Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Yaris hands down. We have the hatch version. It's a great city car, and although I wouldn't reccomend doing this for most people, we've driven ours nearly halfway across the US.
I've driven the Versa as a rental several times...
Here's why I like the Yaris:
- It's a Toyota so the value for the money is there.
- The gas milage is great.
- It knows it is a city car, it does not pretend to be something else, and yet it still feels more solid and is more fun to drive than you would expect.
- It looks cool - the Yaris hatch always gets us comments and questions.
My last car was a 2001 Hyundai Elantra, and my current car is a 2008 Toyota Yaris. The Hyundai had no engine or transmission problems, but the electronics were horrible. Once the Elantra had 60k miles the power locks and windows stopped working. I had to remove the door panels to manually lock the doors. The windows would open but not close. I traded it in for the Yaris when it had 63k miles. The Toyota dealer gave me $210 for it.
The Yaris I got is the 3 door hatch with no power windows or locks. It has about 8k miles on it and no problems yet.
Hyundai Elantra. At least the ones the last 2 years or so seem to be very dependable cars. Read the reviews on various cars. The Elantra has been getting high marks. I know I drive them at work and the ones the past few years have been very dependable. They handle very well and good on gas.
Location: Still in Portland, Oregon, for some reason
890 posts, read 3,701,207 times
Reputation: 743
Quote:
Originally Posted by southernnaturelover
Hyundai's are built right here in my neck of the woods and I still wouldn't buy one. The resale value is horrible and every one I see over about 5 years is falling apart.
My Santa Fe just turned five...I went downstairs. It's still in one piece and runs like a top. And the odometer is saying something about 108,800 miles...due to be around 120K by the end of this year.
Honestly...the last Hyundai's I've heard of actually 'falling apart' (as the above poster put it) were the 2000 and some 2001s. After that, they're solid. Go drive one...let the car show you what they're really made of.
Hyundai ranked at 8th in the most recent (Dec 08) Consumer Report reliability survey. That's up 7 steps from last year. All three of the Japanese premium brands scored very high. The only non-premium brands that did better than Hyundai are...
Scion: 1st
Honda: 3rd
Toyota: 4th
Subaru: 7th
Kia is the real big winner though, as it's ranked at 10th, up whopping 12 steps from last year.
Nissan, the hallmark of quality by some in this forum, was ranked at 14th. This is at least the second year that Hyundai did better than Nissan, and this year it's not even close.
"The two closely related South Korean nameplates, Hyundai and Kia, rank right up there with the better Japanese makers. Most of their models scored average or better, with only the Hyundai Entourage and Kia Sedona minivans receiving below-average scores."
Consumer Reports are known to be very slow, I would expect the actual Hyundai quality to be much better now. If you look on TrueDelta, Hyundai models are on par if not better than Honda/Toyota. Especially the newer ones.
Also you have to love the people who can't get past the Hyundai badge. Because now they're building some of the best cars on the road and we can still pick them up at bargain bin prices. 10 year warranty too? Why not.
With the Genesis Coupe, Hyundai is now more exciting than Toyota and Honda put together.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
