Hyundai Elantra 2001-2006

elantradriver

I just went to the Toyota Canada website and used their payment calculator. I am currently paying $321 a month over 60 months for my Elantra VE. For a Corolla LE with no options added over a 60 month term I would be paying 417.16 a month. Over the length of the financing that is a difference of $5769, in other words quite a chunk of change . Of course that price on the Corolla also doesn't include any other hidden costs such as administrative fees, licensing or registration. My point simply is that if you look at the real cost of the two vehicles and not merely MSRP the Elantra clearly comes across as a much better value for the dollar.

intrepidspirit

The short warranty in Canada proves that automakers will do what they feel they have to do to be competitive. Obviously they feel they are where they want to be in Canada without offering the 5/10 year warranties that are standard here.

It may be they want to grow their market in the U.S. more than Canada. New car prices in Canada are much lower than in the U.S. at the 60-65% exchange rates experienced over the last several years, so their profit magins are much lower.

Pricing (actual not MRSP) varies from coast to coast in the U.S. The small car market is fierce in Southern California and pricing is lower. I assume Hyundai gives S.C. dealers incentives to offset the lower prices. I know several people on this board from the Eastern U.S. were amazed last year at the $10,998 price I paid for my daughter's 2001 Elantra (MRSP $14,032). The truth is I got a good price, but it was not a "one only". I could have made the same deal anytime over the following year.

Bottom line -- they will offer you only what they feel they need to in order to meet their sales objectives. So your deal really depends on where you live.

mazdaprofour

could someone please answer my question

intrepidspirit

Pat, you requested I keep you updated on any response from the Edmund's editors on the final report ror the long-term Elantra test. I sent an e-mail on Tuesday (5/4) and have not yet received a response...I will keep you updated.

elantradriver

How can you afford to buy a new car when your going bankrupt? Shouldn't they be taking everything you have?

mazdaprofour

No they do not take everything you have. Thousands of people claim bankruptcy each year. You think they would do it if they had to loose everything? I could afford 430.00 a month but I was just tired of paying that for a protege that was already starting to show problems. But any answers to my original post will be greatly appreciated.

pat

Okay! It is very odd that they have not finished up that series.

mazdaprofour

No they do not take everything you have. Thousands of people claim bankruptcy each year. You think they would do it if they had to loose everything? I could afford 430.00 a month but I was just tired of paying that for a protege that was already starting to show problems. But any answers to my original post will be greatly appreciated.

pat

mazdaprofour, you might also want to check into the various discussions occuring on our Finance, Warranty & Insurance board. It's possible you'll get some good feedback over there while you are waiting to see if someone in this discussion has some thoughts for you.

Good luck.

Pat
Sedans Host

mazdaprofour

Thank you for the advice. I did not think of that. I do hope that some people that have dealt with a similar situation as mine respond. Thanks

pat

Some argumentative messages have been removed. Let's move on please.

Pat
Sedans Host

intrepidspirit

I understand they sold the long-term Elantra on e-bay in April or May.

Could it be a case of "out of sight, out of mind?" Could they really have so quickly forgotten the Elantra that was so dear to all their hearts?

Oh, well, it's only been two days since I inquired...

buoyant

I got the impression (I'm not sure why now - it's been 6 months since I bought my car) from my dealer that they get volume incentives from Hyundai. I.e., the more they sell, the less they pay for each car.

I don't know if this is true or not (could someone confirm?), but it would explain how some dealers (particularly those in So Cal) seem all to willing to sell cars below what APPEARS to be their true cost.

Lastly, I just want to welcome the new posters (prospective buyers) to the board and suggest they look at previous postings for additional owner's comments (and to keep the board from getting too redundant). I've noticed that quite often someone asks a question that was only asked and discussed a few days/weeks prior.

Rock on fellow Elantra owners!

vocus

With this new software, I think Edmunds' was trying to eliminate duplicate posts by making it easier to search for past posts. Hope it works.

goofy10

i live in Jersey ... w/ all our taxs and fees cars aint cheap around here .. thats y i figured this was a good deal. the price from carsdirect w/ package 5 and auto-trans was 13+ ... so how bad can 11995 be.

backy

This is a tough choice. I think they are both near the top of the heap in the compact class (a bit below the Corolla and Jetta IMO). I bought the Elantra (in October 2000), but the Protege was my 2nd choice.

In my town (Twin Cities), there are excellent deals on both cars right now, e.g. a base GLS for under $10,000 and an automatic for $11,000. And I've recently seen loaded Pro LXes with automatic, moonroof, ABS, and alloys for around $13,000. So pricewise they are nearly a tossup, unless you want a base model for the lowest possible price, then the Elantra may have the edge.

