matt whiting

Well, I'm closing in on 1,000 miles now and am on my third tank of gas.
My early impressions of the car are:

Pros -

Styling is great, but then this is very subjective.
Interior room is great for this size (exterior-wise) car.
Power is great for a 4 cylinder.
Braking is impressive and I like having disks on all four corners.
Quietness for a car of this price.
Controls are pretty good and easy to find, although I dislike the dimmer
switch that must be pushed forward and pulled back. I much prefer the
toggle style dimmers in my American cars.
Sound system is pretty good.
Assembly quality seems very good.
The car handles well and the Michelin tires perform great in snow. The
steering is a little too light with too little feedback, but not a major
problem.

Cons -

Heater doesn't distribute heat well to the footwells.
Windows fog up with more than two people in the car.
The seat belts are too close to the interior panel making it hard for me
to grab ahold of them to put them on. The receptacle is also too close
to the console leaving insufficient room for my hand to insert the buckle.
The electronic throttle is too light (too little feedback) making it
hard to make a smooth start in 1st gear as the engine is also too quiet
to hear. In an automatic this wouldn't be an issue.
The storage bins are all the wrong size for common items. I use a 4x6"
spiral bound notebook to keep my vehicle log for fuel purchases and
maintenance. The cubby under the heater controls is about 5 7/8" wide
which means this notebook won't fit in it. It fits perfectly in a
similar cubby in my Chrysler minivan. Likewise, the top compartment of
the console looks like it was designed to hold a short stack of CDs, but
again it is about 1/8" too small for a standard CD case. And the bottom
compartment looks like it is the right size for a standard square box of
tissues, but again it is about 1/8" too small. Fortunately, the tissue
boxes give and I can jamb one in there.

Neutral -

Fuel economy - First tank was 27 MPG (60-70% highway probably) and
second tank was 29 MPG (maybe 70-80% highway), both in weather running
in the high 20s to low 30s. I'm hoping for at least 30 in my normal mix
of driving once the car is broke in and the weather gets a little
warmer. I drive 70-80% highway typically. I'd like to get closer to
the 34 highway rating, but I doubt that will happen as all of the road
tests I've seen of Hyundais show that they don't get as close to the EPA
ratings as to most other car makers (Toyota in particular does well in
this regard).


I'm be curious to hear others initial impressions of their Sonatas.


Matt

bob

I've got a GLS V6 with 1900 miles at 3 weeks. So far not too bad except for
the headlight issue - I had to adjust them myself because the dealer
insisted on using a line on the wall the first time I brought it back for
blinding oncoming traffic. That resulted in no light AT ALL beyond 70 feet
from the car. Second trip back resulted in lighting the trees instead of the
road. Off to a nice dark road I went. I think they're pretty close to OK
now. I can see, and I've driven another vehicle towards it, and it's not too
bad - brighter than most non HID, but not anything like it was from the
factory.
Another issue that they have yet to resolve is a shaking / vibration. Kind
of like an imbalanced tire, but faster - more of a vibration. Problem was
present on test drive of car, but salesman said it was probably flat spots
on the tires from sitting on lot. First trip back initially resulted in tech
saying she didn't feel it. She was instruct to balance the tires by the
service mangler. One tire was off by 1.25. Next trip back resulted in them
figuring out that the tech. inflated tires to like 36 psi. Spec is 30 psi.,
and they say vehicle rides rough if over inflated. It still does. Have not
been back yet, as I've got better things to do than spend days at dealer.
Waiting for survey(s). I intend to go back and ask how they'd like me to
fill them out. I figure that they can give me a loaner while they figure out
how to correct the vibration that's obviously not flat spots, not balancing,
and not tire inflation. It's worse at certain bands of speed - 53 mph, 60
mph, and right around 70 mph (yes, that's legal here). Anyone else feel
anything similar?

jody

with your windows fogging up, are you sure your ventilations set to fresh
and not recirc?
thatll mkae it fog up fast in recirc with two people..
i find the recirc handy for when i warm to car up on a -30f morning..
Uses the interior air thus takeing less time to heat interior, but once im
in i switch to fresh or itll fog right up .
we drive a 99 accent..

james atkinson

I have a 40 miles GL AT, I can compare it with a V6 2003 Camry: feels
exactly the same, handles the road a little better (possible due to superior
tires), power is adequate, suspension feels unrefined (running over the
speed bumps produces a loud thud), quiet otherwise. Transmission shifts
nicely, shiftronic is a un-necessary addition: does anybody use this on a
current basis?!

James

matt whiting

I was lucky as my headlights seemed to be aimed pretty well out of the
box. I've had just a couple of cars "flash" me during the two weeks
I've owned the car, and visibility down the road seems good from the driver's seat.


