<p>I’m a repeat Toyota driver, but I’ll probably get a Hyundai next time around.</p>
<p>Add me to the Hyundai fan club I have 2007 Veracruz, husband went from a 2002 toyota camray he loved to the Sonata 2009 and loves just as much ($15000 OTD what a deal),Since then several of my close neighbors have bought Hyundai’s several Sonata’s and another Veracruz. They are very good values and warranties and the economy and Toyota’s troubles really gave the company a chance to compete with the big boys. Consumer’s Reports also gave almost all their lines a recommended rating.</p>
<p>Have an '09 Sonata. For me a car is strictly to get me from A to B and not to make a fashion statement or provide a driving experience, and this car serves me well. I can’t speak for the '11 warranties, but I believe Hyundais had a better warranty then than comparable cars. DW is a bit leery of it from an image standpoint - felt it was OK for the kids but not for us.</p>
<p>Another vote for Hyundai here. Four years ago I got one as a long-term rental. I was impressed. Then my friend, a longtime Accord owner, bought a Sonata. It’s been excellent. Good luck with your decision!~</p>
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Keep in mind that mileage usually gets better after a car has a few thousand miles when things loosen up a bit in the engine and drivetrain. If you measure the mileage on this trip just understand that it’ll likely be even higher than that by your next trip.</p>
<p>We have a 2010 Elantra. The gas milage is incredible. I often forget when it was that I last got gas. It is not, in my opinion, a luxery car. It is basic and drives well. And, seriously, so nice to pay for compared to others we have had in the past. We would do it again.
Be sure and go on to the website of any car you are thinking of and see what their “deals, specials” are. The salesperson will not necessarily tell you. Also, we purchased our last 2 cars through internet. MUCH better prices and all the arguing is done online or the phone. I was down to a difference of $200 on the Hyundai and the closest dealer dissed the other by coming in $500 lower. sweet. Will never buy any other way. I think, not sure, that our best website was carsdirect.com.</p>
<p>bceagle- We had to replace the transmission in our 2005 Honda Odyssey at 3,000 miles. It was a design defect for which a recall was being issued. It was also repaired under warranty and with amazing service and the car now has 189,000 on it with no further issues. </p>
<p>Our mechanic loves Hyundais, and it will definitely be tops on our list for one of our next cars. The warranty can’t be beat.</p>
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That’s good to know, thanks. I will be happy with anything in the 30s and thrilled with anything approaching 40.</p>
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True. But it is pretty nicely designed for the price point. My current car was considerably more expensive even 11 years ago - in today’s dollars it would probably be almost twice the price. The Elantra doesn’t read as a really base model but somewhere in between (and we did not get the limited with the leather seats and sunroof etc - didn’t want to pay the couple of extra thousand dollars).</p>
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I tried doing that this time round. I got some excellent offers from Honda on the Fit before realizing it was not what I wanted. I did not get any offers on the Elantra - it was always just a list of the sticker prices. The bad dealer experience I mentioned above had the most persistent and seemingly helpful internet person - but the price they sent me was the manufacturer dealer and did not reflect the heavily marked up dealer price they tried to offer us. </p>
<p>I probably could have got a better price than we ended up with if we hadn’t decided fairly late that we wanted to do this now before our upcoming $3000 mile round trip. But the gas savings on the trip compared to driving my Husbands 1 ton diesel that gets about 12-15 mpg will probably offset that.</p>
<p>We love Hyundai too! Our first experience with them was an 04 Accent, bought new for older D, very happy experience, extremely reliable car, good gas mileage, easy to service. Based on that experience, we bought an 05 Tucson (new), replacing an ancient Jeep Grand Cherokee. It’s still going strong at 85K. We had the opportunity to test the warranty claims when we needed a new engine at 60K – absolutely no quibbles, simple process and easy paperwork (and we now basically have a car with only 25K on the engine) H hit a deer last year resulting in considerable body work, repairs were well done. I think this car is indestructable. Third Hyundai came into the family when D got married and traded in her Accent for an 09 Santa Fe to accommodate her 6’4" husband. They too have had a great experience. We have also found our local Hyundai dealerships to be responsive, fair and provide good service.</p>
<p>Another vote for Hyundai. We’ve owned 2. Never had a single repair. Can’t say that about the Honda and Acura we had in the family.</p>
<p>I am so glad to hear lots of positive reviews for Hyundai’s from such intelligent group of people that I see on this forum. I was born in Korea during the Korean war and am happy to see how Korean economy has exploded since I came to the U.S. 30 plus years ago. Korea was poorer than Philippines when I was growing up.</p>
