Hyundai builds an interesting car.

[Further]

No telling how it will get you

Blown engines are kids play, my sis in law's tried to burn her to death. She and her daughter were driving and the daughter smelled smoke, looked around and saw smoke and fire in the back of the car. Pulled over and jumped out, didn't have time to get their stuff, one of them grabbed her purse on the way out, but the car basically erupted in flame.

This girl does not scare easily, she has been an ER nurse for about 25 years, but this scared her, a lot.  

[groupw]

Glad everyone is ok. What was the cause? Or did this just happen and too early to tell?  Has any work been done to the car recently?

[Ralphie ★]

I hate when that happens. 

[smudge ★]

Was the car a hybrid with a big battery? 

Glad they got out in time. 

[maddmaxx ★]

I get nervous just driving past a Hyundai dealership.

[Dottleshead]

I had a Hyundai Sonata and owned it for about 5 years and took it into my mechanic after it was burning a lot of oil and while investigating, he recorded a pinging in the engine and did all kinds of tests but was unable to find anything at the time. I sold that thing ASAP.  Coworker had a sister who's engine burned out in her Hyundai.  I will never buy one again.

[Ralphie ★]

1 hour ago, Dottles said:

I had a Hyundai Sonata and owned it for about 5 years and took it into my mechanic after it was burning a lot of oil and while investigating, he recorded a pinging in the engine and did all kinds of tests but was unable to find anything at the time. I sold that thing ASAP.  Coworker had a sister who's engine burned out in her Hyundai.  I will never buy one again.

In the earliest of days my sister had a Hyundai Excel that was a real pos.  They’ve come a long way since then.  But tthen again, pos is not that bad compared to spontaneous combustion.

 

[Dottleshead]

12 minutes ago, Ralphie said:

In the earliest of days my sister had a Hyundai Excel that was a real pos.  They’ve come a long way since then.  But tthen again, pos is not that bad compared to spontaneous combustion.

 

We like everything about our Sonata. Everything. Except the chitty engine.  I mean, you can't make a car shiny enough to look past that. 

[maddmaxx ★]

But it comes with a huge warranty.

[Razors Edge ★]

8 hours ago, Further said:

She and her daughter were driving and the daughter smelled smoke, looked around and saw smoke and fire in the back of the car. Pulled over and jumped out, didn't have time to get their stuff, one of them grabbed her purse on the way out, but the car basically erupted in flame.

This girl does not scare easily, she has been an ER nurse for about 25 years, but this scared her, a lot.  

EV fires are scary. She's lucky she got out!  

FTR, don't let them offer her a Kia as a replacement.  Those have some mechanical issues no one has figured out yet.

[ChrisL]

For about a 10-12 year period WOChrisL leased various Hyundai Elantra’s.  She would get short term leases and just turn it in for another.  None of the cars ever needed repairs and we generally never needed things like brakes or tires as the terms were short.  She eventually got away from that but it was interesting to hear if all of the problems with Hyundai & Kia as none of her Elantras gave her trouble.

[2Far]

6 hours ago, maddmaxx said:

I get nervous just driving past a Hyundai dealership.

A woman's Kia (same genetics as a Hyundai) burst into flames on I-85. Right at the Kia assembly plant exit.

[MickinMD ★]

Back in 2012 when I was trying to decide which good-mileage, small car to get, my finalists where a Hyundai Elantra Sedan and a Honda Fit Hatchback.  I was leaning toward hatchback but the Elantra had a much higher gas mileage.  Then it was discovered Hyundai fudged the numbers and the did tricks to the engines others tested.

I got a 2013 Fit in Jan. 2013.  It turns 10 on Sunday.

[Bikeguy]

20 hours ago, Further said:

my sis in law's tried to burn her to death.

OMG...   Glad they are OK.

Was the car involved in this recall?  

The recalls involve 245,030 Model Year 2020-2022 Hyundai Palisade vehicles and 36,417 Model Year 2020-2022 Kia Telluride vehicles.

[Further]

19 hours ago, groupw said:

Glad everyone is ok. What was the cause? Or did this just happen and too early to tell?  Has any work been done to the car recently?

Too soon to tell, no recent work. They had drove the car from Tampa Fl. to the hills of Tennessee for a well deserved vacation, enjoyed the vacation and were driving back to Tampa when the car declared it had had enough. In a loud clear voice. 

[Further]

1 minute ago, Bikeguy said:

OMG...   Glad they are OK.

Was the car involved in this recall?  

The recalls involve 245,030 Model Year 2020-2022 Hyundai Palisade vehicles and 36,417 Model Year 2020-2022 Kia Telluride vehicles.

Not sure it is in that recall, but she said that there was a recall that she had not been notified of.

She's pissed, lawyers are involved

[Bikeguy]

6 minutes ago, Further said:

Not sure it is in that recall, but she said that there was a recall that she had not been notified of.

She's pissed, lawyers are involved

She should also report the incident.    If the car wasn't recalled... maybe it should be before others die,  etc... 

https://www.nhtsa.gov/report-a-safety-problem#index

[Further]

1 minute ago, Bikeguy said:

She should also report the incident.    If the car wasn't recalled... maybe it should be before others die,  etc... 

https://www.nhtsa.gov/report-a-safety-problem#index

I'm pretty sure she told them about it, like I said, she was pissed. She has been driving a long time and this was the first time a car tried to kill her. 

[Ralphie ★]

3 hours ago, MickinMD said:

Back in 2012 when I was trying to decide which good-mileage, small car to get, my finalists where a Hyundai Elantra Sedan and a Honda Fit Hatchback.  I was leaning toward hatchback but the Elantra had a much higher gas mileage.  Then it was discovered Hyundai fudged the numbers and the did tricks to the engines others tested.

