<p>You’ve been so helpful with my car quest and I think I’ve shelved the idea of the Accord CrossTour for now. I have a feeling its not going to be around that long. So sporty, affordable, regular gas, reasonable maintenance charges and not LOW to the ground (sciatica acting up…sound like an old granny@!)…had some hilarious exchanges with some of these car salesman…I think my fave was yesterday at the preowned Mercedes dealer who, when asked about seat height said, “Here, its adjustable, see?” and popped me up so my head was sticking out through the moonroof! I don’t think driving with my head there would work so well! So I tried the Hyundai Sonata and liked it quite a bit.Seems to fit all the criteria. Forums say there’s some issue with left pull in quite a few of their '11 models, though. The Elantra is less $$ but he says he can’t keep them in stock and didn’t have one to show me. Said that people are putting $$ down sight unseen. I think they come fully loaded for under 20K. Any feedback? My husband looked leery when I mentionned Hyundai.</p>
<p>We love our 4 year old Sonata. We will likely give it to D when she graduates this year, and already plan to replace it with another. Good luck!</p>
<p>Good to hear. The 2011 apparently got a safety rating of five star which they were very excited about. I liked the trunk space in it, too. There were blind spots in the back, though. I guess that style is going to have that.</p>
<p>The Hyundais are good value for the money. One coworker that has one has some regret on buying one as it doesn’t have the level of luxury feel that she was expecting. She already has a Lexus and high-end Toyota and spending less on a Hyundai was a bit of a letdown after they had had it for a while.</p>
<p>I could see what she means, BC. I drive a 10 year old Lexus RX300 now and its just perfect, BUT the gas and maintenance costs to keep it perfect are getting ridiculous. The labor charges at Lexus are so high, and every time I drop it off I get a call around lunchtime with, “Um, the blah blah is about to blow…yea, it’ll be about $500.00”. I’m over that for good.</p>
<p>D drove an Elantra ( basic model) until a few months back. A 2003 or 4 I think.Was used when purchased in 2006. Took it cross country and back numerous times. Great mileage, very reliable but was getting up there in mileage and then her father (long story) ran up on a curb with it and the repair bills were going to be more than the book value of the car. She switched to a brand new Honda Fit (picked for low cost and gas effeciency). Her dream car would be a hybrid but they were out of her price range.</p>
<p>I actually looked at the Hyundai Santa Fe as it was the perfect sized SUV to me. My mechanic said the Hyundai’s repair record has gone way up in the past few years and he has been impressed with the brand. That said, he said you are still hit or miss on getting a good car or a bad car; he is seeing quality control on the line not being what it should be.</p>
<p>My friend that bought one had to have the transmission replaced at under 1,000 miles - fixed under warranty but you have to wonder.</p>
<p>I have a 2007 Elantra and a 2009 Camry. I love, love, love the Elantra. Love everything about it. It’s reliable, gets great mileage, yada yada. What I really love about it is that it’s the perfect fit for me. I’m a VERY small woman (slightly less than 5’ tall and just over 100 pounds) and I can put the seat up high enough to see without being so forward that it’s dangerous with the airbags. The mirrors adapt to my freakish size better than any car that I’ve ever driven. It has a very comfortable ride, the defrosters work much more quickly than the Toyota. My husband is less enamored of the Elantra for the size reason, but he swears that the next car he gets will be a larger Hyundai. We’ve never had to replace anything except windshield wipers, but the car doesn’t get a lot of major use.</p>
<p>We bought each kid an Elantra. Great so far.</p>
<p>2011 Sonatas and Elantras are both good bets (not to mention beautiful cars)</p>
<p>We have always been happy with all of our Toyota vehicles. H did not think highly of Hyundai till D was looking for a used car. D bought a used Sonata. Think it is an 06 or 07. For the money it is a great car. She was able to buy a car with low miles for a good price. The Honda and toyota cars she looked at were much more expensive with tons more miles. They drove that sonata back and forth from the midwest to Ca without any problems. My H is would now look at a Hyundai. He was impressed.</p>
<p>I don’t think the Hyundais of today are similar in quality to the Hyundais of 15 years ago. The ones today, by all reports and objective measures, are quite good in reliability and quality.</p>
<p>Anecdotally - A family member has a 2005 Hyundai Tucson purchased new. It hasn’t had a single thing go wrong with it. </p>