Personally I think it comes down to a couple of things between the two cars:
1. Protege's crisper handling (and firmer ride) vs. Elantra's more comfortable ride (but slower handling). I personally prefer the Elantra's ride, but lots of people love the Protege for its handling even with the thumps. Anyway, they do drive distinctly different, so that alone may sway it for you.
2. Better predicted reliability on the Protege vs. Elantra's longer warranty. One or the other may give you more peace of mind.

There are other, more intangible differences too. For example, your friends may think the Pro is cooler than the Elantra, and that may be important to you. Hyundais still make some people turn up there noses as in, "You bought a Hyundai?" I've personally had only compliments on my Elantra (maybe because this is the Midwest and people are being "Minnesota Nice", I don't know), but if that might bother you the Pro is the safer bet.

lngtonge18

I would say Hyundai is semi-difficult to get financing with, especially for those with lower credit. When I bought my 00 Accent new, it was my first car purchase and my credit had only been building for 2 years. I wasn't even considered by Hyundai Finance and was turned down by Ford credit and a few others. My dealer ended up putting me with Suntrust (which was my actual bank) and got me a 12.75% interest rate (high but not near as high as some have gotten buying a Kia). The fact that you are claiming bankruptcy is really going to hurt your chances at getting approved. More then likely, the dealer will have to seach hard for a bank that will finance you and you will get stuck with a super high interest rate. I don't think your payment will go down all that much and it would be pointless to waste all that money on high interest charges, especially considering the lower resale value of Hyundais. Maybe its better to just get a low mileage used car or just stick with the Protege. My friend is claiming bankruptcy and is letting them repo his 01 Rodeo because he is sick of the high payments. He is buying my 00 Accent outright so he will no longer have to worry about the high payments. I think he is smart in doing that as it will give him a chance to get his finances back in order. Good luck and hope this helps a little.

jimbeaumi

When I bought my Elantra last July, I was only about four years into my bankruptcy, and I was approved for a loan. A relatively high rate, and the dealer did search far and wide for financing, but I got it. The credit analyst called and talked with me personally about my situation, which helped (I used to do similar work and spoke his language). I was reluctant to apply, but wanted to spare my (somewhat) wealthy friends the burden of helping me out on such a scale.

dlaing1

Here is an interesting site, describing the top speed limiter on the 1997 Elantra and how to disable it. http://webhome.idirect.com/~trini/car/lim.html Note that disabling it without modifying the car for higher speeds is dangerous and may invalidate your warranty.Another site shows the performance numbers for the 2002 elantra: http://carpoint.msn.com/Vip/Heraud/Hyundai/Elantra/2002S.asp

buoyant

Be careful not to play "the Strokes" too loudly on your factory Elantra system.

My left tweeter is making a buzzing sound now.

canadave

Canc:

Still have to disagree with you on the Corolla vs. Elantra comparison. As "elantradriver" pointed out here earlier, the fact that the MSRP alone is similar has very little to do with the relative value of the car. If the MSRP was similar and the Toyota interest rate was 1.5% and the Hyundai rate was 8%, Toyota would obviously be the better deal.

I will TOTALLY agree with you about the warranty. "Intrepidspirit": I understand the thinking on the warranty, but it just seems silly to have the exact same car (for all intents and purposes) have completely different warranties in different countries simply for sales reasons. A warranty, theoretically, should primarily reflect the expected reliability of the car. It shouldn't wind up being a function of what sales targets the company wants to hit in a particular locale.

My two cents

Dave

vocus

I got financing through Chrysler Financial when I bought my Protege in Feb. 2001, and got financed through VW Credit when I got my Jetta in 11/01. The rate with the Pro was like 12.7, and now it's like 11.5 or something. Still high, but alot better than what I was paying. I was able to get a car that cost $7000 more and the payments only went up like $40 a month or something. Not a bad deal.

I don't have bad credit though, so I don't know why the rate was so high. I have alot of cards with high balances, but they are all paid on time and everything. I am going to try to refinance my car when I pay off all these cards, and see what kinda rate I will get then.

intrepidspirit

goofy10...seems like a great deal in NJ @ $11,995!

canadave...I understand your point on the warranty period. However, think like an auto manufacturer -- any warranty extended beyond standard (e.g. 36 months) has a potential cost to them. Why provide an extended warranty if they can meet their sales goals without doing so? It just makes good business sense to limit liability!

tmant

Hi, have recently been reading up on the Elantra here, but certainly have a hard time reading all the messages or finding what I am looking for.

I am very interested in buying a 2002 Elantra. I'm still not sure if I will get the GT or GLS yet. I live in the Houston area and am looking at either the base GLS, GLS w/option 5, or GT w/option 11. Part of my difficulty in selecting is partly due to the different rebates available ($1500,$1000, and $0).

