Hyundai XG300 and XG350

rar3542

You people who have had so many problems with your cars need to check your state's lemon laws. In Virginia, if your car is in for the same problem 3 times in the first 18 months without being fixed, your problem is a major safety concern, of if car unavailable for use for 30 days you have the right to a new car or a refund. Almost all states have some version of this law. Look it up at:

"www.lemonlaw.bbb.org"

Anyone can buy a lemon, but there is no point in keeping a lemon.

bkoonce

Just a quick note to tell everyone that I took my car to the dealership yesterday afternoon. They were absolutely superb. The sales manager said he had someone that could fix it next week. All we'd have to do is get an appt and bring it down. They'd even give us another car to drive in the meantime. I thought that was fantastic. I was at the dealership less than 5 mins I think. If in need of a new Hyundai, I know of a great place in Dayton, Ohio to buy from.

jayliu

Hi, Guys,
Like many of you I need to take my car in for several minor, non life-threatening warranty service within the first month I purchased the car.

And the rental car they provided were really really cheap compare with my previous dealer which was a Mazda dealer. And the feeling has gotten worse since I am used to XG350's leather seat and wood trims. Called me spoiled.

So I just want to know what kind of rental cars they provided to you with when they perform warranty service on your luxury XG350?

For now, they gave me 1999 Dodge Neon, (everything manual, except auto tranny) and other econo cars.
And the rental car company is with Enterprises.

My previous dealer used a different rental car company , and we got brand new 2002 Honda Accord SE, it even come with a moonroof!!!)

yk911

in canada they loan you a used sonata... ^_^

yk911

here is the address to my homepage..

http://www.geocities.com/xg350

it's been updated with upgrades that i did to my XG over the summer/ past almost 2 years since i got the car..

note: my car was delivered OCT 2000... as a 2001 model.

mikewesq

The steering on my 2001 300L has been getting worse. When the car was new, I noticed that the car drifted to the left. If you hold the steering wheel at the upright, neutral position, the car will begin to cross over to the left. This is particularly noticeable at highway speeds. The dealer has seen the car at least three times about this "problem", and claims that they can find nothing wrong. The steering has begun to degrade, however, and I find that the need to constantly correct the steering, by turning the wheel about 5 degrees to the right, makes driving the car very fatiguing and actually painful to my right wrist after more than 20 minutes of driving. My wife drove the car for the first time recently, and she noticed the problem within 10 minutes of driving. I had not complained to her about it before. She particularly mentioned how driving the car hurt her right wrist! Now there appears to be some wobble in the steering (very slight, but there) and the steering fells very heavy and vague. I am going to take the car in and insist that the service manager drive the car on the highway with me along for the ride so that he will have to admit to me the left drift is prominent and pronounced and makes the car unpleasant to drive.

Has anyone noticed a similar problem? I have never read any posts about this from anyone else, and I assume that your steering is acceptable. Please let me know if you have any ideas about this.

dbronzo

Has any XG owner had any luck finding a trailer hitch for their car? All I want to do is use my bike rack and not tow anything but have had no success finding a hitch.

acco20

Check the tires... I think you have a problem with at least one of your front tires. A simple way to find out would be to rotate both front tires to the rear. If all is ok chances are you have a bad tire, now on the back. Not sure which one, but you could bring them back to their original position,one at a time, and test drive. Good luck.

claywaterfill

Someone on the "Hyundai is the greatest..." thread posted a German web site showing pictures of new large sedans coming up from Hyundai and Kia. The Hyundai was called the new 2003 XG350. Will the XG be new for next year? One year for the XG300 followed by one year of XG350 then a new sedan? That seems a little too soon for a new model to me.

jimbeaumi

... is only being restyled, I believe.

joenic

Mike...I have the exact...exact same problem..I took the car to the dealer and they agreed the car was out of alignment. They asked me if i had an accident! The car had 2000 mi on it and was 6 weeks old. They realigned it out of the good of their hearts as they said HYUNDAI won't pay for alignments as an adjustment on new cars. Check this out..the car still pulls, I now hear a thuding like a piece of loose lumber under the left wheel and to boot I got my car back with a chip and 3 dings in the door. The dealer says they will refinsh the door for me. This will be the last Hyundai I buy...

claywaterfill

Go to the Elantra thread and post there. I seem to remember a few new Elantra owners having a similar problem. They rotated the tires or something like that to correct the problem. It's worth a shot.

lngtonge18

Sounds like a dealer problem, not a Hyundai problem. Read your warranty pamphlet. It states that all adjustments (including wheel alignments) are covered under warranty until 12k or 1 year. The dealer lied to you. I wouldn't hold this against Hyundai just yet. But I would hold it against the dealer and never buy another car from them again.

