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Comments
How about your trade in value? Was the excess value of your trade deducted from the new purchase price? That is, if your trade was worth $1,000 more than the "purchase price" it means you paid $1,000 more than you think you did. In other words, if you owned the trade outright and you did not have to pay sales tax, even after dealer & DMV fees, you should have been able to drive away in the new car with money given to you by the dealership in your pocket..
Thanks for following up after your dealership visit. How many miles do you have on your car? My service manager listened to my engine/transmission noise within a few days (very few miles and certainly not broken in). I think I read in one of your posts that you questioned whether the noise was gas in the tank. I can hear a noise and I think it's the gas in the tank. Have you noted the level of gas when you hear the noise? You might find a correlation between the two.
Your pedal doesn't have a cable; it's an electronic, "drive-by-wire" design, so there can't be any vibrations transmitted through the cable or the cable rubbing against something.
I just burned a CD with over 5 hours of MP3s, but none of the individual songs are over 12 minutes so I can't tell you if I have the same problem you do. What are you listening to that's over 12 minutes long? A podcast? If I can produce an MP3 that's over 12 minutes long (I think I can), I'll let you know if I have the same problem.
CNN.com
Thanks
I faxed 39 dealers and got 11 responses. There was 3 quotes below $21000.
$20989 was the lowest. The quotes supposedly are before rebate(s).
But you still have to dance with the salesman when you go to the showroom. And that is a dance where you are always out of step. I will be going to the Long Island dealer on W. Merrick Road and ask the salesman to fill my dance card.
The only advantage a buyer has if the deal becomes undanceable is to change your dance shoes and walk...walk...walk.
Seriously, never let a dealer play with your head. There is no such thing as a good deal-it changes constantly and you will never get the same quote twice.
Quick follow-up. I called Hyundai after posting this message and was told that not all VINs will be recalled. No list available which ones yet, though.
avg MPH = 39, MPG = 26.0 (25.1, 23.9)
Maybe you're including the miles driven (but not the gallons consumed) from the time you took delivery. When I got my '05, I disregarded the dealer "full tank", which wasn't really full. I didn't start figuring milage until I filled the car and noted the odometer milage at that time.
What did the odometer read when youfirst filled the tank, what was it when you last filled the tank, how many gallons did you use in those miles? That will give you your actual average MPG. (It is just impossible for 26.0, 25.1 & 23.9 to average 39. If your average were less or greater than the raw average of the numbers, but still less than the highest per tank average, that would be due to weighted average.)
Your listed per tank averages indicate around 25 MPG (without weighting). That's still pretty good. Good luck.
The 39 is average Miles Per HOUR. I'm listing that simply to give people a reference point for the type of driving I'm doing (metro area highway to and from work). If my MPH was lower it would show that I'm doing a lot more stop and go driving which would obviously result in less MPG.
The other three numbers are the Miles Per Gallon that I've averaged (first was 23.9, then 25.1 and last was 26.0).
I'm not familiar with your area, but 39 MPH average sounds darn good.
My to & from work and around town probably averages around 20 MPH. Average MPH is much more sensitive to "downtime" than most people realize.
Your MPG is improving with break-in miles, good news.
Here's more info:
http://www.hyundaiusa.com/shopping_tool/special_offer/sonata/index.asp?mon=comp
Pffft Honda accords, mazda 6's eat your hearts out..........
The conversion factor works out to be 1 Km/L= 0.425143664 MPG, according to my convert program.
Plus, if the writer is using a trip computer in the car, it also rounds. A couple tanks of gas really can vary greatly depending on driving conditions since the reset.
You're correct about splitting hairs in this small sample, but at least we have a fairly good estimate of the range of convesion. Heck, a few ounces of gas (? ML) could account for the slight difference. I didn't find a converter, such as you used, but feel it is more accurate due to the additional decimal places. Thanks.
I live on the Gold Coast and purchased my Sonata V6 Elite for 35K AUD driveaway with tint . That's $2850 off Rec. retail.
I'd like to know how you got $5850 AUD off a car that was released here in early July and is in high demand? There is currently a 5 week wait.
Are you sales tax exempt?
Cheers Ausboy
Steel Gray is not readily available on the LX Standard but is on the LX Premium.
Rather than go through the dealer routine with all the phoney dialog, I gave them my figure of 22000 for the LX Premium. Back and forth, back and forth to the manager and after four trips, the salesman agreed to my price.
