How is the overall quality of the 2008 Hyundai Elantra?

Question

How is the overall quality of the 2008 Hyundai Elantra?

Answer 1

HYUNDAI has no quality at all. I will tell you something from my experience. I own a HYUNDAI Accent from 1998 and have only 92.000 klms (that would be about 65.000 miles). I also -and always- drive "gently". I don't drive fast, I don't accelarate strong, I don't go above 90 klms (70 miles) per hour because I want to have fuel economy.

HYUNDAI cars generally may be cheap to buy, seems to have enough good technical specifications and they're good looking. But I believe its not worth because:

a)  it has poor construction quality,

b)  it appears often mechanical and electrical malfunctions,

c)  the fuel consumption usually is bigger than this described by its book,

d)  it has expensive genuine parts so an EXPENSIVE SERVICE (something that interests you a lot, because you will have a high cost in the long term),

e)  it burns lots of oils inside its engine (so, I have to carry always Oil with me, ...if you believe it!!! - the cost to fix it it's quite big for an unacceptable malfunction).

f)  when I drive I hear sounds and “cracks” from the main body and the plastics of the car.

In the long term, I EXPERIENCED ALL THESE PROBLEMS. My opinion is absolutely NEGATIVE for HYUNDAI generally. When I will have to replace my car, I will not buy a HYUNDAI again (not only Accent, I mean any HYUNDAI). That's for sure! It's wasted money. Hyundai cars are worthless.

If HYUNDAI had quality, it would have it in 1998 and today (as a matter of principle). Often, the quality is better when someone has an older model, because every car industry by the pressure of lower cost, reduce the quality year by year. So, an older model is better in quality than a new model.  

In the other hand, when a car factory is new in the game (as HYUNDAI was in 1998) makes better products because the Industry is not known (famous) and want to have costumers. As the years passing, they reduce the quality because they gain fans and size of sales. Fans have no brain. They want tell you the truth: they are fans. So, do not take HYUNDAI. Take any car, but first search the Internet for the owners -mostly negative- opinions, reviews, problems etc..

If HYUNDAI had done improvements in the quality of its cars at the last decade, then WHY THE RESALE VALUE of Hyundai cars is STILL VERY LOW ???  

Anyone can say anything. I say that Hyundai cars are not worthing, some other says they worth. How someone can know if it is true and who is true? I will tell you.

The resale value of the cars balances by demand and supply. Someone finds the resale value at the secondary cars market. The whole market is formulating by demand and supply. We have all the Hyundai's owners and all the possible buyers. If we consider that demand is stable, we have the unstable factor "supply". The resale value is very low. WHY? Because the total of the already Hyundai owners are not sutisfied with their Hyundais and so, they want to sell their "good" cars and accept the low value that the buyers of the secondary market give them. Otherwise we can not have a low resale market value. The whole market shout to us that "HYUNDAI ARE NOT GOOD CARS". That's why they don't have good resale value. If they were good cars (today, not in 1998), their owners would appreciated and they wan't like to sell them. If they wouldn't like to sell them, the supply of used Hyundais would be small and... magically... the Hyundais would have better resale value. And we are speaking for today, not 1998.

Every one else that tells you that Hyundai are good cars, in my opinion:

>  he is an owner of Hyundai but doesn't have his car more than 5-6 years.  For so long, Hyundais and any other car, usually have no problems.  So, whoever has a Hyundai for 5-6 years can not have the same "power" opinion like this one that have a Hyundai for a long term like 10 years.

>  he is a fan, so he speaks as a fan (non logical)

>  he have something to gain (for examble maybe he's selling Hyundai)

Think of that: if you had a Hyundai, let's say for 5 years and till now you have no problems (so you were OK and happy for your choise), woul'd you find every Hyundai's topic on the "Yahoo! Answers" or any other car internet site or forum, and in every relative topic you woul'd wrote good comments about Hyundai? Is that logical?  Think about it and search for the reasons that some guys do that...

Answer 2

I own a 01 Elantra with 135,000 miles on it and is still going strong with very little problems. And I know others with older Hyundai's with very little problems as well. The new Elantra's are better in every way, which is saying alot considering how good a car the 01-06 Elantras were. In fact they are considered Best pick for used cars by Edmunds - http://www.edmunds.com/reviews/bestbet/a...

According to sofpan ALL Hyundai's are bad because his 10 yr old Accent (which he still owns) has problems. If it was so problematic how and why is he still driving it?

If Hyundai's are so bad why did it the Elantra get top pick in it's class by Consumer Reports?http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/auto...

No car is problem free as much as people would have you believe. As much as people try to say that Hondas and Toyotas are perfect and trouble free, they can have problems too.

http://www.hondaproblems.com/

http://www.toyotaproblems.com/problems/

These are just the from people who know about and care to report their problems to these sites.

Not saying Hyundai's don't have problems but, keep in mind, people not in the know go by reputaion which isn't the best way in buying a car. Hyundai's don't have the rep like others but they are a good pick.

  

Answer 3

I cannot answer from personal experience but i can answer from 2 of my friends in saying that they have had nothing but trouble with theres. The first was transmission trouble, and the second had trouble with it hard to start and they are still fighting the dealer on this. They cannot figure out the problem. Hope this helps and good luck!!

Answer 4

I personally own a 2008 Hyundai Elantra and have had no problems at all with it. They are very reliable cars, my mom has a 2006 Hyundai Accent (the cheaper version) and she has had to replace a strut for the front wheels which was covered under warranty, which otherwise has been trouble free. I did read in Consumer Reports that the SE  model was ranked second behind the Honda Civic in small cars for reliabliltiy. They are an excellent value for the money, just make sure you get he SE model with Electronic Stability Control it costs 900 more and is well worth the extra cost.

Answer 5

I have driven an 08 elantra(I deliver cars). I have never had any problems. They are not that nice, but you get what you pay for. They get good gas mileage, and are fairly reliable from what I've heard. If I was going to get a hyundai I'd go with the sonata, but they are a little more expensive.

Answer 6

Hyundai still has that stigma of being a "cheap", car but that stigma these days is reserved for a small group of people who have little knowledge of cars or are have some strange hatred towards any cars that are not domestic (a.k.a. rednecks)  Overall Hyundais always score very well in long term quality surveys, beating out all domestics in long term reliability surveys.  I never owned a Hyundai, but do like the new ones, and recently did a long distance road trip in a 99 Elantra with over 350,000km on it with  original engine and transmission from Toronto to Los Angeles and back and made it back no problem.  Tough cars that last as long as a honda or toyota.