My daughter bought a used 2005 Hyundai Elantra with 60,000 miles* on it. Per various sources, it had a decent reputation. Besides some maintenance items being neglected by the original owner, the car needed so much work because Hyundai uses the cheapest parts. Heck, we practically rebuilt the car. Now 3 years later it remains just one occasional headache after another.
Have other Hyundai owners found this to be the case, too? Cheap parts, low quality craftsmanship? I’d like to know.
P.S. It seems 60K miles is the magic number when a lot of high-cost maintenance items come due, like the timing belt. Would you agree?
I have close to 75 thousand on my 2015 Elantra, and I work it pretty hard because there is very little traffic on I-294 at 6:00 am heading away from the city, so I reach 90 MPH with regularity. I do keep up on my maintenance. Hyundai tires are garbage. I have the best Goodyear tires they sell. I change oil regularly, use synthetic oil, and clean my injectors periodically. I’ve had to replace the battery, and I had to do complete brakes with caliper replacement also. That’s been it.
My wife when we were married had a… '96 Hyundai Elantra that we planned to drive into the ground but it was too stubborn to die on us for years until we finally gave up and sold it a few years ago. We just did normal scheduled maintenance on it. It’s probably still running.
Hyundai initially had a deserved reputation in the US for poor build quality and materials, but that has largely gone away. They are currently ranked 4th for overall reliability in the US market.
My mom has a 2005 Elantra with 30,000 miles on it. I best tell her to trade it in as it is going to be out of warranty soon. But she has driven it like a little old lady to Walmart, Aldi’s and CVS once a week for the past 15 years, so YMMV.
The newer Hyundai’s are much better than they were 15 years ago, much higher quality ratings. Still I don’t like them. Being in the automotive business I know them as technology thieves and they don’t even try and hide it. They will bring a good supplier on for a couple of years and then blatantly copy their designs, sometimes even to the point of copying the suppliers logos on the part. They are notoriously cheap and will drive a supplier in bankruptcy and not give a damn. Never going to own one unless mom leaves me hers.
I had a 2004 Sonata. I’d probably still be driving it if I hadn’t totaled it a couple of years ago. It was a decent car—not bad, not great. The only significant repairs were a CV axle and the catalytic converter (both replaced).
I’d buy another Hyundai if I found a used one that had been immaculately maintained. But that’s a pretty big “if.”
We have a 2014 Sonata that we bought a couple of years ago, and we love it. I had a 1987 Excel that I bought in 1989 for around 2K. It never gave me any trouble, but likely would have if I hadn’t totaled it a couple of years later.
I have a 2011 Elantra with 111,000 mostly hard commuting miles on it. There have been some minor issues but it’s survived a collision with a deer and is still ticking along. I don’t think I’ll buy another one in the future but the cost per year, including depreciation, has been what our budget needed.
the paint chipped off everywhere on my sonata. by the time it was 13 years old it was unusable due to mechanical issues and it looked terrible due to the paint coming off.
I did make it to 200k miles though. but I ended up needing a tow about once a year and 2-3 mechanic visits a year. I think I’ll try to stick to Toyota from now on
2015 Sonata Hybrid with 98,000 miles. Hasn’t been in the shop yet except for an issue with the gas door release lever about six months after I bought it (fixed under warranty). Couple paint chips but I do a lot of rural driving where trucks are kicking up or dropping gravel so I can’t blame the car for that. I bought a paint repair stick and dab a little on the chips when I see them.
I have a 2012 Sonata that we bought new. It’s within spitting distance of 180K miles. I have had no major problems with it at all. It goes in every 5K miles for service, and our car guy always goes over the whole car to make sure there are no hidden surprises awaiting us.
There are a couple of spots where the paint is chipped - things flying off work trucks around here is pretty typical. But overall, I’ve been very happy with it. I’m hoping to get at least 250K miles before I think about trading it in. Now that I’ve retired, it’s going to take a long time to do 70K more miles.
My wife drives a 2011 Santa Fe which we bought new, and it has only 60k miles on it. We haven’t replaced anything except tires and battery. There are a couple of minor annoyances now (back door won’t always unlock and the starter sometimes doesn’t disengage for a second or two after starting), but overall it’s worked fine for us.
We’re planning to upgrade before anything major happens…
That’s about as easy as a car’s life can get, even more so in a per mile basis. Perhaps a cruising 70 - 80 mph would be a tad easier, but 90 is not all that difficult. Now city stop and go driving, that’s hard, lots of dirt roads, hard, superhighway cruising, a car’s vacation.
I’ve never owned a Hyundai before, but I have always heard that their quality has steadily improved over the decades, so I don’t thing you can really judge one from 15 years ago based on modern ones, and vise versa.
In the 1980s and 90s, Hyundai had a well deserved reputation as cheap crap.
The 2000s were sort of a transitional period. The were better than they used to be, but still not great. Maybe on par with the American brands. So this would be where your daughter’s car falls.
At some point in the 2010s, they improved to the point where they actually became just as good as the Japanese brands.
I have a 2013 Elantra and am perfectly happy with it. I’m up to over 90K miles and, other than the usual issues with a car that old, it’s still running fine.
I understand that older Hyundais had a bad reputation, but by 2012 (when it won Car of the Year), they had gotten their act together.
But she has driven it like a little old lady to Walmart, Aldi’s and CVS once a week for the past 15 years, so YMMV.