He wrote up the contract for 22000 and when I asked him to deduct the $2000 in rebates he looked stunned and meekly said the rebates were already deducted in the price. Salesmen are so cute. They treat buyers as if they had no brain just waiting to be plucked by their scams.
Next came the manager scenario. This is the big gun that's going to solve the problem. For me, the deal was dead and dead it was. I got into an argument with the manager and I told him to stuff the Sonata and walked out.
Gas in parts of NY went as high as $3.95 a gallon so fuel economy will be a concern. The Sonata LX is not fuel efficient getting on average 25 miles per gallon.
High energy prices are here to stay and to all the SUV gas guzzlers-tough.
What I have learned.
Your target price for the Sonata LX Standard-$21000.
Your target price for the Sonata LX Premium-$22000.
1. Never go to a dealer to haggle price.
2. Use email or fax to negotiate price.
3. Always bargain the last three days of the month if they fall during the week.
4. Getting the best price is difficult because it varies all the time even with the same dealer and from month to month depending if they have met their sales quota..
5. Your best weapon is "No" and then walk. They need you, not the reverse.
6. Most information on the internet is not accurate. Knowing the dealer invoice is meaningless because it's so accessible to everyone.
As a NYC resident, I have yet to see a 2006 Sonata on the road or in the mall parking lots. If they are selling so well where are they hiding.
As for me, I have soured on the Sonata and now will wait for the 2006 Camry and Accord.
Thanks for explaining the situation. We both got the Elite for a bargain price.
I thought you may have been sales tax exempt. I bought a car years ago under my dad's name. It was tax exempt because he had a war veteran pension. I considered that you may have some sort of exemption
What's your short term opinion of the car? I test drove it back to back with the Accord Euro Luxury and considered the Honda not to be worth $9K more. The Sonata's punch off the line and Lexus-like quietness were impressive.
We test drove an aura blue Elite and it is a cool colour. I ordered black and was initially told by the salesman that it would arrive in seven to 10 days.
After 10 days we were told it would be 5 weeks at least. They said they checked other dealers with no success. I rang a Brisbane dealer who said they had a Black Elite , but my dealer would need to swap one of his Elites.
I rang the my dealerships Sales Manager and asked him to consider a swap. He made some phone calls and the deal was done. I will pick up the car before Tues 13 Aug. It goes to show - if you want things to happen, you need to do it yourself. The dealerships will make little effort after receiving the deposit.
I've had a shocker with the sale of my 2002 Integra. I agreed to travel to Brisbane to have it assessed by a Finance co after a perspective female purchaser made an offer based on finance. She also insisted that I provide a Roadworthy Cert, and I obliged. She rang today and said she can't raise the finance and is pulling out of the sale - Jack Nickolson was right in As Good As It Gets. If you take a man and take away the responsibility, you get a female...
Cheers Ausboy
Thanks
Tanky
Great to hear that you are wrapped in the Sonata.It's hard to beat at the price.
Some OZ motoring critics have highlighted rear suspension noise when driving on uneven surfaces. Our roads are very good on the GC, but the wife and I noticed a buffeting noise on one road on our test drive. Have you experienced any rear tyre or suspension noise on rough surfaces?
Don't worry about the games that salesmen play. We copped similar at Honda when they wouldn't even nominate a price until we walked out !
I'm thinking of putting 17 inch chromes onto the car after the first year to freshen up the appearance. How do you think these will look on a black Sonata ? It's no. 34 (the impact 2 in this brochure - $1160 AUD fitted)http://www.yhi.com.au/PDF Brochures/2005_wheels.pdf
BTW - I wish Hyundai fitted chrome highlights around the grill and door rims (like the Euro).
Did you know the the Elite in Korea ( Premier) includes a DVD player/Nav system in dash ? I bet we get it in a couple of years time..
Ausboy
Thanks
Tanky
I would say in general, this car isn't nearly as quiet on the road. My new LX feels 'loose' right from the day I owned it, and there's some serious 'clunking' going on over bumps in the road coming from the back of the car. It feels like the whole rear end is loose. Not enough that I think anything is wrong, you just hear low end bumps, it sounds like the trunk echoeing. I notice some Australian reviews noticed this too. It's very annoying. THe car feels 'cheap' already because of it.
The engine is more powerful than the 03 for sure, the 5 speed is a nice change from the 4, but that extra 60 horsepower certainly doesn't FEEL like 60 more horsepower. I would say it feels more like 10-15 to me.
The car doesn't handle nearly as well either in my opinion. Have to turn the wheel noticably more to turn the car than the 03.
