1998 Hyundai Accent GL review from North America

In one word, my main problem is 'Paint'. When I bought the car it was in part based on my once having owned an Excel that lived up to my expectations beautifully. The Accent is not so lucky.

I first noticed last year that the paint was starting to show rust spots. I wasn't too worried at first and questioned the dealer and he said just a little surface rust. The car was out of warranty so I just covered the spots with a little Hyundai touch up paint and didn't think too much about it until this summer. The spots are back with a lot of extra ones thrown in. In fact, rust is breaking out all over the car, but the worst areas are under the front hood and inside the trunk where it touches the rubber. Also along the window seams on the doors.

I asked the dealer about it and again he said surface rust. I thought about it for a few weeks and started checking. Some of the spots are surface rust, but most are the early signs of perforation. My car is outside the surface rust warranty so I approached Hyundai on the perforation warranty which is 5 years with 'no' mileage limit. The service manager said they would not do anything until there were holes in my car from perforation. Needless to say, I am taking this to Hyundai. I am now convinced I am the victim of a poor paint job.

One more thing, overall performance is great, but the service is lousy and the car's front end rattles too much even though it does not need repair. I have bought my very last Hyundai.