claywaterfill

I guess folks here in Duluth, GA (NE area of Metro Atlanta, Gwinnett County) are finally catching on to the XG. A year and a half ago when I moved here, the only Hyundais I saw on the road was the occasional Santa Fe. I am now seeing more and more XG350s on the road. I am also starting to see quite a few Kia Sedonas as well. I guess this area is catching on finally.

mike91326

Does anyone know what major changes are being made for 2003? My wife is in the market for a new car and as happy as we have been with my 2001 Elantra GLS we have decided to go with another Hyundai. I just can't justify spending more money when you can get an XG350L.

jimbeaumi

No changes to the XG, other than one report of new instruments. Get a deal on an '02. The facelift for '04 is expected early in calendar 2003.

claywaterfill

Is there a 2003 model? I heard about the updated 2004 coming out in the Spring of 2003; so, I was wondering if there is a 2003? I guess if you could wait then you should hold out for the 2004, right?

claywaterfill

Is it just me, or is the XG more problematic than other Hyundai models? I only wonder because it seems many Elantra and Sonata owners complain about their cars less than XG owners do. I guess as the price tag goes up, expectations go up as well.

hyundaima

claywaterfill

I guess my point was this: Could it be true that Elantra and Sonata owners may overlook faults (not saying there are some, just maybe) that XG owners do not? Elantra owners may say "That's okay, I paid $3000 less than Civic owners did." Sonata owners may say "That's okay, I paid $5000 less than Camry owners did." XG owners, OTOH, may say "I'm not going to stand for this because for what I paid for my car, I could have bought a V6 Accord."

Again, I was just thinking out loud here. When you read the Elantra thread, you read generally happy stories. The same is true on the Sonata thread. A lot of "I love this car!" sentiment over there. I don't see as much of that "I love my car!" on this thread, however.

Personally, I like the XG. I have driven one (an XG300 a couple of years ago) and it was very nice. The only fault I have with the car is its tail lights--just don't personally like them vert much. We had a 1997 Sonata GLS that we traded on a mini van last May, so I'm not a Hyundai basher.

specialdoc2002

My experience with the XG350 consists of 5 months and 7000 miles of ownership. My perspective consists of having owned two Lexus LS400's and dozens of other cars over 50 years. My first car was a 1936 Packard.

At the present time, I would categorize the XG350 as "worrisome."

At 3 months and 4000 miles, driving at 65 mph on straight, flat interstate, with cruise control, all of a sudden the car started bucking. jerk-jerk-jerk-jerk-jerk-jerk-jerk-jerk-jerk, for maybe 10 seconds. It was alarming. Took it to a dealer the next morning. They did the computer firmware upgrade, although they said that the specific symptoms did not match what they had heard.

Hasn't done it since, but I do notice that, when slowing to a stop, when it downshifts it will frequently do so with a big "jerk." Also, some upshifts sound like the transmission clutches are "slipping." It didn't do any of that prior to the "jerking" event.

I did a web search for XG350 problems, and amazingly enough I ran into a magazine type of road test report in which the evaluator described EXACTLY what I had experienced on the interstate. Happened while he was doing an evaluation of a car provided by Hyundai! Said he was told that the car was an "early pre-production" model and that the production models wouldn't do such a thing. Obviously this was untrue.

So my first question is: Can the "jerking" problem actually DAMAGE the transmission?

The next worrisome experience happened when I let the car sit for 10 days in an airport parking lot while we went on vacation. When we returned and fired it up, there was a terrible thrashing racket coming out of the engine compartment. Alarmed, I opened the hood but, of course, there was nothing to be seen. After about five minutes things quieted down.

I'm hoping that these things are not an indication of what we are in for. Would be interested in comparing notes with others.

Actually, I like the car overall, but it wouldn't take much more of this type of experience to begin the souring process.

plibassi

I experienced the same thrashing noise all summer w/ my '01XG. The dealer told me the noise is the air conditionaire compressor but since the noise goes away about a minute after the car starts and the air works OK, they won't replace the compressor. Hyundia service support told my dealer they are aware of the problem but won't authorize replacement until the compressor stops working. It's been 4 months - the compressor works fine but the noise it very irritating...

