Pros: Value. Nothing else can touch it there.
Sound system
Stowage space
Cons: Thin paint
Could use 10-15 more horses
requires Tiburon sway bar for 'spirited' driving
The Bottom Line: If you're on a budget and require a new car that's fun to drive and practical, take one for a spin and ignore the Hyundai stigma. They've nailed it.
I have a confession to make. I drive a Hyundai... two of them, since 2001 - the first car I owned was a 1995 Sonata that I bought with 98,998 miles on it the month I graduated from college. That happened to be the same month that the first Elantra GT arrived in the States. I've been keeping it in the back of my mind ever since. When the Sonata died last month (and now that I have a better job), I traded it in - all $200 value of it - for an Elantra GT with 16 miles, as a result of nearly three years of on-and-off research.
Here are the major points I came up with after owning it for four weeks...
• You will never find another car with the features and amenities of this one, even for $3000 more. It won't happen. Stop trying. Resign yourself to a 4-door Echo (with standard AM/FM radio, oh boy!), or buy this, if you're limited to $12k or so.
• The leather seats are improved for 2004 over previous years. Perforated, and a nicer color. 550 mile 7.5-hour road trips are no problem - I've done four of them since taking delivery.
• The purple dash and Kenwood CD/mp3 player are supercool. People's eyes shoot out when I toss them the remote control for the stereo... they can't believe my Hyundai CAME with a head unit cool enough to have a remote. Not to mention the 6 speakers (including door-mount tweeters) do a good job of sound reproduction. I have a degree in music performance, and I really dig the way this thing sounds.
• Everything is easy to find, once you get the hang of it. No funky center-mounted gauges, no switches hidden behind the steering wheel. Three stalks - one for cruise, one for lights (fog and head), and one for wipers (front and rear). I admit to being biased, since I came off of a Sonata with roughly the same arrangement sans the extra bells and whistles like foglights and rear wiper.
• Spring for a couple of little things at the dealer. The cargo tray is vital if you carry anything at all dirty in the back. Buy the aluminum footrest from a Tiburon (the dealer should stock it) for like $18 or so, it takes just a minute and a phillips screwdriver to install and makes your car look a bit better every time you get inside. Mudflaps are also key... I've got 'em on order right now. I don't mean to sound like the salesdrone at your Hyundai dealership, but this stuff is a lot more worthwhile and less expensive than pinstrips or "paint protect" or "rust inhibitor."
• Get the stickshift. Even if you can't drive stick. I couldn't, a month ago. It was worth learning. This thing is very forgiving, and it's easier to milk power out of the 2.0L DOHC VVT engine with a stick. That engine - well, it's got spunk, but not a lot of oomph, if that makes sense; it likes to jump, but can get bogged down, especially when the car is loaded full of stuff and you're climbing mountain passes. The stickshift also costs nearly $1000 less. MSRP is a $800 difference, but dealers know that a manual car is a harder sell, and they'll bend a bit if you remind them of that fact. Besides, you'll save money on gasoline, also.
• On the same lines, the handling is a decent balance of soccer mom and Walter Mitty... which means they knew they'd have a tough time pleasing everyone, but they tried anyway. It works for me. If you want slacker handling, buy a GLS and forgo features; if you want firmer, throw on a Tiburon 19.2mm sway bar ($125ish), a front strut tower bar ($85-$130), and replace tires & wheels. The stock Michelins haven't given me any trouble; I'll likely swing for something a bit more grippy when I replace them. Brakes are similarly middlin' - 4-wheel discs are nice, but ABS is a costly option bundled with a sunroof, which I didn't need. I have yet to really panic-stop, so I can't speak for performance, but they slow me down plenty adequately.
• Gas mileage is pretty decent. I average 30-31mpg at 75-80mph road trips, and recently drove around the mountains of NC with 650 extra pounds of people and gear AND four aerodynamics-killing mountain bikes (150 lbs incl. rack) on the roof... it still made around 25mpg. It's easy to tell, since there's a trip computer which includes calculated mileage and estimated miles until empty.
• The driver's seat is PLUSH. Front/rear sliding, reclining, fore & aft seat height adjustment, and for some reason Hyundai doesn't advertise it but there's a lumbar support lever on the side of the seat that makes one's back feel great when in the car for more than a 1/2 hour. Oh yeah, I'm 6'2".
• Lots of storage space - both in 60/40 rear seats that fold completely flat, and 8+ drawers/nooks/crannies/compartments within reach of the driver's seat.
