2004 Hyundai Elantra

Pros

got sunroof +heated leather 4 same price as corrolla which had neither.

Cons

motor blew at 152000 7 years old, computer quit at 60,000 km

Purchased As New

Was absolutely thrilled with my Elantra until the motor blew for no apparent reason at 152,000 km. All services were kept up, just had sparkplugs changed, oil changed & oil was full at time of fail. Mechanic said it "spun a bearing". I babied this car! 7 years old and 152000km is NOT a good lifetime for this car. Guess I should have got the Toyota after all, at least it would still be running.
Wrote to Hyundai who basically told me I don't have a hope of getting anything out of them.
Bought a used motor out of a bit newer car (2005) - it only has 41,000km on it - for $675.00 plus about $1000.00 for installation it was still cheaper than buying the extended warranty at purchase time for $2200.00. (& who knows if they would have covered it, if say I couldn't prove all my service schedule was absolutely correct.) Of course I only have 90 days warranty now but this might help someone else decide what they might want to do when purchasing one. Oh yes, and the "main" computer in the car quit completely at 60,000 km which was just past its warranty period. At that time they took pity on me saying "that NEVER happens" and took a computer out of a car on the lot and gave it to me for free.

Was not happy with the level of road noise on the highway. Sound system a bit crappy - hard to read the stereo display at night....read morehide

Pros

Great value, great options, comfortable ride

Cons

trade/re-sale value

I have a '03 Elantra GT. I love the car. I drive 100 +/- miles round trip to work everyday, I've already racked up 68k on the car, and haven't really had any problems. I had some rotor issues, but since having those taken care of, everything else has been tip-top. i would probably buy another one. in the end, it's a great bang for the buck without compromising too much....read morehide

Pros

Great "added Value" items COME STANDARDWITH GT

Cons

a little underpowered, but a minor complaint

I was going to purchase a Toyota Matrix at first, but when I test drove one and saw how much it would cost to get what I really wanted, it became a "no-brainer" for me.
I had no intention of buying a Hyundai UNTIL I drove one and compared the "Standard" equipment with Toyota......Man, what a revalation!!
I then went into "research mode" and looked Hyndai up on every web site I could find,not to mention Consumer Reports, etc.....the data was amazing........the ONLY thing I could find "wrong" with the Elantra GT wa the fronal offset crash tests which have recently been done on the Elantra. It is now rated TOPS in it's class for frontal crash tests by the insurance institute.......it seems to me that Hyundai takes these tests seriously and has made marked improvments EVERY year on the Elantra. Just chech out the last 4 years' ratings from Consumers Reports.....it will blow you away! It did me!!


I LOVE my Elantra GT, the Kenwood 200 watt cd system is something else too, (I have ALL of my MP3s (4350 songs...... 20gigs saved on cds that I play in my car daily........!!!!! LOVE IT!)...read morehide