straight talk on my ownership experiences

[hjr]

OK, lasat friday, i get a call from a very upset spouse. tibys tranny about ready to go out, and cost would be 2,800-3,200, labor, taxes, etc...
this was on a car 38 months old, 103,000 miles. Never had a tranny fail on any car before, 77 camaro(had 109,000 when traded in) Specrtrum(87), 2 nissans.

That would not by itself be too terribly bad, but, we spent 2 grand for new alternatro, radiator,water pump, etc, just a month back on the 99 sonata V6, at 115,000 miles. Never had to replace any of these ite,s before, either, on any car we previously owned before.

Luckily, we traded in the tibby,a nd it is going to some auto auction for fixing up,etc... and we got an 04 sonat on sale(Like spouse said, if Hyundai EVER drops their 10/100K, we will not buy a new one).

Nice cars, but man, if I were the only guy in my family a working and making ony 8 9 per hour , I would no tbe having a Hyundai. I couldn't afford the repairs.
Id have to get a used toyota, with 8/80? warranty.

Just wondered if any one else is having theseproblems like us?
I would have posted this under rants, but no one reads or responds anymore.

[thejoyof6]

Do you ever have anything nice to say about hyundai? And you keep praising your old sentra so why did you not buy another one? PLEASE!

So far all your complaining is nothing i havent heard with every other brand. I would have called hyundai up on the tibby tranny since it was so close to the warranty period, i would also bet it was more of an electronic failure rather than and tranny failure that perhaps could have been cured with a TCM update.

I hope your new sonata is perfect in every way and never breaks but if it does then you just have some bad karma or something.

[hjr]

we got lucky. the place we went to, the service manager
knew me, since I went there for above repairs the past 6 months(replaced alternator for 550 dollars, then the 1000 on other itmes, liek water pump@135, radiator at 250 dollars-all before taxes-and of course, labor costs) he cut my wife a break. He ran the thing on the machine, and said it was nearly shot(this is one of the only 3 guys I have met in 20 years I trust, to be honest).
He reset the code to get rid of the "check engine" light, and said if ya drive it, it will come back on.

He did NOT tell the front office anything, and THEY paid for the 75 dollar check up(he told the fornt office/saleman that she came in to trade in the car, and they did the check and it was OK! I kid you not! ).
I was shocked. I went and spoke to the guy, and he acted like all was normal, LOL!(after he said tranny was out, showed me the read out, etc).

That was one major reason why we stayed with Hyundai. NO other dealership/maker has done this for us, and we had problems with NISSAN 200sx(JUNK! got rid of it at 67,000 miles).

I like the cars, I do not like the amount of parts needing replaced. Another item, we did spend all of our tax refund check to fix the Sonata...and that was "fix the bathtub/floor" money.
(weTRY not to get loans, if we can avoid it. may have to get one for floor, if it gets worse. Tub is leaking!).
This could be why I am extra grumpy?

ALL cars we have owned have had parts go.
quick list:
87 Spectrum: needed new brake pads every 15,000 miles, new master cylinder at 14,000 miles, and nuermous other nickel and dime stuff. sold at 37,000 miles.
90 sentra:
stalled out(luckily, at home) at 7000 miles. Was towed and taken care of (timing was off, and burnt up the plugs on one side) Stereo broke at 9000 miles. replaced under warranty.
CV boots replaced at 75,000 miles @400 dollars.
That is it. Spent 400 dollars on this car in 9 years/233,000 miles.

97 200sx:
66,000 miles
rebuilt starter, ignition coil was messed up, timing chain replaced, tooth chipped on gear for timing chain....then light came on again at 67,000 miles, and other problems were apparent. Traded in for 2001 tibby.

99 sonata:
new radiator at 115,000
water pump, alternator at 105,000 miles.
and had to put on a recirculation valve by gas tank.
Cd player not working, as neither is cassette player, died out at 64,000 miles.
Radio works.

2001 Tibby
great car.... forf 3 years, 98,000 miles.
replaced front axels, both sides, under warranty.\trannby fried, cost would have been (low end) 2,800 dollars EST. Traded in for Sonata 04.


All cars have had problems.
200sx was over 1000 dollars to repair good engough to trade in, same for 87 spectrum, and then about 1890 on sonata.

I try not to be completely 100% stuck to any brand,as you can see, had Chevy, Nissan and Hyundai.


I liked all the cars we owned, until they started to (early on, IMHO) Nickel and dime us to death(200sx, Spectrum,
77 Camaro, etc).

I guess you could honestly say only One car out of 6 new ones in 17 years have really been what one could say was a really "great" car(90 sentra. Only 400 dollars spent on it over a 9 years, 6 week time frame).
Traded in early(we usually try to keep cars for 1 year after pay off)......spectrum, 200sx, tiburon.
Camaro last ok. 90 sentra did well, and the sonata should last until 200K, it has almost all new parts!
May trade it in....and get a new Sonata, or something else.
May keep it. It is a nice car.

I may be a bit out of touch, but I think no car should require 1000 dollars worth of work at 66,000 miles(200sx), or at 37,000 miles(Spectrum), etc, at "low miles".
Or 2000 grand worht of work before 150,000 miles, at least.(Sonata, and if we kept the 01 tibby, it would have been 3000).

either we are unlucky, or cars(engines run fine) aren't what they used to be?

[thejoyof6]

So tell us more about your sonata? color, trim, engine!

and yes i would trade for the nf sonata as soon as the quality has been tested. WHY NOT! ;D