2001 Hyundai Accent GL review from North America

Water pump.

Brake rotors.

Starter relay switch.

Exhaust bolt.

Lug nuts.

CV boot.

Where to start? I really enjoyed driving this little car. I am a University student and the price of the Accent was very appealing, how can you go wrong? Well, where it all went wrong was dealing with the service department at the dealership.

Each experience stemmed from taking the car in for it's regular scheduled oil change and tune up.

The first time they told me that my water pump was cracked and needed to be replaced, but not to worry because it was under warranty and wouldn't cost me anything. Great, but I was going out of town with the car for a week. They told be I could have the work done at another dealership. I took it to the dealership in the other town and they tried to charge me $50 for diagnostic fees and told me that there was nothing wrong with my water pump. Well, I refused to pay and took my car back to the original dealership and they covered the fee and replaced the water pump. Sounds fishy? Yeah, to me too.

The next problem arose not too many months later when they told me my rotors needed to be replaced because they were rusted it beyond repair. This is on a vehicle that was 1 year old! I asked how this was possible and they said that it happens. I told them not to replace them and my husband took a look himself and they were both fine! They had a minimal amount of rust on them. By the way, the rotors were not under warranty.

Next problem arose in the winter when my car wasn't starting in extreme cold, whether it was plugged in or not. I had it towed to the dealership who called and said my starter was shot. I said no way, when you turn the car over the starter was working just fine, the problem was that it wasn't getting any gas! The person quickly changed their story and said, "Not the starter the relay switch in the starter and in the fuel pump." Yeah, that's what I thought. Later that week I heard a clunking/puttering on the front passenger side of the car. I thought maybe it was the exhaust, but upon further investigation the exhaust looked fine. We continued to drive and realized that the steering was getting hard to control. I thought maybe the tire was going flat or that it had a bulge in it. Then I realized that it felt as though the tire was going to wobble off of the car. We pulled into the nearest parking lot and saw that one lug nut had fallen off and the other three I was able to undo with my fingers. When the dealership was inspecting my vehicle the previous week they had taken the tires off to check the CV boots. I guess they didn't bother to put the passenger side tire on properly, only something that could have killed me considering I drive the highways. When we confronted them about it they denied having taking the tire off on that side of the vehicle. I'm not convinced.

Even though in actuality I didn't have many problems with the vehicle, the dealership ruined my Hyundai experience and I will never buy another one.