I got a 2013 Fit in Jan. 2013.  It turns 10 on Sunday.

Honda is the shiznitz. They have cheapened them a little over the years, but ahspose you gotta do what ya gotta do.   I think the reliability may have improved though, so that is a fair trade off.

 

[Dottleshead]

22 hours ago, maddmaxx said:

But it comes with a huge warranty.

Relative?  I know my Toyota doesn't have a big warranty but I expect to last at least 300,000 miles -- and based on experimental data -- this expectation seems reasonable.

[Wilbur ★]

I have never owned one because they always ha d bad reputation here, starting with the Pony.   It was an intriguing company though as it was vertically integrated from mining raw materials to end product including shipping to destination.  Fascinating company with an unreliable product. 

[Longjohn ★]

22 hours ago, maddmaxx said:

But it comes with a huge warranty.

Does that include fire insurance?

lots of vehicles burning on the interstates these days. Last month I saw two fires on I-79. The first one was a semi fully engulfed in flame. No emergency vehicles on the scene. Black smoke blowing across the highway. Cars continued to drive past it like it was an every day thing. The second was a car fire that closed the northbound side of the road completely. 
Haven’t seen so many fires since the Pinto.

[Ralphie ★]

Truck faars happen a good bit on the Jersey turnpike. For one thing diesel contains a lot of energy so it really burns. 

[Rattlecan ★]

I guess we have been just plain lucky so far. Almost four years on our third Kia with zero issues with any of them.

Pre Covid, I had a part time job as a courtesy shuttle driver for the local Hyundai dealership and my general sense from customers was that satisfaction rate was very high.

[Rattlecan ★]

3 minutes ago, Ralphie said:

Truck faars happen a good bit on the Jersey turnpike. For one thing diesel contains a lot of energy so it really burns. 

True but diesel is much more stable than gasoline so it takes more to ignite it.

a lot of truck fires start in the wheels due to dragging brakes 

[Ralphie ★]

3 minutes ago, Rattlecan said:

I guess we have been just plain lucky so far. Almost four years on our third Kia with zero issues with any of them.

Pre Covid, I had a part time job as a courtesy shuttle driver for the local Hyundai dealership and my general sense from customers was that satisfaction rate was very high.

It does seem pretty darn variable. I have always liked driving Hyundai rental cars back in the days when you could afford to rent cars. 

[Ralphie ★]

4 minutes ago, Rattlecan said:

True but diesel is much more stable than gasoline so it takes more to ignite it.

a lot of truck fires start in the wheels due to dragging brakes 

Goode pointes.  We once drove right past a box truck that was fully engulfed. Looked like it was on the side of the road and a car slammed right into it.  

[maddmaxx ★]

2 hours ago, Longjohn said:

Does that include fire insurance?

lots of vehicles burning on the interstates these days. Last month I saw two fires on I-79. The first one was a semi fully engulfed in flame. No emergency vehicles on the scene. Black smoke blowing across the highway. Cars continued to drive past it like it was an every day thing. The second was a car fire that closed the northbound side of the road completely. 
Haven’t seen so many fires since the Pinto.

The Pinto Myth (pintostampede.com)

Popular myths are difficult to dispel.

[Longjohn ★]

10 minutes ago, maddmaxx said:

The Pinto Myth (pintostampede.com)

Popular myths are difficult to dispel.

The only Pintos I saw burning on the side of the road the owners obviously didn’t die. They were sitting at the side of the road watching their Pintos burn with a disgusted look on their face.

[MickinMD ★]

15 hours ago, Ralphie said:

Honda is the shiznitz. They have cheapened them a little over the years, but ahspose you gotta do what ya gotta do.   I think the reliability may have improved though, so that is a fair trade off.

 

The Honda Fit has an excellent record - it's a shame they stopped making them: good reliability, crash safety statistics that are similar to Volvo, and Consumer Reports "Best Bang for the Buck" car from 2009-13 and one of their "Most Fun to Drive" cars.

It took a lot of research for me to buy my first non-American brand.

Additionally, it's one of the few small cars where a 6'3" guy like me doesn't have his head pressed into the ceiling and doesn't have to contort his body to get his legs in and out of the door.  The 2013 Fit has got 41" of front headroom and plenty of legroom plus the front door hinge is far forward enough you can simply swing your legs out the door while sitting in the seat.  By comparison the 2013 Ford Focus has 38" of front headroom and, in a rental, my hair touched the ceiling and I would hit the headlight switch at the bottom of the instrument panel about 50% of the time and turn the lights on or off trying to get my legs past it and had to twist my feet sideways so I could get them out the small door opening.

Additionally, it has 54 cu.ft. of space behind the front seats, similar to small SUV's like the Honda CRV and the Ford Edge.  Other 2013 small hatchbacks typically had about 32 cu.ft.  I can put 20" long bins and boxes in the space behind the rear seats when they're in place with room enough behind them for ice scrapers/brushes on poles, umbrellas, etc. and that wasn't true of the other similar cars.  Additionally, it came with a REAL spare tire where almost all other subcompacts had a tube of spray and seal.

I was living frugally from 2009-12, before Social Security kicked-in on top of my pension and spent those years attending auto shows, researching online, etc.  It was at an auto show where I spotted a bunch of tall guys standing around a Fit and marveling at how easy it was to get in the front or back and that was the clincher.

It's the best car I've ever owned.  You can also stand the rear seats up so you can stand a typical mountain bike up behind the front seats with the front wheel popped-off - the gray rubber padding pieces in the picture were to wrap the fork and put between the rear tire and door to prevent upholstery damage.

I've had people walk up to me in trail parking lots, astonished that I simply rolled the bike out the side door!