Hyundai Elantra Reviews

Seeking a real solution, I contacted Hyundai Corporate. After a week, I was told the following “plan”: Koons Hyundai’s Advanced Technician will only inspect the vehicle after the battery dies again. In other words, I must wait for a fourth breakdown, wait for another tow, and only then will a proper diagnostic be performed. I asked why this level of expertise wasn’t provided after the second or third failure. I asked why a proactive inspection couldn’t be done now, while the vehicle is operational. The representative offered no clear explanation—simply repeating that I must wait until the car fails again.

This is unacceptable. I am now driving a vehicle I cannot trust. I live with constant anxiety, wondering when, not if the battery will fail again. This problem has already left me stranded multiple times, caused me to miss work, and significantly disrupted my daily life. I am left with a car I cannot rely on, no concrete answers, and no meaningful support from Hyundai. Hyundai must take this issue seriously and provide a proactive, lasting resolution. As it stands, I strongly caution other potential buyers: do not purchase a Hyundai unless you are prepared to deal with poor service when problems arise.

Occasionally the keys do not work even after replacing the battery. Of course, because I don’t want to get sued, what I have written is from a layman’s perspective. It is, however, truthful in my experience. Why, why, why didn’t I buy a Honda or a Toyota? Oh, I remember, the Hyundai was about five thousand cheaper. You get what you pay for, I guess. Oh, I forgot to mention that I received a letter from Hyundai stating that defective door parts would be covered and that I need only take it in to one of their service shops. Guess what? They told me that Hyundai would not cover the replacement because the only way to fix it was to take the door apart, thus damaging it and therefore voiding the warranty! (I have all the emails from this incident as well).

More personally, I am a good, decent person/citizen who has worked hard all of my life in social services, community mental health and providing direct treatment to disenfranchised persons and their families. Want to know what my wage was when I left a few years ago, with a master’s degree? 37,000. Fifteen years before that I was hired at 31,000. When COVID came I was so burned out that now I can only work part time. The point is that I’m barely making it month to month moneywise and can’t afford another car. My only goal here is at least to warn the public about my experience with Hyundai and their staff. Please know that this writing is not vengeful or me indulging in being a victim or causing chaos. Thanks for reading, Eric.

Now, after finally being contacted, Hyundai has offered to cover only 60% of the cost to repair the defect, leaving me to cover the remaining 40%—even though this is clearly a manufacturer’s defect and no fault of my own. It is frustrating and disappointing that Hyundai, a company I trusted when purchasing the car, is now placing the burden of their mistake on me. I expected more from a company that prides itself on customer satisfaction and quality. Unfortunately, this experience has been a major disappointment, and I will think twice before purchasing another Hyundai vehicle in the future.

Our long-term and trusted mechanic tells us it's the same issue as before. We contact the Hyundai dealership it was purchased from, and who also replaced the engine, and she's given an appointment a ways out. They look at it and tell her nothing is wrong with the vehicle. She continues having to put in quarts of oil in between oil changes and calls Hyundai again to tell them it's running like it was prior to the engine going out the first time and is given another appointment months out. In the beginning of 2024 the car shuts off, just like it had the last time.

Our mechanic confirms there is tons of metal debris in the oil and the "new" engine has failed for the same recall issue as before. Hyundai doesn't expedite the appointment because they are so backlogged with this issue, so she has to wait months just to have them inspect it again. They then try to deny the claim, stating she didn't supply sufficient evidence of oil changes and the engine was dirty. She told the dealership there were oil change receipts in the glove box but they didn't submit them to Hyundai, and when she mentions this they tell her there's nothing the can do and she needs to call Hyundai corporate.

Hyundai USA says their decision is final and her only other recourse is to submit a BBB dispute. She goes through weeks of that, and the BBB arbitrator determines Hyundai needs to replace the engine based on all the evidence she submitted, and also stated they needed to do it immediately after all the waiting she had already done. The dealership was notified and she was given a loaner while the work was being done.

The following week she gets a call from the dealership and is told she has to bring the car back because Hyundai told them she accepted a buyback offer. Hyundai USA had not reached out to her to even discuss buying the car back. She called the BBB and they had never heard of that. Come to find out there is a clause in the arbitration that if the car is over 10 years old and over 150k miles they can make an offer. However, Hyundai had NOT tried to contact her prior to telling the dealership to stop the work and to get the rental back. Hyundai's customer service was also extremely rude, telling her she should have read the paperwork. While we should all read our paperwork thoroughly, it's awfully telling that the BBB arbitrator had never heard of this clause either.

I will also mention that while her car was sitting at the dealership waiting to be inspected prior to the initial engine replacement denial, my car had to go through an oild consumption test. After paying over $85 for an oil change, which they require to be done by them to start the consumption testing, they also tried to say my oil pan had a leak and it would be >$500 to fix and I'd need another oil change to start the consumption test after I had it repaired.

My car had just been looked at by our mechanic, who told me the engine was having that same recall problem, and there had been no mention of a leak. I asked the dealership for the pictures the tech supposedly took and then I took my vehicle back to my mechanic. Surprise, surprise, no oil pan leak, but it looked like someone smeared oil on the outside! I wanted to see if the dealership would send the supposed proof so I didn't let them know I knew they had lied yet. I called and left messages but never got the pictures and never got a call back. I had to go back to the dealership after the 1,000 miles passed after their oil change, and showed them my proof that there was no leak.

So bottom line, Hyundai's practices are extremely immoral. They deny legitimate claims, won't pay for expenses incurred because of their faulty equipment, and will lie to get more money out of their customers. I will NEVER EVER, EVER give them my business again, and will be exploring options on how we're going to get all the money we spent going through this with them back, including the rental costs from 3 years ago they still haven't reimbursed!

6- You can not raise wipers in winter.

I contacted Customer Services. First they told me they were going to try to obtain an appt sooner and cover the cost of the rental. After a week, they came back saying the rental was not covered and they do not have any appt at a later time. This is unacceptable!!!! How a job can be done in two days if you are paying out of pocket and more than three weeks if it is a recall? This is not my fault, it is Hyundai lack of quality that is causing this inconvenience. Very disappointed!!!! Never buying a Hyundai again!!!

Dealership was great trying to work with customer, not Hyundai. Not even willing to split added cost of we having to pay $800.00 to make car whole and satisfy customer. Buyer beware. Over month public knowledge across the country. Lawsuit civil was denied in CA, and no recall on paint, even though dealers know the problem continued in later year on may models. The longer this went on we found it is a big problem. Painting most of the car with thus devalue the car more. Dealer would assume car was in an accident when they will notice most of the car was painted and other parts not covered by Hyundai.