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Comments
Jeff
I had been driving a '92 Pontiac Grand Prix for a little over two years now. I bought it for $5k but recently it had been turning into a money pit (tranny, struts, AC, everything else...). So two Sundays ago I decided to bite the bullet and buy new.
I first stopped off at the local dodge (Century III) dealership to take a look at the Neon. The sales person was a nice guy, not pushy. He showed me a Neon SXT, which was nicely loaded (alloy wheels, CD player, moon roof, power everything). I took it for a spin. It seemed like a nice car, but it just felt cheap and was closing in on $16k. Told him I would get back to him if I was interested (never called ;-))
My next stop was Toyota (Day). They only had one Corolla on the lot. It was white, not many options, and a little over $14k...and it was, to my eyes, very strange looking. The sales guy didn't seem interested in making a sale, and just said "Toyota's the best"...I moved on...
Next stop was Mitsubishi (South Park). I went there because of the 0-0-0 (no down payment, zero interest, zero payments for a year) which was, ACCORDING TO THE AD, on all cars. As I was looking at a Lancer, which was a decent looking car, OK options, $13-$14k, a nice sales person approached. We talked, and it eventually turned out that the ad on the radio was, in reality, false.
The 0-0-0 deal was only to be had on a 2002 Mirage. I looked at one, at it was, frankly, a hunk of junk. Too plain, no options, TINY, a pitiful 95 horse power...around $12k. I went inside at talked about the lancer...there were no incentives, interest rate was high, and the car was a tad expensive...towards the end the sales guy got really pushy and eventually brought out the manager (sign they knew i was walking)...I told the manager that they shouldn't advertise what's not true, and walked (felt damn good ;-))
I then stopped in at the local GM dealership (Century III). They had some good deals on the sunfire, but sitting in it was no different than sitting in my old Grand Prix...everything screamed CHEAP (more so then my 10 year old 'Tiac)! I headed on out of there.
So finally, I stopped off at the Hyundai dealership (McMinn). There were a lot of GLS's and one GT. The sales guy approached, and was friendly. He let me sit in a bunch of GLS's, a new Tibby (just curious..What a car!!) and the GT. I really liked the GT, but they're rare around here so there were no deals on them. He finally just laid it out for me:
I was able to get a 2002 GLS in black, auto trans, and power everything, for $11.5k!! I took it for a spin. This car drove unbelievably well for the price! Great handling, steering feel, brakes were linear, decent power (above 3000 revs it picks up nicely with a nice little engine growl)- my mom has a Volvo S80..and tho the Elantra is no S80, it's not far off performance wise, I'll tell you what.
Nothing in the car screamed cheap(unlike the neon, lancer, mirage, and especially sunfire). It felt almost like a Camry inside. The doors shut with a nice "phwuump." (what's with them door locks tho? dumb design Hyundai...change em!)The car felt as solid, if not more so, then many cars twice its price.
And the styling!! A little odd to some, but I find it sexy. Looks like a Saab. And that black is SHARP! Blends the black in the headlight, grill, and fog-light hole covers nicely. Good lookin steel rims.
I fell in love, and took the delivery the next day (a little over $12k with extended warranty...didn't get CD player tho
All in all, tho the others make a quality car, they cannot compete with Hyundai in terms of quality for cost! I would be more than happy to spend 4 or 5k more on another elantra, just glad I don't have too!
WAY TO GO HYUNDAI!!!
~alpha
Glad you got an Elantra though, it's a better looking car at a lower price, and it's more feature packed and comfortable too, I think. And don't forget about the power (Elantra has one of the highest power ratings in the class).
Enjoy your new ride!
BTW,my Elentra has 16k on it .Have it for two years in two weeks.No problem.
Drove to the Lake George for the July,4th long weekend,800 miles round trip,A/C was on 80% of the time,average 30mile/g.Beautiful.
