The new Hyundai's have caught my eye. I was fortunate to really get to drive one well (once upon a time...well, about a year and change ago anyway). In April 2011, I had financed a 2011 Hyundai Elantra. At the time, my 2-hr each way commute was killing my car (the fuel pump failed, the rubber part to the caliper pretty much ripped to shreds, and then one day the car did not start - the starter failed on my older BMW 3-series AWD wagon whose chassis is too large to allow easy access to replace the failed starter); my car had racked up more than $2000 worth of repairs and maintenance expense in a period of 2 months. So, I was convinced that I really had needed a much newer car that started with fewer miles than 98K and perhaps one that was a whole lot less finicky and less "high maintenance" (I'm a little high maintenance myself but it didn't mean I wanted to deal with a car all the time much like myself). I looked at what I considered were good, not too used cars with good gas mileage (the Toyota Corolla and the Honda Civic were on the top of this list). I figured it to be almost a $300 a month finance, which would be great and my pocketbook wouldn't be upset at me either. Well, then I noticed that a brand NEW Corolla or Civic was going to be only maybe $50-something more a month perhaps. So then now, I was in the market for a new car as well.
My husband sent me an email "Check out this car. You want good gas miles. This car gets 40 mpg!". The first thing I noticed was that is said Hyundai. Yeah, I knew the name. In college, I had a friend of a friend drive us around in a Hyundai. I had a friend then who told me his father had a Hyundai. Personal experience and stories from friends was a bad, bad image for Hyundai. Why would I want a rolling, cheaply made piece of metal that broke down every three to six thousand miles?!?! Not on your life! I would never, ever get something so awful!
Well, I was so undecided with which car to get (I can be very indecisive...yeah I know...) that one day, I did click on the link in the email entitled 2011 Hyundai Elantra. A pic came up; it looked like a baby version of the newer styling of the Hyundai Sonata (which I had liked, but to me it was a Hyundai and something I figured that was not something that I would have wanted). I looked at the website and I remembered that there was a 100K mile power train warranty. Well...if they offer that, either they will have to fix those cars over and over or they had somehow become not as unreliable as they once used to be. I also asked a friend who is almost as much into cars as my husband and I are. Everything seemed pretty good, but I was skeptical. I dropped by the dealership nearest to my home one evening and sat in one of the Elantras to see if I'd like it or not or whether my 5 foot tall frame was suited to it or if my not quite so long legs can somehow reach the pedals or not (but could not test drive it since it was just me and our daughter who would need a toddler car seat and no one else to watch her). Well, when I sat inside one with the "Preferred Package", it was like magic. I loved the dash; had a pleasing modern look to it (reminded me in some way of Transformers). It had the audio controls on the steering wheel which I was accustomed to. It even came with Bluetooth to the car's audio system, an ipod port, and XM radio capabilities. Wow!-the inside of this car could have been a Lexus or something! I was super impressed! Then, I tried the seat adjustments for my height. I moved the seat up and forward as I would need it because of my petite stature (these seat controls were included with the Preferred Package). I told my husband "let's do it!" He 'won' me one a week later (when I say won, I mean he tried somewhere else and they were "flying out the door" and you got whatever colors they happened to have received that week or even that day - and that's what happened, he got there on a day they received a new shipment).
He came home with a beautiful red, Elantra that day. I was super excited. It was a great value since the styling was beautiful (they finally hit on something nice and original) and it was packed with lots of nice technology for the price. To me, it was like getting a Lexus at a 40% discount! (It came out to maybe $18K, totally brand new.)
Well, unfortunately, earlier this year after carefully driving and enjoying my brand new car for about 9 months total (22,459 miles later), someone in a big, Toyota SUV (a 4 Runner) lost control of their wheel and crashed head-on into my new, beloved car (I tried to avoid the accident, but swerving a little meant he still managed to hit my front passenger side instead of the driver's side where I was sitting). It was the most pain I had felt in a VERY long while! I cried from the pain, but I realized, I was still alive. My car had a great crash rating (which was another reason it made it easy for me to choose this car over the competition) - and it probably saved my life. (The seat belt restricted hard against my abdomen and lightly against my chest; no whiplash or back problems...just some bruises. My knee also got a bit banged up against the lower dash area, but not enough to break or fracture any bones). I survived a head-on collision going almost 40 mph against a big SUV going more than 40 mph (it lost control in "S" patterns over both lanes of a double yellow lined, curvy back-road in the mountains, and it was going down the hill and gaining speed). I'm mostly healed now (it is 4 months later).
What I notice now is that the originally newer Sonata body style that transfered over to the Elantra has now also transfered over to the Accent and even the Tuscon (the smaller SUV). Somehow, it seems to work in most of their cars! (I saw it on a Tuscon today in fact). I do miss my Elantra very much; maybe someday again, I will get another one. (If the insurance had worked out well and if I didn't anticipate higher insurance premiums even though the accident was not my fault, I would do it all over again). My Elantra never went in for any manufacturer's warranty issues once and never had any sort of problem, yet I drove her on the worst roads in New Jersey. My 2011 Elantra was a much different Hyundai than the ones they made a decade ago (ran well, looked great, got me an effective 38 mpg average with some traffic, and saved my life). It is all that I look for in a car for commuting that is good for the family too (and yes, it had a surprising amount of trunk space and leg room in the rear passenger seats too. It might have been classified as a compact car but seemed to be in-between a compact and mid-size car - but they had to classify it as one or the other, I suppose).
A big thumbs up to Hyundai for improving 150% over the past decade. I still miss my "baby Sonata" (since I spent so much time traveling with her, it was kind of like losing a best friend who was always there; who sacrificed their life to save your own).
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