<p>Despite the successes of Hyundai, Samsung, LG, etc., I still see some uninformed people thinking Korea as a third World country (as they see on the M.A.S.H. reruns). I also remember hearing jokes by Jay Leno about Hyundai’s years ago. I wonder if he still does such jokes because I do not watch his show anymore.</p>
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<p>Part of Korea is a relatively wealthy country while the other part is a very poor country.</p>
<p>Hyundai cars were jokes not that long ago. But the improvements since then have been huge so that Hyundai cars now compete with the best.</p>
<p>Mid-eighties Hyundai’s didn’t stand up well here in the Northeast, and you NEVER see them on the roads today. But that was twenty-five years ago. Hyundai has come a long way since then.</p>
<p>I remember seeing a Honda car when they first arrived in the USA and it was a joke. When I put my arm out the window, with finger pressure in my hand I could ‘oil-can’ the roof of the car. It had a tiny gear shifter on the dash. It was cheap, tinny, would provide no protection in a crash, etc. Many of the earlier Japanese cars had major problems with the poor quality of the materials and especially the paint. Fast forward some years though and their focus on improving quality paid off.</p>
<p>The same is true for Hyundai. They recognized some years ago that they needed to follow the Japanese model of providing a high quality, reliable car rather than just a cheap car if they wanted to succeed in the USA and elsewhere. They embarked on a (successful) program to improve it in a major way and backed it with the best warranty around that I’m sure they’d like to not lose money on (as happened to Ford/GM/etc. when they tried longer warranties but were then stuck with expensive costs in repairing the vehicles). It looks like it’s paying off well for them. They’re growing at a fast rate so I hope they can maintain the quality since and don’t end up with some of the quality issues Toyota admittedly ran into due in part to their growth.</p>
<p>However -
‘orchestramom’ - what was the problem with the engine in the Tucson?</p>
<p>I bought my 2003 Santa Fe new and it has been a great vehicle. Other than normal upkeep I’ve only had to replace the O2 sensors and an air conditioning hose. It’s taken us on several long distance vacations as well as driven over a large portion of our state and the neighboring state for athletic events.</p>
<p>Just drove my Elantra home. Loving it so far. Slightly rougher ride than my old car (it was a big boat) but this was half the price. According to the MPG thingy on the car I was averaging in the 30-34 mpg range - don’t know how accurate those are. After I fill up I plan to keep a little notebook in the car and track my mileage.</p>
<p>I did not think I had a telescoping steering wheel (the dealer did not think so either). Been playing with the manual and discovered I do - I am excited - I have long legs and always find that when my legs are comfortable my arms are not. Having that extra length on the steering wheel should make it more comfortable (I did not discover it till I got home so have not tried it out yet). Has the whole 3 month free trial satellite radio thing - never had any interest in that but it has some great stations. Nice to have something other than country music. I could get spoiled here.</p>
<p>So far I am very pleased. The 3000 miles we are about to put on it should be a good test.</p>
<p>^^^ about the Tucson engine: I am an idiot about mechanical things so cannot remember/explain exactly what the problem was. One day the car was fine, then we’re driving on on NYS Thruway and it kind of just protested and collapsed (at mileage just shy of 60K). </p>
<p>Thing is, the dealership was very direct and matter-of-fact, no attempt to downplay it or minimize it or wiggle out of the warranty; they basically said “this shouldn’t have happened, must have been a bad engine, we need to give you a new one” and then did it. No mountain of paperwork, no stonewalling, no pushback from Hyundai corporate, plus followup letters of apology for our inconvenience from both the dealership AND corporate. We were favorably impressed by their handling of the situation.</p>
<p>I own an 08 Sonata Limited and have been very happy with it. The only downside I’ve experienced is that the dealership does not provide a loaner car when there is a multi-day warranty repair.</p>
<p>That seems to be a dealership thing. The dealer we just purchased from does provide a loaner if the car was purchased from them. But we did ask if that was a Hyundai policy and would apply if we moved and went to another dealer and they said no, it was just their policy.</p>
<p>FYI for Hyundai owners out there - I don’t know if it was just because we bought a new car but they had a package deal where you could prepay for 6 oil changes for $89 which is a deal. I currently do enough miles that I will be changing my oil every couple of months.</p>
<p>DH drives a 2009 Hyundai Sonata and is very pleased with it. We think it compares very favorably to similar Hondas and Toyotas - and costs a lot less. Dealer did give some sort of free service for the first year - not sure of the details. The only problem we had was with the GPS - it was kind of glitchy the first few months - dealer replaced it - no problems since.</p>