The moment I drove the new car home, the factory sunroof was rattling really badly. Three dealerships could not repair it; finally one figured it out and had to rip the whole roof apart to fix it.
Also from the start the car had several annoying ticks or rattles in the door and other general body areas which with age seem to have resolved themselved.
Emergency brake rotted/froze after 1 winter. Back wheel was smoking all the time, burning the brake pad down to the metal. Again, Three dealerships and 7 visits later, they finally figured it out after replacing a master cylinder, pads, and several other useless brake parts, because they were all guessing and couldn't diagnose such a simple fix.
A/C condenser went after 1 year of ownership and I had to pay $450 to replace it; It was not covered under warranty because they said it could have been caused from a rock in the road puncturing it, though no one can be sure.
Now that I've had the car 2 1/2 years, I am finally feeling like it's grown into itself and the issues are gone for the moment. I haven't had any repairs in about a year. Seems like the first year it had way too many problems.
In summary, all of my issues would not have been as frustrating had Hyundai service technicians been better diagnosticians to begin with.
All dealerships in my area (Boston) are horrible. Just horrible. That's the only downside on the Hyundais in general. Poor service from the dealerships, very untrained techs and they do a lot of guessing.
I'm sorry you had difficulties the first year; I've had a 2004 GT for nearly five years and 91,500 miles and the only repair I've ever paid for on any of our three Elantras was the O2 sensor on this one. The rest were minor repairs and all under warranty.
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