I bought a Hyundai Elantra for my daughter in 2000 to replace the 1993 Beretta that her older sister bequeathed to her around her 15th birthday (without discussing it with me, I might add! I've since forgiven her.) The Beretta saw a lot... 3 1/2 years of college with the older daughter, 3 1/2 years of high school with the younger. If only it could have talked, the tales it could have told...
I was mocked by my husband who wanted to get her a Ford, by my father who said the Beretta was still a good car (the only time in 80 years he's ever been wrong about a car) and I think the Hyundai may have been an occasional source of embarrassment for my daughter, though not more than the Beretta had become. Shall we say it didn't age gracefully?
But, it's still on the road. It's carried her back and forth from Louisiana to Colorado to Virginia to Illinois to Texas to South Carolina to D.C. to Indiana more times than I can count. There were some annoying problems but never any that left her stranded on the side of the road (not any that were the car's fault, that is!) It's bound to be close to the end of its 100,000 mile warranty, maybe it's already expired.
The biggest problem was the availability of Hyundai dealerships where warranty work could be done. Oh, and it had this strange magnetism for parking tickets which, sadly, were not covered under the warranty. Speeding tickets, being issued to the driver instead of the car's registered owner, didn't always find their way back to me.
We chose the Hyundai after test driving several Hondas and Toyotas, all used, because new, those makes were not in our budget. The Hyundai won on features, comfort, ride, roominess, warranty, and price. The most worrisome aspect of the deal was getting the trade-in Beretta to the dealership without a tow truck.
We were so grateful that the Hyundai salesman saw the humor in my literal statement that the Beretta would make it to the lot under its own steam.
So, I wasn't quite as surprised as Wizbang's Paul to read Hyundai Now a Contender.