BTW, an interesting anecdote: I took my car to work the other day, and parked it out in front. My manager was standing outside smoking, and commented, "Hey Jon, nice ride! What's that, a new Saab?" Just think, I could own almost three elantra's for the cost of a Saab...and still fool the non-highly trained eye ;-)
Peace all,
Jon
Anyways, has anyone installed an aftermarket CD player? Just curious as to how the speakers will handle it, and if they sound OK. I think the stock Hyundai stero is around 100 watts, so I wouldn't imagine that'd be a problem...any comments or suggestions?
Peace,
Jon
A. Money for the dealer. Most are marked up 100% at least.
Q. I am also puzzled by the dealer's service charge.Just did 15k service for $129 on last Friday ,kind of expensive.Does the service have to be done by Hyundai dealers,or any garages are ok? Need advice.
A. If I understand the protections of the Magnuson-Moss Act, any garage able to do those things on the punch list can preform the (rather limited) 15K mile service. If they require the service or fluids be performed in their shop, they've got to supply it free.
In fact, I'm seriously considering letting a trusted independent garage do the 30K service. You could, in fact perform the services yourself, but could be challenged that you didn't really follow through, so having a receipt listing your car is always a good thing to avoid being challenged on fraud. (Hear me Toyota philes with your gelling?)
I just installed a Kenwood KDC-MPV619 MP3 player and love it. I do have the Hyundai CD that was in my GT and if you are interested we could work something out...I was thinking about putting it on eBay.
Jon
Jon
Checkup tomorrow at 15K.
Jon
I had a Sony 10-disc changer installed in my daughter's 2001 Elantra when I bought it 1 year ago. It works fine, but the stereo system in the Elantra is limited. So, given this limitation, there is no problem. It has an attached control unit that can sit on the console or could be attached to the dash. My daughter is happy with it!
I had this unit installed along with a remote entry/alarm system. The total package cost was $300 ($324 including tax). Hope this helps...
BTW, my daughter drove 500+ miles from the Los Angeles area to north of San Francisco on Monday through the 100+ temperatures of the California Central Valley and through the winding roads of the mountainous Redwood forests to the northern coast with no problems. What a great car!
Other than my random ramblings, this car is doing so great at one year old. I am very very happy. Have I said that already? She's a gem. May have said that too.
I hope all of you are having such good performance!
A very good mechanic answered the alignment question for me this way: "Have you nailed any really big potholes? Are the tires wearing evenly? Is the car tracking straight, no wandering or pulling? No? Then drive the thing and leave me alone." Point being that if all seems to be okay, don't worry about it. My wife has a Safari van with over 70K miles on it. Never been aligned, and when I had it checked at 60K it was dead on.
As a side note, if you do start getting a slight pull to one side or another, the first thing to check, assuming air pressure is correct, of course, is tire rotation. If you rotate the tires and the pulling changes, be aware that a belt is begining to slip and a vibration is soon to follow. Of the four BFG Radial T/As on her Safari, three have been replaced due to belts letting go. On the last one, pieces of tread started coming off. The tires have always been kept between 32 and 35 psi, so it wasn't an under/over inflation issue. Just so you know...
Jim (also)
But, after driving this Elantra for two weeks, I notice many people eye it up every where I go! Anyone else notice this? I've kept the car really clean so far, and to my eye it looks like a little Saab or Benz. But, man, I just LOVE the idea that some people (a lot, I've noticed) are checkin out my $12k car and thinking, "nice ride!" Hopefully, they're not lookin at it cause they think it looks wierd...much like the: Echo, New Beetle, Prius, MR2, Sunfire, Lancer, Metro, any buick, Insight, and the list goes on...
Any ideas? Gloatings? ;-)
Jim
The 3 is the compact sized BMW.
Anyway, the cost of the changer (Sony 10-disc) I believe was advertised @$99, so it shouldn't be more than $200 installed for something comparable..
People try to steal my fun by saying (whining), "Oh, but black is SOOOOOOO hard to keep clean!" Funny, I had a radical method for it called "washing". Next car is destined to be black. Enjoy the stares, Elantrance!
http://carpoint.msn.com/vip/heraudspecs.aspx?modelid=10241&src=vip
O-60 in more than 10 seconds...does anyone else find this a tad slow? Even with a slushbox?
