Before I get into the car itself I feel it's important to give you some background information. Up until about 3 years ago, I worked in the automobile industry. I worked as Sales Manager, Business Manager, and before that as a Salesperson at a dealership that sold General Motors cars and trucks. During that time I always thought of Hyundai's as being "disposable" cars, similar to a Bic lighter, the minute it starts giving you a hard time you throw it out and get another one. When my "work" car conked out (I had purchased a used car before leaving the dealership) I decided that due to the nature of my new job (I work for The City of New York and can be assigned anywhere at any time) I would purchase a "new" car. My goal was to spend less than $15,000.00 on a car, I needed something "just to get back and forth to work" but it had to be reliable. If the car gets beat up on the streets of New York so be it. I started out thinking I would probably get a Honda Civic or a Toyota Corolla or maybe a Nissan Sentra. My search began online and included phone calls to contacts that I still had in the business. I went to the showrooms to sit, touch and test drive the different cars and get a feel for them. After visiting the different dealerships, I went back online and began the process of figuring out the cost on each of these cars equipped the way I wanted it. Once you figure out cost you should negotiate from that figure, most dealerships will attempt to begin the negotiation process from the price that appears on the window sticker. Depending on the car's supply and demand you should be able to purchase the car for as low $100.00 over cost or what many dealers refer to as 'tissue'. Almost all of the vehicles in this category are both in high supply and high demand. It's important when going to the showrooms to have the proper information and to remember that there is tremendous competition between dealerships, someone will sell you a car at a fair price, no more than $300.00 to $500.00 over tissue. I recommend everybody visit the different manufacturers websites as well as Edmunds.com and Kelly Blue Book.com before doing anything else. These sites contain a wealth of information (all the cars vital statistics: length, width, height, fuel capacity, avg. MPG in the city and highway etc. as well as pricing) all the tools you'll need to make a decision you can feel confident about and best of all save you some money. As I visited the different sites I began to notice how favorably the Hyundai compared to all of the Japanese entries. The Elantra is available in two trim types: the GT and the GLS. For my purposes the GLS seemed to fit my needs. If you're looking for something a bit sportier, the GT is the way to go. The list of standard features is quite impressive: 15" wheels, four wheel independent suspension, speed sensitive rack and pinion steering, power windows, power locks, power mirrors as well as air-conditioning, side impact air bags and a cassette player. The only powerplant available is a peppy 140 horsepower 2.0 liter DOHC engine matched with a 5 speed manual transmission. Automatic transmission is available and is a 4 speed with overdrive. This list of standard features is usually found on cars costing nearly twice as much as the Elantra.To top it off, Hyundai offers the best warranty: 5 years or 60,000 miles whichever comes first bumper to bumper and 10 years or 100,000 miles whichever comes first on the powertrain. I consider myself a smart consumer, so I headed over to my local Hyundai dealership to see if this car was all it was being cracked up to be. I took it for a drive and was impressed with the overall driving experience for a car that was this inexpensive. I decided to purchase the car that day. I bought a silver on gray interior model with the upgraded package which included a CD player, mud guards and remote keyless entry with a factory theft deterrent system and the automatic transmission. Incredibly, for a car with these many amenities I still paid less than $15,000. The only small negative was that I couldn't get the burgundy exterior with the gray cloth interior---my first choice. I could not purchase any of the other vehicles I was looking at for anywhere near the price I paid for the Elantra. I've now had the car 9 months and have put roughly 14,000 miles on it and the only time its been in the shop is to have the oil changed and the tires rotated. To me, this is a car's most important statistic to consider: how much time it spends in the Service Dept. Edmunds.com says it best "The only thing 'economy' about this car is the price."
Amount Paid (US$): 14,300.00
Condition: New
Model Year: 2002
Model and Options: Elantra GLS