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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  Update - 2009 Hyundai Azera
  By Steve P. - July 20 - 11:26 am

  Just a quick update since my post of 06-01-2008. I am still happy with my decision. I have since had the chance to take the car on a thousand mile trip. The car rode very well and my MPG was 26 @ about 80 to 85 miles per hour. So thus far the car has worked as advertised, I am very pleased.

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  You get what you pay for - 2006 Hyundai Sonata
  By Steve - July 19 - 11:12 pm

  My wife and I have been driving her Honda Accord since 1998, so when I bought my Sonata in March 08 used w/ 18k miles for just over $15k, I was holding my breath a little that I wasnt getting sucked in" to the hype. Four months and 4000 miles later, welllll???? Maybe a tad. This car has amazing power, great interior and exterior looks. Build quality doesnt come close to Honda, though. I guess its true. You get what you pay for. The paint job is maybe the worst Ive seen on any car..theres a big money saving area for Hyundai. Also, sheet metal is thin. I even have a little metal bubble on the drivers floorboard that "pops" when I push off to get out of the car. 20mpg city/30 pure hwy.

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  A Good Little Car - 2008 Hyundai Accent
  By Ashrat - July 18 - 9:46 pm

  My car does not have the XM radio option so I added a Sirius radio to it. I also added cruise control (for $400). In my opinion ALL vehicles should come with air conditioning, cruise and Sirius radio. With the addition of the cruise control, this little car has become our daily driver. My wife has parked her 15-16 mpg F150 and started driving the Accent. We get around 30mpg in combined driving and this car can do 90% of the tasks we need to do when driving. It definitely wont tow my car trailer or haul off a bunch of branches, but it does most everything else just fine. I have the basic white car and added a set of red racing stripes down the side (ala Mustang GT) and it looks great.

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  Canadian Driver - 2007 Hyundai Sonata
  By Canadian Driver - July 18 - 2:23 pm

  Overall - a great car! My last car was a Mercedes E320, so a hard act to follow. I like, styling, power, handling, control in snow & ice, large cabin, quality of construction and trunk space. Mileage could be better but I like to use the power. Trivial irritation - plastic interior door handles.

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  Hit and Miss but still a great value - 2007 Hyundai Azera
  By campoly - July 16 - 11:30 am

  Some love the suspension-some hate it. Im one of the latter. The suspension was good for the first 3-5K then started to feel wore out. Hyundai replaced the shocks and it felt good for another 5K but now back to feeling wore out. Hyundai issued a TSB knowing that the shock were crap but the replacement shocks are still crap. The suspension is noisy and the car wallows and bounces over less than perfect pavement-makes for an annoying ride. Hyundai USA CEO was quoted as saying the Azeras suspension was designed with the Korean market in mind. They should have researched US drivers preferences before marketing in US. This car has a lot going for it but the suspension is not one of them IMHO.

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  So far so good - 2008 Hyundai Santa Fe
  By starsky - July 15 - 9:13 pm

  The car has a little over 10000 miles on it since bought new in january. The wife gets 22.5 MPG mixed city and highway driving. I get around 26 MPG driving it highway to work. A recent leak in the power steering is being addressed by the dealer. The rack is being replaced and the dealer provided a loaner car over the Labor day Holiday. We have been treated very well by everyone since the car purchase.

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  Well see how it goes from here - 2009 Hyundai Sonata
  By Ozzie - July 15 - 5:06 am

  Bought it after reading a lot of reviews and test drives on Memorial weekend. I knew that many people are complaining about suspension noise and cracking noise from dashboard due to temperature fluctuation. But the price was unbeatable, I have option package 2 and I paid almost 6K less than Accord LX. I put only a few hundred miles, so far I no problems other than cracking noise coming from the dashboard when I turn on A/C.

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  Sub-Frame Rust - 1999 Hyundai Sonata
  By Jeff Monroe - July 15 - 12:25 am

  I was surprised to see the review by leon written 1/15/2008. I have just experienced the exact same failure on my Hyundais front passenger side wheel collapsing. My local dealership also refused to repair my sub-frame rusting under warranty. This seems to be a wide-spread problem. And I too believe this should be repaired under their 10 yr bumper-bumper warranty. The Sonata is a fun, sleek and enjoyable car, but Hyundai often waffles on their warranty coverage which was one of the major selling points that impacted my purchasing decision. .

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  2013 Hyundai Santa Fe - 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe
  By yooperbill - July 14 - 11:41 pm

  I very much like everything about the car except the steering.

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  the honest truth - 2006 Hyundai Elantra
  By susan erlich - July 13 - 9:59 pm

  I am a third time Hyundai owner. I started in the 80s when they first came out and I have been buying them ever since. I have to admit that I noticed the difference between this car that I own and the other two that I owned. I presently have 2006 elantra, and am looking into purchasing a 2008. I love these cars. There reliability is superb and I encourage everyone that I know, family and friends to buy a Hyundai. They are great cars and they have come a mighty long way!