2002 Hyundai Sonata GLS from North America - Comments

We are now bringing our car in for the 3rd time for the same problem. The power window regulators fail and/or break. A few months after our purchase the front drivers side window failed. The window went down, but failed to go up with out me having to pull it at the same time. I heard cracking and grinding sounds as I tried to roll up the window. I called the dealer and they knew the problem just as I was explaining it. He practically finished my sentence as I was describing it. He said he had replaced several this week alone. I live 50 miles from the dealership and I do a tremendous amount of driving. This is why we went with this car and its warranty. You don\'t realize how you take for granted your window being able to roll down as you approach a toll booth or a drive thru at a bank or restaurant.

In July of 2003 the passenger side window failed. The exact same problem. The window fell down and would not go up. I heard cracking and grinding noises as I tried to roll it up. I called the dealer and they set up a time for me to come in for service. They ran out of the parts since they were doing so many of these he said and would have to order them. He was able to have the part the next day, but that would not fit my work schedule. When I got to the dealer on my scheduled day, the part was not there. Apparently they used it to fix somebody else\'s car. I made a 100 mile round trip for nothing. I had to wait a week for the part and for my schedule to open up to bring it back (and eat up another 100 miles of my warranty.)

Now here I am 10/29/03 and my rear drivers side window regulator has failed. This time the window is ceased in the down position. I called and spoke to the Sales Manager and informed him of all my past problems. The service dept. was closed and he said he would call me back in the morning. The next morning around 10 a.m. I had to call back since I heard nothing. He had not talked to the service dept. as of yet. I called back around 3 p.m. since I had still heard nothing. He transferred me to service and I tried to schedule an appointment. I overheard the person on the phone if they had anymore regulators in stock and could hear somebody in the background say we just used the last one. I was told the part will have to be ordered. It would not be to the middle of next week. I was not able to get a day to go in there for 10 days due to my schedule. Now I am stuck with a car with a window that will not roll up. I can\'t really use if for work due to rain and a chance of it being broken into. If the Sales Manager had called me first thing like he promised me, I believe the part could have been there in the morning just as they said the could on my prior service. The last time I was there they said the part could have been there the next day. This time I was told the part is shipped in a manor that takes several days. I am currently within my warranty at 55,000 miles. At 60,000 miles the warranty ends on these parts. With the miles I drive I will be out of warranty in 40 days. I was told that when the 4th window goes out if after warranty it will cost me $150 -$200 for repair. I asked since they know the track record of this and that it will more than likely go out just replace it now and save me the hassle. I was told it could not be done. I don\'t have kids. I rarely have any passengers in the rear seats. That window has probably been rolled down 10 times at the most. How can these break with such little use? I am realizing that my near $20,000 car is not as great as it sounded when I bought it and the quality is very poor.

Initially I liked the car, the styling and performance were impressive.

With all the headaches from the window problems, I am worried about the overall quality of the car after the 60,000 mile warranty ends in a month.

I feel sorry that you got a bad one because I have had no problems with my Sonata. It drives like a more expensive car and don't regret what I paid for. This car is the best car for the value and money.

I previously owned a 00 Toyota Corolla and that was a junk. I had major transmission failure at only 10,020 miles and another at 23,500. The car style was really bland and unreliable for what I paid for and expect from a new car. Besides the bad transmissions the cd player never worked and the engine blocks cracked at 35,000 after only normal driving habits, which I brought to the attention of a Toyota dealer and they denied everything.

Lucky I filed a law suit under the lemon law and the company bought it back and now I am very happy with my Sonata.

I agree that the Hyundai Sonata GLS is a good car initially, but after about 75,000 miles the rear right side power window would not go back up after being powered down. A few months later, the same thing happened on the left rear side. A few nights ago, the driver side window had the same outcome. Now I have 3 windows that are unusable.

When I contacted Hyundai about this, they advised that it was not a known problem. Hyundai states we need to get Hyundai parts from a Hyundai dealer. If the original Hyundai parts did not work, why would I risk the same thing happening again. I think I'll put AMERICAN parts to fix Hyundai's mistake.

I don't believe that a car can have a cracked block after such low miles. The only time I have seen a block crack is when there was no antifreeze in the engine (only water). The water expands and then cracks the block. It is otherwise unusual for a block to simply crack. I don't understand how the transmission went bad on the Toyota either. Possibly a brake stand or accelerating to quickly to often? That is a very unlikely problem to have occur at such low miles. Especially from Toyota.

I have also replaced all four of my window regulators under 80,000 miles. We bought the dealer demo at 20,000 miles. We have not had much trouble out of the car more so out of the service department where we purchased it. We have had a speed sensor replaced. Most recentaly we took the car in for the fuse blowing for the a/c Clutch. I was busy at work with over time so I told the wifey to take the car in to the dealer. She did and they looked at it and said the compressor needed to be replaced with me at work she told them to do the work. Needless to say I called them the next day to have them explaine to me how the compressor was bad when the fuse was blowing for the clutch, without the commprsor being locked up. So the told me the clutch had a short in it and it was a package unit. Replace 1 and replace them both, Un seperatable. B/S! I had them quote me a price for each the week before needless to say a few choice words were spoken. The work was already done before I talked to them. So I paid 440 dollars kept there hands off of it any more, and got my fourth window regulator. Moral of the story be careful who you have work on your cars.

It sounds to me like you are more concerned about who is fixing your cars than the actual car itself. I've had mine for 98,000 miles and had no problems at all with it, apart from the typical tire rotation, oil changes, etc. All in all, I say this car is simply amazing all around. Plenty of space, plenty of cargo room, nice and easy drive, and the gas mileage is fairly decent for such a medium-larged sized car.

I bought my Sonata with only three miles on it, and now it has 97,000 miles. The timing belt went two months ago and now a control monitor, I think, don't remember exactly what it was. It's currently being fixed. But I must say 'Sydney', that's what I named my car, has been really good to me. Although she could have waited until the holiday season was over to hit me with such high bills. The Sonata is a beautiful car, very expensive, looking, but affordable. I would recommend it to others, 5 years, 97,000 miles and only $800 worth of repairs, out of the ordinary. That's not too bad, especially for cars now a days.