Not that I don't like it, there are things I love, the automatic climate control is great, although it works kind of strange in my opinion. Why I can't select the upper and lower vents, and still have it on auto is beyond me.
The stereo I find adaquate, not great by any stretch. The subwoofer is anemic, but the six disc changer is nice. Controls are now nicely laid out.
Overall it's a fine car, but I sort of miss my old 03 aleady, I really feel that it drove better.
The new 06 is a much rougher ride, I know partly it's the 17" rims and Pilot tires.
I'm sure I'll grow into this car just fine, but if I was to do it over again, I'd seriously consider finding an 05 LX for a great price.
Just my thoughts.
See if the spare donut is loose, or something else like that, in the back. (I thought I remembered someone writing that the donut was not fastened down in the back.)
Also, check the tire pressure. I recall another writing that the tire pressure is way to high on the cars from the dealer.
Please respond after investigating these two items to see if they make a difference.
For me, it would be the: active front head-restraints; side curtain and front side torso airbags; ESC; dual-stage front airbags; front seatbelt pre-tensioners; and traction control, in that order. (Yes, active head-restraints on top of my list, since whiplash injuries very common, costly, painful, and long lasting. It's a national tragedy that better seats and headrests aren't mandatory.)
The engine, styling, etc. are secondary. If the car comes out with flying colors from NHTSA, IIHS, and other testing agencies, it's a winner. If the results are less than 5 stars and 'GOOD's all around, it's an also-ran and not worthy of consideration among other cars with similar prices and better track records.
So I'm going to wait and see.
I'd rather a really safe car with some noise and poor layout features than a super cool car that will leave me more injured in the event of another's (or my own) carelessness. (Ideally, it'd be super safe AND have breakaway side mirrors; tuning controls on the steering wheel; quieter ride; more 'active' handling; navigation system; better stereo; parking assistance. All of these are doable for the 2006 Sonata, but I digress...)
Hyundai has clearly admitted that it had benchmarked about 55 percent from the audi a6, mainly styling cues, craftmanship, and most of the overall structure of the car. Apparently hyundai corp dismantled the 2002 Audi A6(2001-2004) to absolute pieces , the body, the engine everything and asked some of the smartest engineers in korea, to try to put it back together and write an instruction for it(reverse engineering). The other 25 percent of the cars influence came from the lexus es300 and hyundai did the same thing to it as they did to the audi a6, strip it apart and put it together, this time focusing on nvh levels, refinement and comfort. It took most part of the year for the engineers try to put both cars together, study the cars, pick out certain elements they wanted in their 06 sonata.
After finishing the reverse engineering, they took the next year and half try to create this car dealing with design, cost for materials, image, advertising and finally building a prototype.
2004 was the first year of the unveiling of the sonata spy version for the real streets, and soon after korea had their first sonatas. Meanwhile the us already having the alabama plant ready, dealt with emission issues and other business related issues causing the delay. 2005 the 06 comes to america.
Thats the end of the article though it did elaborate more about damping the car, their method of testing, also there are thigns about most quality and least cost.
Some things i picked up from this in depth article about this car was, that it wants to be a poor mans luxury car. They sacrificed some things for the car for that luxury feel mainly having to do with stuff like "thump sound when closing the door, making sure no gaps exist in the interior and is crafted tightly, make sure the design is classy put effort into extra layers of painting, making sure of course the car is the quietest car in the mid size market usign alternate ways to damp the car quiet, having an efficeint but refined engine in place of high end quality interior materials, premium stereo(though both still very good) etc. In the article they barely discussed safety feautures which hyundai exceeded expectations there also(maybe koreans can care less about extra airbags like americans do)
My aim with No 34 would be to keep the shape of the current wheel, but give it a slightly more detailed and interesting curve. The impact (sorry about the pun) of the highly polished chrome would catch the eye.
I feel, on resale, that perspective buyers would not want to divert too much from the overall look of the original look of the car. In my opinion, no 34 wheel would provide a subtle but classy touch, especially picking up the chrome detailing of the grill and underside door surrounds, not forgetting the contrast to black.
My first choice in the Sonata colour range was Deepwater Blue. It almost looks black, but has a metallic blue tinge that sparkles in the sun. I was blown away when I saw it matched with a set of 18 inch chromes on a new 4 cyl Sonata Elite on the sale lot. I ordered that colour , but was told it has been discontinued. I phoned Hyundai's Qld headquarters and they confirmed it is discontinued worldwide. A bad decision in my books.
Thanks again for your opinion. Nice choices.
