2004 Hyundai Elantra Reviews, Pricing & Specs

This car was purchased used and had been in a pretty serious accident. It was repainted and the driver door and headliner replaced along with a few other bits an pieces. I took a chance and got it cheap. Best $5000 I've ever spent. Over the years I've had to replace tires, change the oil, and the regular wear items. All 4 struts were replaced about 2 years ago and most recently the clutch (just over 100K). For the money I've spent in service and replacement parts this still comes out to some really cheap transportation. My particular model doesn't have cruise control and that really stinks on long trips. A few of the interior trim pieces have started to come apart (sun visor mirrors, fan controls, etc). Other than that I plan to drive this car until the wheels fall off and then maybe buy another much newer but still used Elantra or Sonata. Jun 30, 2014

First off, I am the only owner of this car, I purchased it new on the Hyundai lot in Sept. 2004. As of right now it has approx. 179000 KMs on the odometer (Apr. 20, 2010). Over 90% of the mileage on the car was done on the highway. I am also the only driver of this car. Performance wise for it's class this car is pretty good I find. I find the 5 speed manual transmission has a really good gear ratio that gives it a better acceleration that I would expect from a car of it's class. I also sometimes tow a trailler that weights in loaded at approx 900lbs along with some passengers and the engine can always keep the car up to posted speeds unless you are doing highway speeds going up a hill where it will lose 10-20 km/h by the time you get to the top while using 4th gear and a have the accelerator pedal pushed at least half way down. Keeping in mind that this is a small car and I'm putting it through paces normally you would use a truck or SUV to do, I'm very satisfied with how the engine performs. Braking on the car is decent but could be a little better in my opinion. I find once you start adding weight into the car (passengers, objects or trailer) it doesn't stop as easily as it should. As for handling I very much like this car since it does not have fancy traction control systems like used on most newer vehicle. I like to have full control of a car as this way you get to know it's limits, traction controls just hide these from you and I don't like that idea whatsoever. As far as quality goes I can't complain. Following the recommended maintenance schedule definately keeps a car in good shape. I've had both O2 sensors and the fuel pressure sensor replaced under warranty for being defective. Other than that I've had two bad luck incicent. The first one involved a rock flinging through the front grill and hitting just the right spot which busted one of the pipes on the air condenser unit (I believe that's what it's called) which drained all of the freon in the AC system. Had to replace the unit and get new freon put in the AC system. The second incident totaly my fault, I jacknifed a trailer into the left side of the car which dented the quarter panel and bumper. Both these unfortunate incidents dinged me about 500$ CAD each to fix. As far as gas costs go it's in the same ballpark as other cars of it's class. I have not noticed any fuel mileage increases over time. Having a 45KM one way commute to work I do notice a difference of between 5 and 10$ of gas used up in a week if I drive faster on the highway (in the 130-140 km/h range, pretty much whatever the flow of traffic is going in the passing lane). Maintenance I find is a bit pricey but I am still taking it to the dealership as I find they treat me right and don't feel the need to risk going to one of those sometimes shady looking private shops to get my maintenance done. As far as appearance and fun factor goes, those are not things I care about all that much so I will not spend much time on them. For appearance as long as I don't find a car ugly I would consider owning one. As for fun factor, I regard my car as a tool to move my rear end and whatever gear I need from location A to location B. If you want a car to have fun with, get a fuel guzzling sportscar.Apr 21, 2010