a bunch of bolts to get at them.

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  So Far So Great! - 2004 Hyundai Tiburon
  By Kunzi - February 22 - 10:00 am

  All around great car! I took a long time deciding what car to get. I looked at the Mini Cooper S, and the Acura RSX type-S, neither of which do I have bad things to say about. Just afraid the Cooper novelty would wear off, and didnt like paying extra for a spoiler and fog lights on the Acura. All of which led me to check out the Tiburon. So much car for significantly less money than the others. True, Hyundai doesnt have the same "Cachet" of the other nameplates, but I got what in reality is an equivalent car and kept more "Cash-A" in my pocket!