why a hyundai

[filletme]

today my boyfriend got a new car, a BMW 330i. He is a BMW enthusiast and salivates over them constantly. that got me to wondering, why did you all choose hyundais? is it the quality, price, or style?

me personally, i had no other choice. this is the third hyundai sonata in my family and my dad chose it for me because it has treated him well.

[Markley02]

The rear subframe ripping out is enough for me to go hyundai over a BMW (on e36 and e46 body styles). lol.

I didn't buy a hyundai yet, but I do plan to soon. It will be for quality, style, and price. The problem with Hyundai is they are shooting for a market that isn't ready to accept hyundai yet. I remember (back in the day) that msrp on a loaded tibby was 13K. Good luck finding that now. People who normally drive a BMW or merc drive it for the status symbol..... hyundai does not fill that void yet.

[ozone]

Originally,
I bought it for the price. It is my first and last new car. As it turns out I really like my accent. took some bolt-on mods to get it where I like it, but most cars need some mods for me to like them. I don't think I've ever owned a "stock" car. Hopefully never will.
My dad is in his fifties and still does some serious modification to anything he drives. His next project car soon to be a daily driver is a 1998 neon with srt4 inards; motor&tranny, interior, suspension, and possibly a front end conversion. for a daily driver car!

[MechaniX_034]

With the current fuel prices, the GETZ has been rated at the most economical car you can currently buy here in Australia. That should be enough to convince you. If it doesn't, how about nothing takes a hit like a Hyundai? I've been in a couple when impact occurred(my mom's Tucson and Sonata) Barely felt a thing and body damage to our car was completely repairable.

The other vehicles incurred at least twice the cost in repairs.

[filletme]

yeah, my dad took safety as a big measure in choosing a car for me, and he liked the sonata cause it is heavy (at least compared to the cars i wanted). my dad drives between work and our house every weekend and round trip it is 6 hours. so he has spent a lot of time in that sonata! the funny thing is he didnt need to replace his brake pads until he had over 150k miles on it.
on the other hand, my sonata (08 v6 engine) doesnt get that good gas mileage. (19 city? crazy). and it sucks cause of the prices going up continuously.

[vamedic4]

For my wife and me, it was price at first. We were skeptical because she'd owned an early 90s model...when the tranny went out at 80,000 miles she had to get another one.
We bought an 02 Elantra after owning a POS Geo Prizm. That car (the Elantra) gave us 140,000 miles of damn near trouble free service, save for a failed sensor that was replaced under warranty at no cost to us.
We traded that one in on an 07 Elantra...all the bells and whistles included, got a great price and we're loving driving it.
Price was a big factor, but we checked the Consumer Reports and found that, of the cars we wanted - it was the one we could probably best afford - and having been previous Hyundai owners helped a great deal.
Safety was also huge. I have two growing boys and having airbags everywhere is very comforting, as are the ABS brakes.
Then there's the comfort factor. I found my Hyundai to be more than spacious on our recent 1600 mile round trip jaunt to Colorado and back. Room enough for the kids, all their electronics, toys and pillows and everything else needed to have fun on a trip. My wife was a comfortable passenger too. I wished for more supportive seats and lumbar supports like my 02 had but I made due the best I could.

Oh, and as we discovered on our most recent trip to Colorado - my Hyundai goes 354 miles on 8.9 gallons of gas. I couldn't believe it..because around town I get less than that out of a whole friggin' tank.

I quite enjoy my Elantra.

[Braddmotor]

I had a 93 geo prizm and it through a rod and knocked a hole in the block. I was tryin to move out of my parents house and i needed a car with a good warranty plus i had two jobs at the time. I bought a 2000 elantra in dec 99 and i been in luv with it ever since.

[Tugger5000]

When I bought my Hyundai, it was to replace an 85 Audi 5000 that I absolutely loved (hated getting rid of it).. but I would have had to put 3 grand into it to make the car reliable again.

For me it was a combination of price and warranty. Brand new car for 10K and not have to pay to fix a damn thing for a few years? Easy math.

What has grown on me after owning one is quality... The majority of things I've had to replace would need to be replaced on most cars with the mileage that I have... (almost 200,000 miles in 7 years).

Out of the 6 dealerships that my fiance (she has a Santa Fe) and I have had to deal with, there is only 1 that we wouldn't go back to. The 5 that remain were helpful and have not tried to dick us over.

