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This is a follow-up of my post a while back. We have moved to Indiana, the decision was made and we bought a Malibu LS for $16300. If you can recall, my wife and I had been crazy about the Sonata for quite some time and I've been reading this forum for a couple of years now. Being on a tight budget the GM rebates accidentally caught our attention, which got us to consider the Malibu as an alternative. In Texas (where we were living) Hyundai and Kias aren't that popular and we probably could've got a Sonata GLS for around $16500. But fixing to move and all we just decided to wait and do the compare shopping after moving to Indiana.
We didn't realize that's when we said "farewell" to our dream car Sonata. After we got here and checked out the Sonata prices, man! The dealership said right off the bat--a coule of hundred off the MSRP and walk if you don't buy. They were extremely busy that day and I had to wait for someone to help me. I had thought being close to Detroit the midwest might have a softer market for Hyundais. Boy was I wrong! ...Our Malibu LS is a nice car and a good value, but every time I see a handsome Sonata on the road...
Well, I wish everybody good luck with their cars. Enjoy your Sonata!
Which car do you recommend? Any responses would help, thanks!
In July '00 I bought my wife the equivalent of todays LX, a GLS equipped with everything but a spoiler. She loves this thing to death and constantly reports to me how impressed people are who ride in her car, even after two years of ownership. Just the other day, I heard her nephew remark on how good the doors sound when they close. He seemed surprised. We weren't.
Replacing the inside filter doesn't help.
Using an odor-neutralizer only works for a day.
I've removed the blower unit and swabbed the little blades, and wiped down as much as I could where my hand could reach where the air comes in below the windshield, but still it comes back.
Does anyone else have this problem? I plan to mention it when I go in for my recall and some other stuff. The only two other problems I need fixed are the trunk tension bars keep popping out of their clip (trunk pops, but not up) and the driver's vanity mirror's little hinge pins have cracked apart, so it doesn't stay up/lighted.
The dealer informed me yesterday that it does need a new steering rack and that the part is BACK ORDERED from korea with no ETA. As you can imagine iam almost speechless with the pure insanity of Hyundai Canada and their lack of customer service. Instead of trying to fix the problem and get me in a new sonata they are telling me to take them to court. My question is this. Does anyone have any advice or contact numbers of Hyundai Canada officials who can help this terrible situation. I have dealt with their manager of customer service "Ross Mathers" dozens of times and he is standing firm in not helping resolve this situation. I am willing to put money towards a new hyundai, My dealer will sell me one at cost but Hyundai Canada Will not help buyback my vehicle so I wouldnt be 5000 dollars in the hole.
I believe I have been very fair about this whole lemon situation and I am willing to compromise if need be. However Hyundai Canada obviously does not believe in customer service and I will make sure they lose many potential customers who eventually hear of my problems.
Thank You
Sounds like the problem is in the plumbing, so to speak. Many shops now use a foam product. It mainly evaporates after expanding in the ducts and surface killing the spores. Other people just use Lysol in the fresh air intakes but that doesn't get to all of the problem and, of course, the whole car really smells like Lysol. I've know people to shoot an entire can in there. (
I havent posted in a while BUT thought I might offer my A/C tip. Living in Florida gives our A/C units a workout and its amazing the amount of water that does some out of the drain when its working properly.
Without even getting out of your car do this.... it has never failed me. With the A/C running and set to fresh air I close all the ducts and place a towel over the ones that might not have the ability to shut them off.
I then turn the fan on HIGH for about a minute.
Then open the vents and enjoy a better smelling a/c soon.
What happens is there is all sortsa gunk that accumulates on the cooling fins inside the car and gets washed down with the condensation eventually clogging the drain somewhat.
BY closing the vents the air being moved by the fan has to go somewhere and OUT the drain it goes. Sometimes when I start to get a whiff of stagnant water I do this at a stop lite for a few seconds and you'd think my car sprung a leak because of all the water running out of it!
I hope it works for you all.... let me know if at least ONE person gains relief from this.
I thought of this many years ago when I had a stinky AC and while checking the drain hose I noticed nothing coming out til I turned on the fan. This meant there WAS water in there but it couldnt get out on its own. When I closed the vents to see if it would help push the water out a BIG glob of a furball like mass came our and the water flooded the inside of the car as I didnt have the drain line hooked up!
Good luck
Tony
I'll try covering the vents to clear the drain, but I'm not sure there is a drain. I mean, when I took out the fan to clean it, I noticed some sort of drain from above that went back down to the fan itself. I hadn't been running the ac, so of course it was dry. It's still worth a shot.
