speaking of the Genesis...

"Outpaces Lexus, Acura, and Lincoln models in Consumer Reports ratings"

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2009/01/cr_upscale_sedans.html

 

They did have a few complaints about the ride, otherwise the CR rating of
the Genesis would have been off the chart:

"The only real drawback is its ride, which can be unsettled at times and
doesn't live up to the standards set by other luxury cars."

 

We will see how they last in comparison to the other Luxury cars. Also the
jury is out on how long they will produce the vehicle. If it has the
lifespan as the other Hyundai "luxury" cars , then in a few years the
Genesis will become the Apocolypse.

 

Its a shame. In Australia the luxury one was the "Grandeur" and in ride
quality it made most everything else look agricultural. But I,m told it
suffered from a lot of irritating electrical issues. Poor connections etc.
You,d think problems like that would be averted in the design stage.

 

I have a 2002 XG350. I bought it in 2003 off lease from fla. It had 14,000
miles on it showing. I decided to buy the extra bumper to bumper warranty
from Hyundai for $1295 US dollars. That was the best money I ever spent in
my life. The car was perfect from the time I bought it. In 2008 the darned
thing started to throw craps. The alternator went out. (Pulled engine to
repair) total was $800 in repair bill. Some kind of sensing device went
out a month later on engine and the engine had to be pulled again. Another
$675 that time. Two months later was another sensing device of some kind
went out up under the dash and they had to pull the entire dash assembly yo
get to it and repair it. Had to wait on parts for 3 days because " This was
the first one of these we ever had go bad." $467.50 bill and no car for
four days plus the lot guy knocked out the taillight lens while there at
the dealer washing the car.. $100 repair bill for the lens. Next was a
water pump. Pulled engine again , for $775.00. This was all within the
warranty. I have a piece of junk. It would be my advice to anyone that has
one of these to drive it until the warranty runs out, then the first thing,
seemingly minor repair, that goes wrong with it, get rid of it. Hace it
hauled off to the salvage yard. Don't look back. Don't ever buy another
one. I won't. Thats for sure. Oh, one other thing I forgot. The AM radio
part would never would pull in a station over 5 miles away. Total junk. The
dealer's answer. "Well heck, nobody listens to than anymore anyway..." I
put in an $89.00 sony Xplod and four sony Xplod speakers and in the daytime
I get AM stations about 80 to 100 miles away with no noise and the FM side
gets a station every place on scan. Hyundai dealer said to replace the OEM
junk in the car originally was almost $1,000 dollars. the CD has a function
that seeks out not only favorite tracks but even favorite parts of a track
too. Total cost was $145.00 from Crutchfield with free shipping, a very
detailed installation DVD, new wiring harness faceplate and dealing with
them was a lot nicer experience than a Hyundai dealer, I can assure you.
I'd be afraid of another Hyundai of any kind. just because of the "rate of
failures" that I have experienced.

 

I bought a Hyundai because I went through similar with a Buick. The
particular model you have was replaced though, so a new Hyundai has nothing
in common, even the assembly plant in most cases.

 