joenic

I am totally displeased with this car and I was a loyal Hyundai owner previous to this purchase. Wow, when I read posts prior to buying this car I laughed to myself. I figured those people we're Hyundai bashing. There was even one guy who traded his 2002 after 2000 miles. Well mine has 2500 miles and I went out this weekend to trade it off for another new car. My word, I went to 6 different dealers representing 3 differnt manufacturers. I was looking at their cars in the 25-30k range. 2 of the 6 didn't even want the xg350l on a trade. The other 4 made me offers that would make a skunk puke...15 -16k. This is definetly the largest mistake I have ever made when it comes to car purchasing...Maybe if the dealer repairs the dent( better than it is now) he put in the car the last time I had it serviced, I might learn to live with the constant drifting on the highway, the terrible surging, the rough idle, and the annoying rattles in the rear deck and headliner. Oh ya, the brakes still pulsate after being turned 2 times. What a hosing for $26,000!

specialdoc2002

joenic -

>> constant drifting on the highway, the terrible surging, the rough idle, and the annoying rattles in the rear deck and headliner. Oh ya, the brakes still pulsate after being turned 2 times. <<

Sorry to hear about the problems you've been having.

I tend to think of car problems as being in one of two categories: (1) inherent design flaws, not too likely to get fixed, and (2) variability in assembly and the production of parts as would show up in some individual cars.

In the case of the problems you cite, I don't see how any of them can be inherent design flaws because my car doesn't exhibit a hint of any of them. Well, yes, there was a rattle in the rear deck, but I reeled the shoulder belt in and out a couple of times and it went away.

So as a tiny ray of hope, I offer to you the possibility that if you stick with it, the problems can be solved.

Reminds me of my 1961 Jaguar XK-E. Over the first couple months of ownership, I identified and documented 43 significant defects. It took 18 months, but we worked off every single one of them!! (Ten years later the local dealer told me that when cleaning out files he had recently re-read my letter to Jaguar, listing the 43 defects, and got some chuckles and feelings of amazement).

It doesn't surprise me that the trade-in situation is pretty awful; the XG has a ways to go to prove its mettle. But at the moment I tend to be optimistic about its future in the U.S. marketplace.

One of the reasons I got rid of my last Lexus LS400 was a couple of "inherent design flaws" that Lexus would more or less acknowledge informally but weren't about to fix. I had confirmed them through communing with other owners on the ClubLexus message boards.

joenic

I think the car heard me complaining this morning. I went out for lunch and it has a flat tire! I didn't want to wait for roadside so I started to change the tire and its been pouring here in Boston since. seeing as how I was soaking wet, I took the tire to the local NTW for repair, it has a nail in it. They don't know if they can repair it..if they can't, the tire sells for $155.
I think I'll call this car Christine until i get rid of it...!!!hahahaha

john115

Post #1173,check your owners manual.It lists Hyundai contacts,and also an arbitraction contact.

Post#1175,I'm sure you have Michelon tires on your
car,so take your nail/tire to them for a pro-rated
replacement tire.No way will they charge you what
you were quoted else where.

esubius

I just purchased an XG350 and I notice that the AM radio reception is dreadfull. Not a big issue in the scheme of things, but a pain in the butt if you are used to listing to AM programs that no longer come in.

Also, when I drove a 2002 Elantra as a loaner, while my XG350 was being readied for delivery, I recall that the AM radio reception on that vehicle was also very bad.

Does anyone have any ideas.

Thanks

john00

There is a link to Horsepower where you enter your VIN# and it tells
you that they made a mistake on the HP ratings on the XG300 not sure
about the XG350. But the end result is that Hyundai will be offering to the original owner 3 choices due to the error. 1. extend your roadside assistances 2. extend your 5 year 60k to 6 year 72k coverage or 3. extend you 10 yr 100k to 12 yr 120k. This is only for the US cars. It seems the 192hp rating is actually only 182hp. I'll be taking option 2 seeing that options 1 and 3 wouldn't work for me.

xg301

Has anyone had their battery replaced on any of the XG models?
Had a problem starting the car one morning, jumped and got it started, took it in and was told some of the batteries were defective and wouldn't hold a charge for long. Had it replaced under warranty. Everything is working fine now.
Had to tinker with the memory seat to get it back to my original setting since i lost everything in memory. Anyway this is just a 411 for all of you. Good Luck.

leirex

It is amazing that Hyundai made that kind of mistake. Anyway, it seems that the letter from President is on its way to the XG300 owners. Option 1 extends Roadside Assitance to 10 years/unlimited miles from 5/unlimited. Option 3 extends Powertrain Limited Warranty to 12 years/120,000 miles.

newxg

Been a while since I posted here. Just took my 01 Base XG300 purchased 23 months ago for it's 30,000 mile checkup. I'm lucky in that my Hyundai dealer here in Atlanta has an excellent service department (which may be related to the fact that they also sell Audi and Porshe along with Hyundai and VW).

