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I think their first good looking car that got people's attention was the 2007 Santa Fe. Been uphill since then.
BTW, my wife bought a 2005 Santa Fe new and boy was that a ugly car LOL.
I've considered renting a '12 Sonata for an upcoming trip, just curious if Hyundai ever got the steering problem (pulling) worked out? Have you had any problems with that?
My '12 is fine, just more sensitive than other cars I have driven in the past. Took me a month to get used to it. But it doesn't have the pull that a lot of people had with the 2011's.
My main complaints after driving the car for 6 months and 7k miles:
- No auto up/down for passenger window (my old '11 Kia Optima EX 2.4 had this).
- The door lock buttons and power mirror buttons don't light up at night (the Optima had this too).
- Interior lights don't come on when you get near car (my Optima had this).
- No power passenger seat in the Limited model (Optima SX has this)
- No HID headlights (Optima SX has this)
Basically, the Optima SX has a lot more options. I just couldn't get a Kia dealer to discount it like my Sonata. Might look again in another year when I'm half way through the lease.
The Optima with the 2.4L got about 2-3MPG better than my 2.0T on the same commute. I'm seeing around 29-30MPG (manually calculating) on 85 octane (8500' elevation). The computer always shows 2MPG better, so it's a bit optimistic.
With the Genesis, prior to that I never looked at them, but as of now I consider them a decent brand with a pretty good selection of products. Honestly, their selection is a lot better and more diverse than the standard American automakers...at least right now.
The last gen Sonata certainly helped their overall reputation, but the current car along with its KIA twin are the ones people really started to notice.
I'm sure enthusiasts took notice when the Genesis, Genesis Coupe and Equus came out, but I actually think the Elantra beginning around 2007 is when people started to take more notice and it was the first Hyundai compact to be reviewed favorably compared to its main competition.
So, I would say it started with the ~2007 Elantra and the brand really gained notice with the current Sonata/Optima. I think the Genesis brought the brand to the attention of enthusiasts.
For the masses? That previous generation Sonata everyone's talking about.
They started the improvement way back when they began developing technology for themselves instead of rehashing Mitsubishi's low-end junk. Hyundai has been doing nothing but going forward since then. I'd say improvements were very noticeable around the 2000 model year.
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