I'm taking the car in on Wednesday for the recall and other work and will mention it, so hopefully they'll do the foaming treatment anyways. My check engine light came on last weekend, but I'm not sure if it's because it's nearing 15K and it's some sort of reminder for servicing, or if maybe the wiring connections (previous recall) got jarred from the higher speedbumps that came when the contractors re-paved my apartment complex.
Has anyone else had this problem?
I only have driven it about 80 miles, but so far it is everything I had thought it would be. When I test drove one, they only had a V6 base with auto. Although it only has 181 horses, I don't feel that I am underpowered. I had a 1990 Acura Integra 5sp before this car, and the Sonata feels just as fast, although the Integra had much better handling. But I had gotten the Sonata for it's luxury characteristics, not as a sports sedan, which it really isn't.
The Autostick is a nice gimmick, but it really isn't a great substitute for a manual if you wanna drive like Mario Andretti. It will downshift faster than punching the throttle, which helps in passing.
This car drives really smooth and I can hardly hear the engine when it is on. The stereo has awesome power and range, the bass is outstanding. I read in cars.com that the stereo sounded "tinny", I really don't know what they where thinking. Maybe they don't know how to change the bass and treble on stereo's.
I purchased my Sonata from Valley Stream Hyundai for $19,775 (plus t,t&l) with almost every option, sans the sunroof deflector. The financing was great, and they even threw in free oil-x's. The car salesman was great. Unfortunately, they , like other dealers in my area, are out of stock on the GLS and LX Sonata's, so waiting lists are long. But if you are patient, these cars are definitely worth looking into, if not for their good looks, but for their value.
If the car were new, I'd really have been angry about the messed up bumper. It is not too hideous, but I am not gonna pay a deductible on a "hit and run" when it is tolerable to look at, and when I trade it in, it'll have about 150,000 miles + anyways, and about zero for trade in value.
I got a rock dent on my Elantra and went to one of those paintless dent repair people. This guy quoted me $35. Everyone else wanted $80. Anyway, although he had all the diplomas showing he could use the wand type dent removers, he pulled out one of those Ding Kings they advertise on TV (and on the web). Didn't know it at the time since I'd never seen one.
The thirty-five bucks he charged me for the Elantra was the retail price of the complete kit (with shipping), so had I known about the Ding King I would have felt kind of cheated. I ordered one when I finally saw the infomercial on TV and tried it on a 97 Cavalier. The damn thing works pretty well, not as well as full blown dent repair, but well enough so I didn't feel cheated by spending the $35. For the money, you get a glue gun, a dent puller with two heads and some liquid that releases the glue. You keep pulling til it pops and repeat til the dent is gone. For $35 bucks you'd probably get enough materials to fix fifty hail dings.
Hmmmm.
I am in the military and currently stationed in Belgium. I recently tried to get some warranty work performed and was told that the warranty was only good in the USA, because that's where I purchased the car. They said they would fix it and bill me and then I would have to recover the cost by going through Hyundai USA.
I find this really hard to believe and I'm wondering if anybody has any experience or ideas on this matter.
FYI...the reasons I brought it in are for the following:
1) The left rear power window is broken. The cable mechanism inside the door needs to be replaced.
2) The front brakes act as if the rotors are warped. When slowing down from high speeds, the brakes are not smooth. I know pads aren't covered, but the pads are fine.
Thanks,
Richard W. King
Thanks
Maxamillion
about the a/c smell, and said he'd check
the drain and spray some stuff.
Well, he blew some air through the drain and
said nothing came out, and then sprayed some
stuff by BG called frigi-fresh. It was only
done yesterday, so I don't know how long it'll
last, but it has done a good job so far. The
mold spores coming through the vents had been
bad enough for me to stop using the ac before.
The frigi-fresh also has a new-car type smell
which ain't so bad.
BTW, Tony, I tried clearing the drain by covering
the vents, but I guess the problem wasn't with
the drain.
Supposedly, you should be able to get the frigi-fresh spray at the dealership parts dept, but I haven't tried, since my brother gave me a can to keep. Alot of places on the web mention it if you search for frigi-fresh. Here's an article that describes some other methods:
http://autorepair.about.com/library/weekly/aa071601b.htm
There was a recent article in Edmunds about cars being imported to the U.S. and sold illegally, which is probably the biggest reason. Also, warranties differ in different countries -- for example, Hyundai's 10 year U.S. warranty does not apply to Canada.
We got a great deal on a 2002 Sonata LX. Had to look around a bit to find one with ABS/Traction Control and Power Moonroof, though.