So how's it holding up? Well I've had fixes for the door seal wind noise problem, the carpet clips, and a faulty one touch window switch. Other than a tire balance/allignment issue (dern potholes), no other problems. Even at 30,000 miles the only creaking or rattle I've had was in the passenger door, which may have been related to a new speaker installation, and it eventually went away.

I took some of the several thousand dollars that I saved by buying the XG300 over the competing brands and sunk it into a high end Alpine satellite radio system. Though not Lexus quiet I think the XG300 is an excellent platform for high end car stereo. Most of my time is on the freeway and 70 channels of crystal clear music goes a long way to making for a pleasant drive.

Overall I''ve been pleased with the XG300. Sometimes I miss the kind of road feel and vehicle control that I used to have with my AWD Subaru Forester, but I'm generally not canyon carving and it's a great freeway cruiser. Occasionally my eye strays towards the new Infinity G35 or a 5 series BMW but for now I'm planning on keeping my XG300 for another 30,000 miles and perhaps even longer.

newxg

I just remembered that I also had the battery replaced at 18 months. I thought the dealer would say it was because of the power being drawn by the the stereo, but they replaced it and like XG301 (msg #1179) they mentioned there being some bad batteries.

specialdoc2002

My wife drives the XG350L to work every day, and ever since the mornings have been getting a bit cooler she has commented that there is a strange noise that occurs for a couple of seconds immediately after the engine has started.

This morning I stood at the front of the car while she started it. "Did you hear THAT?" she asked. "No," I said, "I didn't hear a thing." She shut it off. Started it again. "Did you hear THAT, NOW?" she asked. "No," I replied. "Still didn't hear anything." "Well, come over here and stick your head in the window," she instructed, shutting the engine off once again. I did what she asked (which, by the way, is a pretty good general policy around here).

She started it up once again. Sure enough, just as she had been describing for a couple of weeks, immediately after the engine started there were three sharp "thumps," thump-thump-thump, in rapid succession. Possibly 2 seconds overall. Sound like they come below the floor, under the dash. Sounds like there is someone lying under the car, pounding on the underside with a hard rubber mallet.

She shut it off and re-started it a couple more times, with me standing next to the driver's door with my head in the window, and the noise was identical with each start.

She reports that it has never done this at any time other than first thing in the morning, meaning when the car is thoroughly, uniformly cold, I suppose.

Has anyone encountered this one? Thanks.

devil_taz

Are there any canadian owners here? I would like to know how the opinion of your car? I have so far seen ONE, that's right, ONE xg350 in my area (GTA, ontario, canada).

mikewesq

My XG300L's battery died at about 13 months. Replaced under warranty.

sartie

Had an interesting electrical problem in my '02 XG. Wouldn't start. Wouldn't even crank. Looked like a dead-as-nails battery. Wiggled the battery leads and found a full length vertical crack in the positive battery clamp. Almost as if the hex nut that tightens the clamp on the battery stud had been torqued too tight. Used a vice grips on the clamp to hold it in place and drove the car to my nearest Hyundai dealer. They cheerfully replaced the entire positive cable assembly, in-line fuse, plastic cap and all (said they couldn't get just the top clamp). My No-Charge invoice showed they performed a hi-scan test, plus the cable replacement. Internal charge (to Hyundai, I guess): $143.

The other day, a neat thing happened with my A/C. I've gotten in the habit of keeping the auto-filter function turned on (the left-most green light on the Recirc button). A block ahead of me, a truck pulled onto the road spewing black exhaust. Before I smelled anything, my system went into Recirc (the right-most light illuminated). It stayed on until I passed the truck, then it went out. For me, this was worth the price of admission!

sgspearman

Well, about 4 weeks ago we were in a multicar collision where our XG300 got crunched good between two SUVs. The front was pushed under the SUV in front which crumpled the hood and front end and the rear was smashed in almost all the way to the back glass. Other than jammed doors on the passenger side, the passenger compartment was uncompromised. No airbags went off because it was largely a collision from the rear. I'd have to say it did an excellent job of protecting us, esp. with an old Cherokee doing most of the ramming from behind at a good rate of speed.

So we looked at over a dozen cars trying to decide on a replacement. Our choices are limited by my wife's need for an unusually straight seat position that most cars can't do. We ended up with only 3 cars we really liked: BMW 525 at $40+K, the VW Passat GX at about $30K and the Hyundai XG350L which came in around $23K with the $2K rebate. We ended up deciding the XG was simply the best value again, so we're back in that now.