Anyway, I did have several questions:

1. The salesman told me the GLS has NO oil filter and pointed out an area on top of the engine that looks like where one would have been installed, yet a catalog in Walmart shows the part number for an oil filter. I couldn't really get under the car to check. Is this guy nuts?

2. Does anyone know what the ground clearance is? I've had an old Civic that was so low that it scraped everything; matter of fact, I traded it in because I hit a piece of stray sidewalk and damaged the transmission.

3. Is leather seating trim in the GT the whole chair (bottom and back) or just the seat bottom? This might help determine if I should go with the GT or not. I didn't test drive the GT to see for myself yet.

csandste

"The salesman told me the GLS has NO oil filter and pointed out an area on top of the engine that looks like where one would have been installed, yet a catalog in Walmart shows the part number for an oil filter. I couldn't really get under the car to check. Is this guy nuts?"

BTW-- It's down by the manifold about where you'd expect it to be. I was treated well when I bought my car and haven't really been back since some body work (hail) done the first week. I did not some real dullards hanging around as salesmen, however. At that time (about a year ago) they were totally unaware of the GT until about a week before it arrived.

th003g

gt leather seats are leather surfaces as in the places your body touches when sittin in them so it would be bottom cushion, backrest and headrest. vinyl is on sides of bottom cusion, and sides and back of backrest.

browney

Pat,
I did a search on 'filter' and all I got was the info below.
Shouldn't there be some type of link to the actual message or should I be taken directly to the mesage?

ee9e737 - filter
Keywords: filter
Sedans
Hyundai Elantra 2678 messages, last on Jun 07, 2002

All matching items have been found.

browney

For all who are checking out getting a new Elantra or other vehicle.
Not only should you get pricing from carsdirect.com before you go to haggle with the dealer but you should also get prequalified for a loan online before you go.
Use the link from edmunds to peoplefirst.com or any other online loan service.
I did this a year ago when I bought my elantra and got pre approved for 6.9%. When I went to the dealer they were only to happy to try and give me almost 9%. After showing them the paperwork from the online loan they changed to 7%. Be ready for anything with dealers. ;-)

jimbeaumi

Why is it that car salesmen don't seem to read any publications having to do with cars? I've read too many stories of car shoppers inquiring about upcoming models or powertrain changes (which we read about in car mags) and are met with blank stares or denials. It's quite annoying. Even my finance guy was insistent that my Elantra was rated by Consumer Reports as a "Best Buy", which is something they do not do for cars (that would be Consumer's Digest). Fortunately I had a decent salesman who seemed more knowledgeable than most.

In short, yes I do have an oil filter. Maybe tmant's salesman was confusing oil filter with distributor (which we don't have). That kind of confusion scares me.

lngtonge18

I have found those online financing places a complete waste of time and totally laughable. I applied for a simple 12k loan from eloan and was approved but at an interest rate of 18% or somewhere thereabouts! The dealer got me 12.75% and I had a credit card at the time with 12% (a year later with a score about the same, I was approved with Mitsu finance for an 18k car at 9.9% and the 000 deal). To top it off, the check could not be used for a Hyundai, Daewoo, or Kia. I was so pissed (cause I wanted to use it to buy an Elantra) that I almost sent them a nasty letter along with "refused" written over the loan acceptance because they should have plainly stated that fact on their webpage. Anywho, unless you have a credit score over 700, I wouldn't even bother wasting your time with online financing. It's not worth the hassle, nor the inquiry on your credit.

jimbeaumi

I was expecting a "no-go" on my Elantra loan last year, and the finance department did lots of legwork to find me a lender. Any finance department willing to make a sale for the dealer should go to great lengths to get most of us approved. It was only in the following weeks that I realized how much they tried, because many rejection letters showed up in my mailbox.

backy

I was hoping that Consumer Reports would make the Elantra one of its recommended picks once its reliability improves to at least "average", which it is close to now. However, I read the fine print in this month's review of the Corolla et. al. and noticed they now require that a vehicle not only have at least an average predicted reliability rating, but also that it has no "poor" crash test scores. That means unless Hyundai fixes the problems that caused the poor IIHS frontal offset crash test score and forces a re-test, the earliest that the Elantra could get CR's approval is early 2006, when the next-generation Elantra would be tested.