That's all I can come up with right now. I do want to list a few downsides to this car:
• People who you can't actually put in the car to show it off laugh at you for buying a Hyundai.
• The alloy rims are all left over from late 90's Tiburons. It's sad but true - a buddy has a '99 Tib with identical rims, I checked. I think they look alright anyway, though, and if using overstock rims helps Hyundai move this car for cheap, I'm all for it.
• Shifting into second gear on my car requires waiting for the revs to drop below 3000 or so, and you hafta sorta wiggle it into neutral on the way, you can't just drop straight from 1st to 2nd... or else it grinds horribly. (yes, the clutch is all the way down.) This should be a warranty thing; I've just been babying it until I can make time to get it to the dealer. If they don't fix it, I'll update.
• You'll rack up the miles just because driving it is so blasted fun. At this rate my powertrain warranty will be gone in four or five years. My fault.
• It does not handle OR accelerate quite like a Mazda3s, Focus SVT, or Civic Si. However, it also does not cost $17,000-$19,500. You make the call whether the extra $4-6k is worth it... or sink half of that into intake/tires/wheels/suspension upgrades, and end up with far more car for the buck anyway. I do admit to wishing for the SVT's 170hp engine, and a friend bought a 200hp RSX Type-S a week before I bought my Elantra... but he paid $9k more than I did. He's a software engineer who hates his job, I work in the bicycle industry and love it. Who gets the last laugh? You decide.
update! It's September 17; I've owned the car for four and a half months now, and it has 8650 miles on it (I like to drive). Windows have been tinted to 27% VLT, I've put an Infinity Basslink in the hatch to help with low-end ooompf, and it now sports a bug deflector on the front of the hood. I've come to discover that the factory-installed CD/MP3 player is perfect for long road trips, as I can load in one CD of high-quality MP3 tracks and listen to it for seven hours straight before it repeats. I have decided that a 1.4" drop (new lowering springs) and the aforementioned 19.2mm sway bar from the Tiburon are in order, because it leans just a bit too much for my tastes given the way I drive... just a matter of being able to afford them, hopefully in another four months. 2nd gear is still a problem; I really must get to a dealer sometime to get that addressed. The car has also developed a few interior trim rattles, which means I'm pulling "fit & finish" off of the Pros list below. I will http://www.fatmat.com the car as soon as possible, again limited by the speed with which money flows into my bank account. I am not unhappy, just not impressed; I don't expect Lexus-like finish from a economy Hyundai, it would just be nice. After the fatmat, it will be excellent, and that's only a $100 investment.
update #2! It's November 19th, 11,300 miles. The car still puts a wacky grin on my face whenever I get in it to go somewhere. The dealer dropped a new transmission in, and it's smooth like greased butter now. A week later I found a short-throw shifter on eBay for $15 and installed it; this thing is much more fun to drive now that it doesn't feel like I'm rowing a boat with every shift. Will be installing aforementioned 19.2mm Tiburon swaybar kit one week from today. I can't wait, it'll eat up the twisties even more. My remaining quibbles are still interior trim rattles on rough roads and inadequately sticky tires... Hyundai specs these Michelins for mileage and wear over performance, which I can understand. When they die, they're getting replaced with some cheap performance Kumhos.
My verdict? I still honestly believe that, for what I paid, I could not have found a better car even for four thousand more. I don't want an autocross machine, cargo-hauling beast, or luxury sedan... I got a car that is a little bit of all four. I still relish the thought of driving around in it, and that's what counts.
update #3! November 19, 2005. Exactly one year later - I swear I didn't plan it this way. Rolled 30k on the way to work yesterday morning. The car still puts a stupid grin on my face. Shocks and tires are holding up remarkably well. Mileage has improved a good bit; I guess the engine needed to be broken in. Imagine my shock when I filled up in Pittsburgh and made it clear down I-95 to the VA/NC line, and then only put 12 gallons in the tank. 36.95mpg is very pleasing in this era of $3/gal gasoline. Maintenance has been easy; I've got seven oil changes down and routinely check fluids, and the only 30k stuff that I wasn't comfortable doing (the coolant flush) was done by the dealer in half an hour, along with an inspection since it was free. Oh yeah, front and rear strut tower braces are in the mail. I'm very much looking forward to the tauter handling.
I'm still in love with this car. After a year and a half, this is awesome. I fully expect to drive it into the ground, eight or ten years from now, and be most happy doing so.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 11622
Condition: New Model Year: 2004 Model and Options: base GT hatch, 5s manual
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