We got a 2002 Ardor Blue Sonata LX with 5 miles on it for $18,249 before tax & title. Installed options were ABS, Power Moonroof, Traction Control, Sunroof deflector, mud guards, floor mats and pinstriping. The dealer also had a demo LX with 3,500 miles on it with ABS, power moonroof and traction control for $17,700 (ebony black) -- we opted for the blue one with the additional options. So far, we love it!
She puts over 20K mi. a year on it so choosing between the extended B to B or the extended Powertrain will be a tough one.
Here's another curiousity: What about Kia's Optima? It has the same V6 but it hasn't been mentioned in this campaign.
"Hyundai is the greatest car line available to the public"
Also, it appears that although the Sonata's HP figures went down from 181 to 170, the torque has gone up from 177 to 181. Anyone else know what is going on with that?
The torque figures are from hyundai's web site on specs for sonata. It used to be 177lb-ft/4000 rpm and now it reads 181lb-ft/4000 rpm . What is confusing is before all this hp misstatement, the Kia engine with exactly the same displacement and compression ratio had specs of 178hp and 181
lb-ft of torque while the sonata was 181hp and 177
lb-ft of torque. I don't think hyundai has their caps on straight when doing their mech specs, and I wonder if their torque ratings are correct.
Also, in regards to mileage on Kia vs Sonata, the Kia was 18 city/24 hwy and Sonata was 20 city/27 hwy. Same engine and roughly same weight. What is up with them?
Now do not get me wrong, I would not trade my sonata in for anything, I love this car, but this fiasco of problem disclosures make me think of Enron's antic's(as an extreme example).
Some feature's on US Hyundai website is still inconsistent i.e. lockable glove box(doesn't exist). Now are the mileage ratings of 20/27 reasonably accurate, or are they just incorrect like the hp figures?
The last reciept that I have is 292 miles on 14.5 gallons (87 octane). I write down the trip odo on the receipt (usually). A regular day to work, 25-35mph (20 minutes) highway 70-80mph (20 mins). The last trip I took was about 160 miles non-stop and I remember averaging 26 or so, but that was in august during the heat wave (95 or so), 3 people and luggage. I have had my '02 sonata for almost 1 year, 11k miles. Do I use manual mode? rarely.
Do I think I have been taken with the hp, and the semi-lower than standard mileage? No. If you are really looking to get the 181 hp, go put a k&n filter in, and use 93 octane. It will probably get you there. I would agree with lngtonge18, don't worry about it.
I found that after the 'fuzzy-logic' transmission was reset from a tsb, and basically drove it like a race car for 200 miles, it is more in tune with my habits, and didn't need the manual mode as often.
One question though, does anyone still use or buy the reformulated 'oxygenated' gasoline?
Kudos to the host for doing the right thing.
My Ebony Star (2001 GLS Leather) passed the 15,000 mile mark, and she's more beautiful today than the day I bought her. Everything is working well. It drives wonderfully and shifts smoothly. The seats are comfortable on long trips, and there's plenty of useful power for merging and passing. I must say, however, that I wish I had the advertised HP; it would be even sweeter.
The custom installed stereo is a killer, but of course I can't say anything about the stock sound system's long term usefulness since I took it out.
With regular washing and cleaning, Ebony's appearance is holding up well; this car is beautiful in black.
Since I travel frequently, I get to compare my Star with other vehicles, and I rarely find anything that makes me wish I had purchased something else. My most recent rental last weekend (Chevy) made me really glad to have a Hyundai. However, the Infiniti G35 I rented a while back was noticeably superior in many respects and inferior in a few, like visibility. Nevertheless for the retail price, I could get both a new Sonata and a Tiburon GT (but I'd have to get rid of Beatrice, my '89 Chrysler TC by Maserati--not gonna happen).
So 17 months after purchasing the Ebony Star, you can call me triple HHH! (Happy Having Hyundai, not Hubert Horatio Humphrey)
My 2000 GLS racked up 38K in 20 months w/o problems until last wk. It's my radio. The power button doesn't work on the first try. I gotta press the darn thing a several times b4 it works. Also my AM/FM fades out for a couple of seconds whenever it feels like it.
This isn't anyting critical but VERY annoying.
Turns out that b/c I just went over 36K, the radio can't be serviced under warranty. The extended warranty I got doesn't cover radio either (Radio is an item that has a "life span" of its own like brakes - I think that's what Hyundai rep said.)
They told me it'll cost $230 for them to service it. Yeah, right!
Also, picked up the cabin air filter for $44. I didn't realize it costed so much. Well, that's all from me. Hope everyone else is doing well...