Hyundai quality comparison

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I remember in the early 90's my aunt had a Hyundai Excel. A gutless pile! Then in 2000 she bought a new Elantra which had quite a few repairs over the years but still ran well when it was let go around 190,000 miles. how good was their quality 10 years ago and forward through today. Honda is a good gold standard. They build cars that people commonly get 200-300k before retiring. How do the newer Hyundai's compare? How good is their manufacturing ect.
 
I have a 2017 Elantra with just shy of 50k miles. I have no complaints. Here is my review at 1 and 2 years of ownership. I'm now just about to hit 50k miles and not much has changed. Still gets great gas mileage, no creaks or rattles, and sure, it doesn't have a ton of soft-touch materials, but I also didn't pay much for it either. I really only have had two issues: 1- the dealers just kinda suck overall. They are definitely the weak point of the brand. 2- The driver door has had two issues. The first was fixed under warranty (wouldn't unlock with the key) and the second is the lock/unlock button on the door handle sometimes stops working. The key will still unlock it, but something with the button on the handle seems to be intermittently unresponsive. I'm sure it will be fixed under warranty, I just haven't taken it to the dealer yet (see issue #1). Other than those things, it's been better than any other car that I've owned. Hopefully the 2nd and 3rd 50k miles will be just as good as the 1st 50k.
 
I have owned a 2014 Santa Fe since Sept 2014. 76K miles and virtually no required repairs. One set of tires. Fluid and filter changes only. May need brakes soon. That's it. I consider the build quality as good as the Toyotas I have owned. Had more options than any other equivalent car for the same price at the time.

Best dealership is 40 mi one way, so I don't use them very often. Its closer sister dealership is not as customer friendly for some reason. My independent mechanic handles oil changes. I do use Hyundai for ATF changes to make sure I get the right fluid.

Have never owned Hondas because I could never come to an agreement on price with dealerships when I wanted an Odyssey. No special orders, no color choice; "take it or leave it attitude". Bought a Mazda MPV instead and it went 180K miles before getting totaled.
 
Hyundai as far as the foreign car quality goes I would likely say are in the most improved class with some more quality could be top rated. As for Honda my opinion is they fell out of being to gold standard 8 to 10 years ago. I would have bought a Honda 10 years ago but not now.
 
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Yep, Honda's are great, the gold standard of a reliable automatic transmission in every model sold, past and present.
 
I suspect they are much closer today than they are apart. Yeah I'd prefer Toyota no matter what, but in some ways all new cars suck, they seem to come up with new ways to fail. Or otherwise unlearn old lessons.

Unfortunately "10 years ago" was a while ago and you are likely more at the mercy of the prior owner than at the mercy of whatever Hyundai did or didn't do. I want to say, 10 years ago they were pretty conventional without lots of issues--not cutting edge and maybe behind on mpg, but by no means bad.

I personally never cared much for Honda.
 
Originally Posted by JustN89
I have a 2017 Elantra with just shy of 50k miles. I have no complaints. Here is my review at 1 and 2 years of ownership. I'm now just about to hit 50k miles and not much has changed. Still gets great gas mileage, no creaks or rattles, and sure, it doesn't have a ton of soft-touch materials, but I also didn't pay much for it either. I really only have had two issues: 1- the dealers just kinda suck overall. They are definitely the weak point of the brand. 2- The driver door has had two issues. The first was fixed under warranty (wouldn't unlock with the key) and the second is the lock/unlock button on the door handle sometimes stops working. The key will still unlock it, but something with the button on the handle seems to be intermittently unresponsive. I'm sure it will be fixed under warranty, I just haven't taken it to the dealer yet (see issue #1). Other than those things, it's been better than any other car that I've owned. Hopefully the 2nd and 3rd 50k miles will be just as good as the 1st 50k.

How about a review on those new Goodyear tires.
 
Originally Posted by nickaluch
How about a review on those new Goodyear tires.

The Goodyears have been great! I know that they are not a favorite around here, but they've been quiet, ride well, and have offered awesome grip in inclement weather. The only thing I don't know is how well they will wear, but so far, so good. I would absolutely buy them again.
 
Originally Posted by skyactiv
Yep, Honda's are great, the gold standard of a reliable automatic transmission in every model sold, past and present.

lol.gif
 
Originally Posted by ram_man
I remember in the early 90's my aunt had a Hyundai Excel. A gutless pile! Then in 2000 she bought a new Elantra which had quite a few repairs over the years but still ran well when it was let go around 190,000 miles. how good was their quality 10 years ago and forward through today. Honda is a good gold standard. They build cars that people commonly get 200-300k before retiring. How do the newer Hyundai's compare? How good is their manufacturing ect.


Wow, you just reminded me on when my mom had one of those.

Funny story, when I was younger (before preschool age, this is the earliest memory I have) I didn't know what the transmission levels were for. So when my mom put the car in park to close the garage, I moved the car from P to D. I learned real fast what happens next.
 