Bad news #2: I found out this weekend I may have to sell my Elantra 5-speed and get an automatic-equipped car. I found out that my lovely wife really doesn't know how to drive a stick shift, really doesn't like driving a stick shift, and tends to do strange and hurtful things to the car when she is driving a stick shift. She doesn't drive my car very often, maybe once a month when I am on a camping trip with the Scouts or the Caravan is in the shop. But that's once a month too often as far as I am concerned. The #1 choice is of course the GLS automatic (maybe with a moonroof this time), but as long as I am going to buy a car I might as well have some fun and look at other options, like the Elantra GT, the Golf GTI, and the Impreza wagon. I've already ruled out many other choices like the Civic, Corolla, Esteem, Lancer, Protege, Focus, Neon, and Spectra.

csandste

for less $$$ than you are going to lose getting rid of that car. Love my GLS and depreciation may be improving, but the Elantra is still a car to be driven into the gound and not traded quickly.

jimbeaumi

OR you could teach the lovely bride how to drive a stick shift and enjoy it. Personally, I'd seek a divorce.

OK -- KIDDING.

backy

for the advice. The short-term rentals is a good idea, price-wise. It's the hassle factor that gives me pause. Still, probably cheaper than trading in the present car. And as far as teaching the wife how to drive a stick... let's just say this is not all skills-related. She's been driving a stick for twenty years. There are, uh, other factors at work here.

jimbeaumi

Yippee! Car and Driver printed my letter! I just had to respond to their silly remark about the bad switchgear in a new Mercedes being pilfered from the Hyundai parts bin.

backy

I'm glad they printed your letter. They chucked mine in the "vertical file", which was regarding their omission of the Elantra GT in their 5-door comparo.

dustbail

Hey Vocus....you said

"I don't have bad credit though, so I don't know why the rate was so high. I have alot of cards with high balances, but they are all paid on time and everything. I am going to try to refinance my car when I pay off all these cards, and see what kinda rate I will get then."

The reason for the high rate is your Debt/income ratio. They feel you are high risk because you have "lots of credit card with high balances." Even though you should check with a local Bank or Credit Union and if your credit is good and you owe less on your car that its worth you should be able to get a rate between 5-8%. I know that locally our intrest rate is 5.75% just recently lowered my rate to that from 6.5.

csandste

Although I should probably be gratified that Hyundai has the same headlamps as certain BMW's and Lexii, I thought the process of installing the bulb was more complex than the standard units. Fumbled around with the little retainer spring for some time. It was the passenger sized light so I didn't have to remove the battery holder.

Why did Hyundai go with this expensive lamp? Does it make some kind of styling statement unavailable with standard lamp units?

intrepidspirit

Just to keep you informed -- still no reply from the editors to my e-mail of 6/4 re the Elantra long term test vehicle. It doesn't look like they plan to do a final report...

pat

Heh, if I were you I'd keep sending them emails.

intrepidspirit

Nah...its not life and death -- just curiosity! It's like reading a book and finding the last page torn out -- by the author!

desg

I've mailed them

I find it a bit slack at best not to have done a round up by now

elantradriver

I've been waiting to read this lsat update for quite a while now and still nothing. Makes no sense. I wonder if this is a common thing with their long term tests.

edovid

All I can figure is they think we read the monthlies, so what else is there to say? However, the least they could do is tell us what it sold for, a key indicator of the model year's resale value. How bad could it be?

goofy10

Did anybody get a dealer installed remote start alarm on they're Elantra? Or has anybody even heard of the dealers having one?

dorf47

I wonder how much statistical info Consumer Reports actually got on the 2001 El antra. I did find reading their car edition kinda funny. They'd say a particular model had wind/highway/uncomfortable seats/etc. and still recommend it! And they downplayed the reliability of the Focus-that car has had some serious issues. I was also wondering when that article was going to show up.

jimbeaumi

Consumer Reports downplayed nothing on the Focus. They do not recommend it because it has the lowest reliability rating in the "small cars" category.

vocus

I remember the car going for something like $6600 on EBay, at least I think that was the starting bid. That might give you an idea of resale values, but then again Edmunds just probably wanted to give the car a good home, because they were done with it.

In the MD area, there are some used Elantras. You could find some in your area (to get an idea) by using http://www.getauto.com. I found some here, and they are going for $10,500-11,500 with ~20K miles on them.

csandste

U.S. News and World Report has a favorable story on Hyundai's turnaround

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/020624/biztech/24hyundai.htm

However, their reviewer positively hates the Elantra GT

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/auto/hyundai_elantra.htm

"The Elantra does not inspire boldness. There's a huge soft spot in the car's acceleration even on the so-called GT model which forces you to hit the gas and play with the clutch a little to raise the RPMs needed to get any power. The delayed reaction means a few extra seconds to pass or get up to cruising speed. On curves, the nose dips and the vehicle feels like it just wants to give up, instead of fighting physics to hold the road. If that doesn't give the driver an inferiority complex, I also noticed that the Elantra gets little respect from other drivers, who seemed disinclined to let me merge in front of them, ever. It was like they didn't even see me. Publicity-shy celebrities should drive this car. Nobody would ever notice them."