Ausboy (Graham)
Here is the Korean site with the pic of the Sonata wagon. A gorgeous looking wagon indeed. Photoshop or not ? Did someone say 07 Audi A6 wagon?
http://www.bobaedream.com/board/data/data_view.php?code=national&No=51868&page=1&select=&c- ontent=
Ausboy
All in all I rate this car Great. No car is going to be the best for everyone. Yes Hyundai can improve on many items which I believe they will in time. Untill then this first year model has started out very well.
For the money, I would buy another one because it is quiet, smooth, fuel efficient, stylish, safe and makes me feel like I am driving a more expensive car.
I suspect it's one of two things. Either the rear suspension, undercarriage, something is actually loose, or that it's basically the entire trunk, echoeing back there. Either way, it makes the car feel and sound cheap and broken already.
I'll investigate more. It's really bumming me out though. I don't recall hearing it on test-drive, or even on the inspection drive, but it might have always been there.
Tim
It's hard for me to hear where the noise is coming from.
Now, there are lots more things I DO love about this car. I paid $21300 for a loaded LX. I mean, the amenities in this car are Lexus quality in my opinion. It's an insane bargain for the money. And for a larger sedan, it handles well. But I think since it's higher and heavier than the 03-05's, it just doesn't handle quite as well. It still drives very nice.
Tim
In the 06, the way it works, you have the mode button. But as soon as you push it, Auto disengages. As soon as you choose auto, if it's going to make the car cooler or keep it in the same range, it only uses the upper vents. If going to send out hot air, only uses the floor until the car gets close. This all makes sense. But I wish once the car is at 68 degrees, I could have it use both vents, thereby lessenging the amount of air coming out the top vents, it's just more comfortable for me.
But no argument, the auto climate control is NICE to have in general. Man, I've barely had to tinker with it.
And the auto air filter thing works GREAT. I had it on, a huge truck pulled in front of me, and I smelled the diesel for about 5 seconds, then the filter kicked in, and the smell was gone. That is very neat.
I basically adjusted them so that the trunk wouldn't close, then slowly turned them in until it would, providing a nice seal. I imagine that's right, but I don't actually know.
Ahhh, perhaps comes the dawn finally to the Great 2006 Hyundai Sonata Pitter-Patter Rattle Mystery! (on sale at booksellers everywhere tomorrow) They're used to apply upward pressure against the trunk lid to prevent its "bouncing" down and rattling and to align the trunk lid's line to the fender. These folks with mysterious rear end rattles may want to check the setting of these rubber stops. I'd opine that once the rubber stops are just firm enough to elliminate any lid bouncing-rattling, and the fit to the fenders is visually correct, they're adjusted correctly.
BTW, you may have seen me post about a grainy/buzzy feeling coming through the gas pedal in my Sonata while accelerating at lower speeds. I don't have to worry about that problem anymore, as the dealer gave me the wrong trim level for the lease I was on. So, I'm in a GLS now instead of a GL. No excessive grainy/buzzy feeling in the gas pedal here! But there's still the pitter patter noise from the rear. I suppose I could play around with the rubber stoppers in the trunk, but I don't think this has anything to do with the noise in question. It's either the suspension, the brakes, or something in the exhaust. Maybe it's fuel splashing around in the tank. I assume we'll see a TSB about that in the next few months (*crossing my fingers*). I'm turn up the radio in the meantime
If you took a loan, what interest are they charging.
To close a deal in NY, they charge a documentation fee of $229 and also window etching $199.
Where are you from and do you get hit with these add on fees.
1. With the remote, pressing it once locks the doors and sets the alarm. If I press it twice, it then sounds the horn. Is the horn just to confirm it was locked?
2. With the auto temperature, its designed so the light on the A/C button and the A/C on the display never come on even if the A/C is on. However, if you turn it all the way down to "Lo" which is the lowest setting, the light on the A/C button does come on and the A/C on the display is on. Auto is also still on. Why does it come on with "Lo"
3. If I put some weight on the passenger seat (computer bag full, couple gallons of milk), the passenger seat belt light blinks about the seat belt. Is this by design.
Thanks
Shawn
2. No idea - read your owner's manual. (You get one free with every car purchase.)
3. Yes it is by design - you're confusing the supplementary restraint system (aka airbags) into "thinking" you have a kid in the front seat (a safety no-no!) and it's warning you accordingly. Either set the groceries on the floor in the rear passenger compartment or take your chances that the passenger-side air bags will unnecessarily (and expensively) deploy if you're involved in a fender bender.