I've owned four Kias and a Hyundai. Compared to my GM cars they've been trouble free. My GM cars (from 2000) have run about $1000 in repairs. Not lemons, but the HyunKia's have run better. I've had family members with timing chain failures on GM cars that have totaled the car. However, Hyundai-Kia engines tend to blow spectacularly. Burning cars by the side of the road (even if it's dealer error) aren't good marketing.
 
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I owned a 07 Elantra which I took out to ~127K before selling it. The only warranty item was a swaybar link around 40K miles. Other than that just standard maintenance per the book. Dealer service was always priced fairly as well. I'd absolutely buy another. As well as if they can make it to 200K, the newer ones, i'd say yes if you maintain them.

The 3 Honda's I owned all had weird issues and had the most little issues out of all the vehicles I've owned at ~100K. They were my least enjoyable to own. From my experience the engine may last to 300K but the transmission and other little stuff like bower motors, electronics, window motors etc will fail. I don't shop Honda anymore.

Mazda and Ford are other brands I've owned that have been very reliable if you can stave rust away. Of course it depends on the models and drive train you choose.
 
Think it depends what you are considering, are we talking a Sonata 2.0t or a Genesis 3.8 R spec?
 
Originally Posted by supton
I personally never cared much for Honda.

Only one I cared for was the late 80's/early 90's Prelude.
It was the peak of reliability, simplicity and Japanese technology (for the segment).
 
I am right at 3 years ownership of a 2017 Elantra SE. Coming from a Saturn it has more power, better ride, better fuel economy, and is easier to maintain. I do have some sounds around passenger door since October. I do transport people so it may not be the cars fault. It started after someone closed the door. Oil changes are super easy. At 60k will be due for transmission fluid. That is one thing will let dealership do. What I am seeing with Hyundai is they are hit or miss. I think I got a hit. Started off with brake booster recall first week of ownership. Replaced right away but had to go through Hyundai help line. Dealership blew me off at first. Would I buy another? Only one like I have. The 2020 comes with a CVT. Hyundai calls it an IVT. The one Hyundai-Forums member that is having hers replaced after it became unsafe to drive is probably got a lemon. It is also on back order meaning there are probably a lot of failures we are not hearing about. Not looking good. I have the bulletproof 6-speed (not made by Honda).
 
Originally Posted by MONKEYMAN
I am right at 3 years ownership of a 2017 Elantra SE. Coming from a Saturn it has more power, better ride, better fuel economy, and is easier to maintain. I do have some sounds around passenger door since October. I do transport people so it may not be the cars fault. It started after someone closed the door. Oil changes are super easy. At 60k will be due for transmission fluid. That is one thing will let dealership do. What I am seeing with Hyundai is they are hit or miss. I think I got a hit. Started off with brake booster recall first week of ownership. Replaced right away but had to go through Hyundai help line. Dealership blew me off at first. Would I buy another? Only one like I have. The 2020 comes with a CVT. Hyundai calls it an IVT. The one Hyundai-Forums member that is having hers replaced after it became unsafe to drive is probably got a lemon. It is also on back order meaning there are probably a lot of failures we are not hearing about. Not looking good. I have the bulletproof 6-speed (not made by Honda).

HyunKia is swapping problem engines for problem transmissions. I think they're ahead of the Nissan curve for CVT development and I know Honda owners with failed CVT's. Hopefully my Soul will keep on keeping on until the IVT shakeout is done in a couple of years. The old adage about never buying a car in its first year still applies.
 
Maybe it's my bad luck but every rental Hyundai / KIA I have gotten had issues even with less than 10,000 miles on them. Blowers making extreme noise to steering wheel making a clicking noise everytime the steering wheel turned so far. Really suck going through West Virgina windy mountain roads. Enough problems with newer rentals that I have steered clear from buying one. If getting a very good deal maybe but not when paying close to a more reliable brand. Resale is much better on most other brands too if that matter. I tend to drive cars until the wheel almost fall off or it's just not worth fixing anymore or cost of repair is more than value of vehicle.
 
Had 107k miles on my 15' Sonata, traded it in almost 3 weeks ago. Was an excellent car, only issue was a CV boot started to tear. Had new OEM boots installed for around $200.

Now have a 15' Genesis 5.0L, very happy with it. I'll create a write up on it soon. Just under 3 weeks and I've put a little over 2,000 miles on it. Very high quality car to say the least.

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]
 
Bought a 2010 Elantra new for $14,000 it had about 95,000 on it, warranty expires it May. Very good car never had a repair done just fluids and filters and the timing belt. Got 34 MPG. Only complaint is twice, when it got flat tires, snapped off the studs and needed replacing. If the only bad thing is wheel studs it's a good car. HOWEVER it was never a winter car, even with Michelins and my son managed to total it on a snowy day after Christmas.
 
I think Hyundai / Kia get better all the time. Their OE parts are ridiculously priced but I had good luck with my Hyundai Accent.
The dealers around here are idiots but aside from that Hyundai makes a good value car. You get a lot of car for your money. I think their short falls is resale value which they are below the Japanese.
 
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