Hi Ed, Well, let me rephrase that. I would be inclined to get the newer
Sonatas if made in Alabama by US workers. seems like the Sonata stays in
production longer so Hyundai must believe they have a winner in that model
where the rest of them are kind of iffy and of the "here today, gone
tomorrow", variety. Still don't believe I'd get one of the so called
"luxury cars" until they've been out about 10 years or so and still being
made. I'd be interested to know the year and the model of Buick that you
had trouble with. We bought a new 2001 Regal and had a recall on the gas
tank about 3 months after we took delivery on it. They replaced the tank at
the dealer for free and some jake leg mechanic that they hired for warranty
work screwed up the wiring harness for the tank when he plugged it into
the new tank. You would be running down the road and the sending unit at
the tank would tell the engine computer it was out of fuel when it was
indeed full. It would die and you had to go around and jostle the side of
the car in order for it to start again. (bad connection in the harness)
Very annoying situation indeed. lol
They got that problem taken care of by installing a new harness by one of
the better mechanics at the agency. This time they soldered the old wire to
the new harness, used heat shrink tubing on all the splices instead of just
twisting the wires together and taping the joint with vinyl electricians
tape. We never had another minute's worth of trouble with it until we
bought a new 2008 Lucerne for my wife. Gave it to my son in law and he has
driven it trouble free now too for a year. Sorry you had trouble with the
Buick. They are usually good cars and the labor on them even at the
Cadillac/Buick/GMC/Pontiac dealer here is about half what it is here to
get out of warranty dealer work done on Hyundai. Warranty oil changes and
tire rotation are free too , Yep, FREE. Is the Azera still in production?
If they are, seems to me like they have a GM problem whick is to many of
the same models. IE SUVs: Chevrolet Tahoe, GMC, Escalade. Basically all the
same vehicles with different decals onn them. thanks for the reply.

 

I think one thing you may be forgetting is that Hyundai is a Korean company
which dominates auto sales in their own country. So comparing the number of
models to GM may be misleading.

 

You are right. Something they also dominate in the United States is the
shipping container business for chinese junk. Everytime you see a freight
train at a crossing Hyundai is the name you see predominately on
containers. Out of a 110 car train, I recently counted 93 cars with Hyundai
Shipping containers on them. My wife said , "wonder what is in those?" I
told her to follow it and she's probably get lead poisoning filtering
through the container from the Chinese made junk inside it. lol

 

Hyundai used to be a huge conglomerate (the also make computer memory chips
among many other things) but the company has split up into smaller pieces
and the auto company is separate now.

 

2001 LeSabre. Both rear windows are held up with a wood stick. Heated
driver seat burned out before the three years, but after 36000 miles so GM
would not fix it ($675 for repairs so neither did I) Passenger side gets
only cold air, cruise control switch is held in place with a toothpick,
transmission was rebuilt, ignition coil replaced, wheel bearing was $300
fix, right now it is sitting in my driveway with no brakes. Too damned cold
to crawl under and look for leaks.

2007 Sonata has been trouble free for 50,300 miles so far. If the Buick was
that good, I'd be driving a Lucerne.

 

Right now Ed I am almost 69 years old and I am seriously considering my
next 4 wheeled vehicle to be a Chevrolet Volt. Sounds perfect for the
city driving we do and I am seldom over 20 miles away from home so the 40
mile round trip without using the gasoline charging system and any E-85
fuel that it's liquid internal combustion engine would be as the country
song used to say "Close enough to perfect" for me. I know for most of the
folks my age group. I "remember" the "good" economic times when oil was 140
dollars a barrel and that it will be there again and more when hard times
are replaced with good again. Speaking of the Le Sabre, I had an 84 model
2 door and it was probably the best car I ever owned in my life. I put my
first change of Mobil one 10w40 oil in it when I had it a month and 500
miles on it.(bought it new) and drove it until 1996. It was still going
strong until the lady I sold it to got hit in the rear end on the Will
rogers turnpike in Okla. Sounds like the Lesabre you have should have been
replaced by a "lemon law" like what we have here in Mo.

Everytime I get in the XG350 , I count my lucky stars if I am able to cross
town without a red light of some kind coming on to alert me of impending
doom. I have 37,000 miles on it showing but I think that the car had many
more miles than the 14,000 showing when I bought it in 2003 off a Hyundai
lease from Fla. I know there is not supposed to be a way to tamper with
electronic speedometers but electronically anything is possible with a guy
that wants to screw the public. My next major expenditure on the XG350
will be the timing belt replacement which is not covered under warranty.
That will probably be a grand or so by the time the mileage gets to the
warrany time to replace it. I don't drive it much anymore and when tooling
around town when it is warm enough, I ride my 250cc Honda motorscooter with
the open up compartment in the back for groceries. 75 mpg city. For a
tightwad you can't beat it.