I haven't experienced this, but when my car was back for the "recall"
last week (seat recline handles, cupholder rubber and trim behind the
door handles), the salesman and service manager were talking about a
recall for tires that had been ruined during shipment. The symptom was
a permanent flat spot due to the cars being bound down too tightly on
the ship coming over.

Now, I thought the Sonata was built in the US in Alabama, at least I
think that is what the web site said, but it turns our my Sonata was
built in Asan, which I learned when I was reading the fine print in the
window sticker after getting it home. I would have still bought the car
in all likelihood, but I definitely felt a little mislead by Hyundai.
I'm wondering if only the V-6s are made in the US as they advertise that
the V-6 engine is also made in that same plant.

Anyway, you may want to ask them to replace the tires as it may be a
flat spot issue after all. My Sonata is quite smooth up to reasonable
speeds anyway. Once I get 1200 miles on it, I'll open it up a little more!

Even the service manager didn't understand the replacement of the cup
holder rubber and door trim on my car. He said the door trim pieces in
particular looked identical to the one's they had to replace! He wasn's
sure on the cupholder either, but thought the original rubber was too
flimsy and maybe wasn't holding the cups in place. He said the seat
recline lever was changed to hold the seat belt in place (it has an
indentation now) as some folks were getting the seat belt caught between
the handle and the seat.

I appreciate the attention by Hyundai to these little details, but I
wish they would pay more attention to the bigger details like designing
a heater that has a "floor" mode that really puts heat on the floor and
not through every other vent in the dash as well!!


Matt

matt whiting

Yes, I've confirmed that. I haven't taken it back to the dealer yet,
but will do so this spring when things get really damp. I found turning
the fan up to speed 3 or 4 helps, but I've never had to do that in my
other cars. The only other car that had this problem was a 1971 Beetle,
but it had basically no defrost capability at all!! I expected more
from a modern design.


Matt

matt whiting

That reminds me that I have a loud snap/pop sound in my dash when I hit
a really sharp bump. It does it rarely, but if I hit just the right
bump (usually the leading edge of a bridge where the road has settle a
couple of inches before the concrete bridge apron), it makes one loud
snap that sounds like it is coming from the upper center of the dash.

As for the tranny, I test drove the shiftronic and felt it largely a
gimic. It wasn't natural to me to shift gears by toggling the handle.
I've driven stick all my driving life (30 years now) and I kept wanting
to go opposite directions on alternate gears! The only advantage I
could see was the ability to hold the transmission in a given gear.
However, this could have been accomplished much more easily and cheaply
with a button on the shifter. My minivans are notorious for shifting
constantly when driving on hilly roads (like interstate 80 through
western PA) and route 15 near where I live. The are constantly going
from lock to unlock in 4th to 3rd back to 4th back to lockup and then
repeating. And the engine doesn't really lug at all before the
transmission downshifts. I like to be able to use the throttle rather
than the transmission to maintain speed on little hills.

Matt

bob

Try driving at the car on a 2 lane road in another vehicle. You may need to
adjust them down just a little. It will actually help you to see even better.

What's the first digit of the VIN if 5, it's 'bama. If K, it came over on a
boat. Yes, currently all (and only) V-6's are built here.

What's with the cup holder and trim? They did the seat recliner before I bought it.


I'll have to look at that too.

Wanna see what happens to a Sonata in a side crash?
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/database/aspx/searchmedia.aspx?foundmedia=Y&database=v&tstno=5454&r_tstno=5454&v_tstno=5454&p_tstno=5454

How about the proverbial brick wall?
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/database/aspx/searchmedia.aspx?foundmedia=Y&database=v&tstno=5453&r_tstno=5453&v_tstno=5453&p_tstno=5453

brian nystrom

I can't speak about the Sonata, but that's typical of the Elantra. The
fans are just wimpy. I routinely have to use the 3 and 4 fan settings.
You'll get used to it.

brian nystrom

I laugh every time I see a statement like this. Get some snow tires and
you'll discover how pathetic "all season" tires truly are in the snow.

The Elantra is the same. The Elantra is my first car with power steering
and I'd rather not have it at all. Manual rack and pinion is far more
precise. If I could find a manual rack for it, I'd change it in a heartbeat!


Ditto for the Elantra.


I don't know what reports you've been reading, but manual transmission
Hyundais, typically exceed their EPA ratings if they're driven sensibly.
My '04 Elantra GT hatchback is rated at 34 mpg, but I regularly get
35-37 mpg @65 mph on highway drives in the summer. I'll typically
average 34 or so combined. With snow tires on, winter blend gas and cold
weather, my winter mileage drops to 33-35 mpg on the highway and ~32
overall.

You don't specify the speeds you drive at or what your driving habits
are. That will have more of an effect on your mileage than any other factor.