While the car is extremely similar to what we had before, here's what I noticed as real improvements: engine acceleration is noticeably stronger; got the improved carpet clips; very nice addition of the dome light on the L so it is not so dark in the back; fixed the front cup holders so mugs don't tip over any more; not feeling any of the transmission hesitation I was on the XG300 (yet?); and maybe one or two others I'm forgetting. Overall, we're liking it quite a bit after the first 800 miles.

Only real downside here was that we did fork out a bit of cash due to the XG300's value after 1 year, but the rebate on the 2002 350 softened that pain a fair bit.

sgspearman

And I forgot - the remote fob works from farther than 10 feet away from the car now! Little annoying thing that is now much better in the XG350.

lrain1

Just had the battery in my 01xg300 replaced last week. The car has 39K miles on it and, other than the nagging rough shift between 3rd and 4th, no significant problems have turned up. I hope the transmission shift problem has been fixed on the XG350's. I would appreciate any comments about this problem from XG350 owners.

specialdoc2002

Irain1 states: >> I hope the transmission shift problem has been fixed on the XG350's. I would appreciate any comments about this problem from XG350 owners. <<

We now have 6 months of ownership and 10K miles on XG350L. Transmission quirks that we have experienced have been reported in my earlier posts to this forum. The bottom line at the present time is that I cannot state with any certainty whether the XG350 does or does not have a congenital "transmission problem", but I CAN say that the tranmission (and logic that controls it) are an area of significant concern.

I do not perceive a "rough shift between 3rd and 4th" type of problem.

Will post additional comments to this forum should I gain any further insights into this, and will appreciate others doing the same.

sartie

It's a chilly morning in NJ, with temps in the 42F range. I start my 2002 XG350L and the Climate Control System, on full automatic, blows cold air on my feet (3 fan blades showing) and continues to do so until the engine heats up.

In looking at Hyundai's Web Site Support section, I note that there's a temp sensor that's supposed to prevent this. But, like the daytime running lights also shown in the diagrams, maybe it's missing in US models.

Does anyone else have this problem?

leirex

Has any one of the XG300 owners received the letter of President offering one of the three options to compensate this mistake? If I am wrong, how do I choose one of the three options?

lrain1

I just received the letter and chose Option 2(Extend the Bumper to Bumper Limited Warranty to 6 Years, 72M miles. I based my decision on my practice of trading every 5 years and drive about 15M miles/year. The current Drive Train Warranty is more than enough at 100M miles to cover this period. I did not consider Option 1(Extend Roadside Assistance to 10 years to be of much value. If you plan to use the automobile more than 100M miles, you might want to consider Option 3(Extend Drive train Warranty to 120M miles.

john115

Once you receive the letter from Hyundai,you have
until Sept. 2003 to give them your choice.I may
sue for false adv.to get a new motor or replacement of whole car.Any thoughts on this?

lngtonge18

Sue them? You have got to be kidding. What purpose would suing them to get a new engine do for you? You would still get the same exact engine you currently have. You already got an even longer warranty for free, so how can you possibly be upset? Some people are so off the wall about this hp mistake. My former car (which I still own but is no longer in my hands) was a 00 Accent and it's hp dropped from 92 to 89. Am I pissed? No, I could care less. The car still performs exactly the same as it did when I test drove it. Your car has not changed. If you were fine with its power before, why should you be so upset about it now? I mean come on, think about it people! At least Hyundai was man enough to publicly announce their mistake and offer the people with the biggest mistake a form of compensation. Your sentiment is exactly what makes this country so lawsuit-happy and pathetic. You should be ashamed of yourself.

inuvik

Get real John, It's statements like yours that have caused our society to be bogged down in constant litigation over non issues. Hmmm, lets see my Hyundai is 1/10th of a second slower from 0-60 MPH than the Car and Driver test. I'm gonna sue!!! Of course not. I'm happy that Hyundai took the high road and came forward with this.

jimbeaumi

Maybe Hyundai will build john115 a custom engine just to satisfy the horsepower number on paper. This is just silliness.

mwhite1234

I don't think sueing for a New car is a bad idea.
If you think about the fact that 10 less horsepower will change the proformance of the car by whatever amount(however little or great)than I think it's a GOOD idea. I've had my 2001 300L for a little over a year and I enjoy the car, but even the salesperson said when I test drove the it that it could use more horsepower and now I know it has less I just don't feel to good about this. I even would feel good about some type of discount towards a 2002 or 2003 model, and I would buy one. So john115 I'am behind 100%

jimbeaumi

Hyundai is offering a variety of compensation, so get over it.

lngtonge18

Your car never made that extra 10 hp so there was no loss of performance. It makes the same hp it did when you test drove it and was fine with it. The engine didn't suddenly lose power. You are making yourself think it lost performance when in fact, nothing has changed.