Finally, Hyundai MC backs their vehicles... I had a catalytic converter issue (I'm on my third one) that could have gotten ugly. 1rst one was replaced under warranty, the 2nd replacement I had to pay for, but I contacted Hyundai Consumer Affairs and they reimbursed me for half of the costs .

Things to my liking with Hyundai while I wait to purchase my next one:
*Safety has vastly improved
*Still competively priced against other car companies

Stuff I don't like:
*No diesel/hybrid for the US yet (they seem to be playing a "wait-and-see" game)
*Handling still appears to be "soft" (I grew up driving Saabs and Audi's... I've installed strut bars to both my car and my fiance's Santy... the suspension on rentals of newer hyundais still seem spongy to me).
*I'm not a big fan of the drive-by-wire technology... seems too prone to issues.

The thing with me is that I don't buy a new car every few years... I drive them until the wheels fall off so I don't care about resale value (why anybody does is beyond my comprehension... why invest in something that depreciates as soon as you take possession?)

[187sks]

I looked at Hyundai for the price and warranty. That's what got me into the dealership to take a test drive. I was thinking about a $6995 base model Accent at the time. We test drove one and we were fairly impressed considering that I didn't have high expectations. We test drove an Accent GT and it was enough of an improvement that we went for it despite the $3500 penalty.

Since buying it I've truly been impressed with the quality. I've been left stranded twice, once was entirely my fault (for hiring a shoddy electronics installer) and the second time I used Hyundai roadside assistance and the total repair bill was $92. The roadside assistance is nice because it's unlimited miles. I was over 100k in less than 5 years but was still able to get towed to the dealer. I break cars, that's just what I do. I've broken 5 vehicles beyond the point of being driveable since buying the Accent. The only thing I've bought since then that I haven't broken yet is our 05 Tiburon SE.

Compared to other cars my only complaint is that it's expensive to mod them. They respond very well and they are quicker than many cars which are similar but cost twice as much. I disagree about the handling issue, in my opinion they don't inspire a lot of confidence but if you push them and put up with the body roll they'll do a good job of keeping you on the road. Our Tib SE actually came with reasonably stiff suspension compared to the competition.

For the price of a new base BMW 328i you can buy a new base Tiburon and a Sonata. For the price of a loaded 335i convertible you can get a new base Tiburon, Elantra, Sonata, Accent, and Tucson. Or you can just buy a fully loaded Tiburon and spend the other $48,000 on mods and get a thousand times more attention than a stock 335i convertible. I'm not saying BMW's are bad, I would love to buy an e36 or e46 M3 and plan to before too awfully long. I just can't justify their cost when new. My main reason to buy a new car is reliability issues. I can buy a used BMW and a brand new Accent at the same time and save money and I have the Accent to drive if the BMW has an issue or if I'm just getting from point A to point B.

The depreciation issue is propaganda. You tell me how my Accent has ripped me off for depreciation.

Price new: $10,500
KBB value now: $4500
Sure, that's 57% depreciation, but I've only lost $6000 in 120,000 miles and 5 years. Try to meet that with anything else.

A 2003 BMW 330Cic convertible:
Price new: $42,900
KBB value now: $16,115
62% depreciation and $26,785 lost. That BMW owner lost $20,000 more than me in that time. To some people it may be worth it and that's perfectly fine. To me it's not. I get frustrated when people talk depreciation and use percentages though. Hyundai has some of the best values regarding depreciation when you consider the actual amount of money lost.

Not to be combative or anything, it's just been one of those days. I don't mean anything bad.
That's assuming private party value and same mileage and condition as my Accent.

[Tugger5000]

I don't think it's combative at all.. but if you take depreciation purely out of the equation (using my time of ownership):

10500$ over 7 years is $1500 per year.

42900$ over 7 years is $6128 per year.

Even if the Beemer didn't have a single thing go wrong with it in that time, I'm still way ahead even with the repairs I had to do for the Hyundai.

I had my Audi for 7 years and paid $3000 for it used... averaged about $1500/year in maintenance (75% done by myself with used parts... lost time sucks)... about 1928$ per year... roughly the same as my Accent when you throw in stuff I had to fix, but much more hassle.

If you look at it in just purchase price of the car, you're $32900 poorer...