<p>I would feel perfectly comfortable buying a Hyundai. They’re very good value and have the best warranty out there. Some of the Hyundais are even built in the USA. Between the SUVs, the Tucson, Santa fe, and Veracruz, they have a pretty good selection of size and fuel economy to meet the needs of many people. They also now offer things like leather, navigation, higher end sound systems, and most of the rest of the bells and whistles many people want nowadays.</p>
<p>I have a 2010 Hyundai Elantra which I bought for all of $13,000 (new.) Stick, air, decent sound, power everything, gets well over 30 mpg and has this amazing 10 year warranty. It’s really a pretty amazing car at an amazing price. My only gripe is that it doesn’t do well going uphill at an elevation of 10,000 feet & higher (I live in Colorado.) But at that price, it’s something I can live with ;)</p>
<p>This is sounding better and better!!</p>
<p>D drives a 2001 Sonata that she bought used in 03. She loves, loves, loves her car and plans to buy another when she decides to replace that one.</p>
<p>we own an 06 sonata and an 07 azera. Great buys on both. The azera has nice upscale features and was bought to replace a toyota avalon. H happily fits four golfbags in is trunk and four large men comfortably in the car. People always ask him what he is driving as it looks awesome. I like it quite a bit.</p>
<p>The 2011 sonata is a hot looking car with great mileage and very safe.</p>
<p>To keep the warranty good you have to get a 4 yr check up which honestly was about $400 bucks for each car. Just be ready for that and you will be okay.</p>
<p>In our city we have an upscale auto company. They sell BMW, Range Rover, Jaguar, Audi, Porshe and Mercedes. They recently added Hyundai to their lineup. I have a feeling I am going to be seeing a lot more Hyundai’s around town.</p>
<p>I just bought a 2011 Elantra. It arrives tomorrow (there were no silver ones anywhere in our state so the dealer is getting one from another state). I am excited to get it. We are off this weekend on a trip to visit our son who lives 1400 miles away so I am really hoping the mileage is as good as advertised. We test drove the Honda Fit and civic but they were just a little too small for us. the Elantra is small but enough larger that it was more comfortable for us. And it ended up costing less than the best price I’d found on a Fit. And supposedly the highway mpg is 40.</p>
<p>I was tempted by the Sonata for the extra size (my current car is a large car) but resisted looking as one of the reasons for buying a new car is to get really good mileage as I do a 100 mile drive every day (though the sonata mileage is pretty good). I was also very tempted by a new 2010 Elantra. Good price and they had a couple of really good rebates on the 2010 (one for $1000 and one for $1500 if you did their financing - the manager said it was worth doing financing to get the rebate and then paying it off if you wanted to). </p>
<p>FYI We had two very different Hyundai dealer experiences. One was one of the worst car buying experiences I have had (well non buying in this case). When we started talking price they presented us with an offer $2000 more than the window sticker price. I about had an exorcist head spinning episode. When I asked what the heck this price was they gave us some claptrap about added dealer things and didn’t we see the additional dealer sticker on the car, oh wait it wasn’t on the car you drove but it’s on the floor model. Told them the $2000 was out of the question and when he went off to do the “talk to the manager dance” I went to look at the sticker and sure enough $299 nitrogen in the tires, $299 scotchguarding the seats. $845 market something (I think it was a this car is hard to keep on the lot so we are trying to screw another random fee out of you and can’t be bothered to think up some other crappy reason for it fee), plus several hundred in other crap I can’t even remember. They knocked the $2000 off and acted like it was a deal, but not for long when they saw our faces. They kept coming down in price and eventually came quite a bit below MSRP and might have had a sale but I was just so annoyed by the casual attempt to up the price I did not want to buy from them. Wasn’t fond of the congratulations it’s a boy pastel blue color anyway. My husband was about to bust a gut laughing because I was so incensed (I’m usually pretty calm).</p>
<p>Left them and called the other dealer that we had talked to earlier. They only had the black limited which we did not want. Polar opposite attitude. Searched for and found the color and style we wanted. Gave us a good deal. We told them whatever price we agreed on was it - no added fees of any sort. They weren’t sure if they could get the car in time for our trip so said we could borrow a 2010 fleet sonata. (turns out our car will be in, I was actually looking forward to trying out the sonata). I will let you know in a week how we find it on our long drive.</p>
<p>My brother in law is an amazing car mechanic…the kind of guy you can call with an odd sound, symptom and he can diagnose and troubleshoot over the phone. Also , he is in Sweden , so this comes in very handy to us. He LOVES Hyundai all around , far more so than Volvos and Saabs</p>