2007 Hyundai Sonata GLS from North America - Comments

My money is on Hyundai, too. Honda and Toyota have been stagnant and a bit complacent living off their reputation while Hyundai keeps getting better and better each year. It appears that Hyundai have finally caught up to them, or may have surpassed them.

Hyundai seems to have a huge advantage over the Japanese competitors due to their dominant domestic market position. In other words, they have their backyard covered and can always draw their resources from it.

All things start from somewhere. I remember about 30 years ago when Toyota and Honda were in infancy. In fact Honda was basically a bicycle company, and nobody knows what Toyota produced back then.

I wrote comment 17:56, part of which dealt with Hyundai's outrageous service charges, and stated that my best friend's Hyundai dealer was demanding an outrageous price for a (required) 30,000 mile transmission flush, radiator flush and tune-up (NONE of which should be required at that low mileage!!). I had lunch with my friend today and he told me he had had the service performed by an independent service facility for exactly ONE THIRD of what Hyundai was demanding. He plans to keep the receipts for the work and use them as proof that the service work was performed. His lawyer informed him that if Hyundai refused to honor his warranty he would have proof and could contest the decision legally.

Under the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act a manufacturer cannot require that you use their products and services to maintain your warranty. If they claim that use of some other products or services are the cause of some defect that invalidates coverage under the warranty, then the burden of proof is with them to demonstrate this as fact.

Search Magnuson Moss and see excerpt below.

§ 700.10 Section 102 (c).

(a) Section 102 (c) prohibits tying arrangements that condition coverage under a written warranty on the consumer's use of an article or service identified by brand, trade, or corporate name unless that article or service is provided without charge to the consumer.

(b) Under a limited warranty that provides only for replacement of defective parts and no portion of labor charges, section 102 (c) prohibits a condition that the consumer use only service (labor) identified by the warrantor to install the replacement parts. A warrantor or his designated representative may not provide parts under the warranty in a manner which impedes or precludes the choice by the consumer of the person or business to perform necessary labor to install such parts.

(c) No warrantor may condition the continued validity of a warranty on the use of only authorized repair service and/or authorized replacement parts for non-warranty service and maintenance. For example, provisions such as, "This warranty is void if service is performance by anyone other than an authorized 'ABC' dealer and all replacement parts must be genuine 'ABC' parts," and the like, are prohibited where the service or parts are not covered by the warranty. These provisions violate the Act in two ways. First, they violate the section 102 (c) ban against tying arrangements. Second, such provisions are deceptive under section 110 of the Act, because a warrantor cannot, as a matter of law, avoid liability under a written warranty where a defect is unrelated to the use by a consumer of "unauthorized" articles or service. This does not preclude a warrantor from expressly excluding liability for defects or damage caused by such "unauthorized" articles or service; nor does it preclude the warrantor from denying liability where the warrantor can demonstrate that the defect or damage was so caused.

Thank you commenter 12:33 for the research on the warranty requirements. Unfortunately, lots of unscrupulous dealerships, both foreign and domestic, often tend to lead the buyer to believe that ONLY the dealer parts and service will keep the warranty in force. I ALWAYS discuss my service needs with the service managers at the dealerships where I buy my new vehicles. As a mechanic, I perform all my own servicing and make it very clear that I am aware of the laws regarding warranty requirements. A detailed logbook and receipts for parts and such things as oil and filters are all that is required.

I drive only domestic vehicles and have never had a required repair under warranty (or for the first 100,000 to 150,000 miles for that matter), but I am confident that proper documentation will insure compliance with warranty issues.

My late brother noticed a knocking noise in the engine of his car just before the warranty expired. He took the car to the dealership and was told it was "nothing to worry about". About 3000 miles out of warranty his car had massive engine failure. By documenting that he had expressed concern about the issue prior to the warranty expiration, he was able to get the dealership to install a brand new factory engine at no charge.

I believe it would be useful to the discussion to note that Hyundai and Kia have the same parent company; the Hyundai Kia Motor Co. It appears that Kia is Hyundai's 'lower image' brand, although I am unsure if this translates into lower quality. I would imagine that anyone not recognizing the tremendous quality improvements of the Hyundai brand to be completely out of touch with the automotive industry worldwide.

On the point of being a 'budget' car, the launch of the new Genesis should finally put to rest the notion that this brand is for people operating on a limited budget... what I think will not change is that Hyundai is a 'value' car, which is completely different to 'budget'.

The Hyundai buyer of today tends to be well informed, well researched and intelligent about risk.

Hyundai and Kia have the same poor image, that's why their cars are so cheap... to entice people into purchasing them. Neither company has any real brand equity.

Hyundai and Kia buyers of today are looking for the lowest common denominator motoring.

It's rather interesting how everyone seems to be jumping on the bandwagon to trash the Hyundai/Kia images. You can tell when a manufacturer is succeeding these days. Just look at all of the commercials on the TV that advertise Hyundai; a phenomenal marketing campaign. Hyundai has consistently been ranked among the top leaders in both quality and value. Kia is now the official sponsor of the NBA. Not bad, they must be making money somewhere (must be their cheap cars...yeah, right).

By the way, there are 4 Hyundai models: Tiburon, Sonata, Elantra, and Accent, and 2 Kia models: Optima and Rondo, in our family.

Our fuel economy is in tatters because of our loathsome love affair with big SUVs. Way to go America; nothing short of our own sloppy greed got us into this mess.

I was stationed in the military (now retired) and spent almost 8 straight years in Europe. Everyone had econoboxes. In fact, the tariff for vehicular insurance topped out at 2.4 liters, and most of those cars/vans were diesels. The point is, in America, WE JUST DIDN'T GET IT!

Now we are faced with a crisis that will most likely take another 20 to 30 years to unbury ourselves from. The last time our country was in a surplus was in 1996, with Bill Clinton. Not many SUV's around then, were there? By the way, thanks BIG THREE; you've bent us over so far that we will never become dislodged.

Finally, another Hyundai fan. As far as I'm concerned, Hyundai is just as good as your Toyota, Mazda and Holden these days.

Back in the 80's and 90's, Hyundai was known as cheap rubbish, but in today's car market is up there with the top 5.

No matter how much money I earn has nothing to do with what I'll drive; I have always driven Hyundai and always will.

People who say that Hyundai is rubbish need to actually go and sit in one, or go a little further and test drive one; you will be very surprised.