Just wondering!
Jon
I just moved back to Minneapolis to take a new job after doing a six month stint out in Spokane, WA. And because I'm not exactly farting through silk at the moment, I decided it was too expensive to rent a truck. Instead, I just threw/gave everything away that wouldn't fit in my Elantra.
As you might imagine, my car was quite PACKED. I couldn't move my seat back, and my view to the right was even blocked by crap stacked up on the passenger seat. I assume I probably surpassed the vehicle's load rating (and then some). Ok, that's the set-up.
Here are my fuel economy readings for the trip:
Spokane-Butte 316.1 miles 8.010 gallons
Butte-Billings 223.3 miles 6.341 gallons
Billings-Dickinson 320.5 miles 8.750 gallons
Dickinson-Fargo 288.9 miles 9.539 gallons
Fargo-Minneapolis 212.0 miles 5.619 gallons
total trip 1360.8 miles 38.259 gallons
That's a fuel economy average of 35.6! I'd say that's pretty dang impressive.
I probably should note again that mine is a 5spd and it had 14K on it at the start of the trip. My fuel economy readings have increased NOTICEABLY over the last few thousand miles.
I am amazed. I was certain my mileage readings this last trip through the Rockies with a full load at 80mph were going to be horrible. Plus, the temps were 100-105 degrees from Spokane all the way to Dickinson, ND.
It just keeps getting better all the time!
I love this car!!!!!
pickup on elantra is slow but let it rev to about 4k... at that # the engine comes to life and presses you back into the seat... and does so all the way up to redline...
Th003g, I agree...the elantra feels in the mid 8's to 0-60 with auto...and ya, it has nil power below about 3 grand...but above that, along with a nice lil engine snarl, it has a good amount of power! Feels almost like some V-TEC or VVT-i at work..I know its not, but is kinda cool none the less. Driving IS believing! ;-)
If you are getting 21.5 in the city now, you should get a 10-15% improvement as the engine loosens up. This would bring you close to the vehicle rating (do you have std or auto?). So much depends on the driver and how heavy his left foot is.
Sorry, can't help you with the braking -- haven't experienced a problem.
Hope you enjoy your car!
Jon
Thought I'd report my first drag race... (haha...sounds funny...but fun!)..ya, I know..I shouldn't do that...and I know I'm still breaking it in...but he started it!!
Anyways, it was about 11:30 pm...I was heading home from my girlfriends house...as usual, the main drag (Route 51) in the south hills of pittsburgh was desolate...I came to a stop at a red light and, much to my shagrin, a red Neon R/T pulled up next to me...
I guess the guy wanted some fun, so he started to rev that engine of his...so I, being the 20 year old college kid I am, couldn't refuse a fight! Plus I was curious as to what my lil black Hyundai could do *g*.
Anways...I didn't do a neutral drop (have an auto)...don't wanna hurt my lil buddy...light turned green, and he pulled away...then BAM..the 140hp in my hyundai kicked in above 3 grand or so and left that neon lookin at my tail lights!
We both came up to the next light (also red) and the guy in the car next to me rolled down his window... "Dude, what kinda car's that?"
I responded, "You were beaten by a Hyundai!"
He laughed a lil...then pulled away...knowing he had been beaten by a lil Korean four door sedan...
I scouf at your R/T's!!
HELL YA ;-)
What really makes me laugh is when people pull up next to my car (a 1.8T Jetta) in their hopped-up Civics and try to race. By the time they find their torque, I am gone. Too funny.
Arsiong...there is an airbag in the driver side and passenger side seat...look at the seat, should be a tag that says "SRS airbag" right along the seam on the back of the seat. Ih it's not there, feel around the side of the back of the seat....should feel a plastic box about half way up...that's where the airbag is...if you can't find it, then I'd recommend calling the dealer and asking where in the hell your other two airbags are! *g*
I'm surprised that you weren't shown the air bags when you took delivery of your car. It was one of the things I was shown. I was also told to never ever put seat covers on my seats because they would block the air bags. Didn't your dealer do a walk through of the features of your vehicle?