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Sedans Hyundai Sonata Hyundai Sonata Owner Experiences
130 messages, Last post on Nov 24, 2009 at 4:39 PM
You are in the Hyundai Sonata Forum. Your Hosts are pat & karens
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Replying to: 8babies1dog (Oct 16, 2009 11:52 am) |
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| Im very happy with my car so far, I never thought that I would own a Hyundai, now I have a KIA also, actually my wife and I bought the Sorento first and were impressed and thats why we bought the Sonata. I plan on keeping both for at least ten years as we only put about 5k miles a year per vehicle. The only thing that bothers me a little bit is the noisy suspension on the Sonata but it is still an awesome value! | |
 Last night, on her way home, my wife was rear ended while driving our new 2009 Sonata (had to be the newest car we have, right? Couldn't have happened while we driving the minivan with three wheels in the junkyard  ). The other car is probably totaled, as it dove and went under the rear bumper on the Sonata, crushing it's front end (it was some small 2002 Ford "sports car kind of car", according to my wife and what I got off the accident report). In addition, the hood of the other car crumpled and the engine was pushed back. Our car is still driveable, and feels absolutely normal, though the behind-the-rear-bumper crumple zone (hard plastic/ABS??) is cracked into a number of pieces, and there seems to be a dent in either the spare tire well or the gas tank (as well as some under body paint damage, right beside/in front of the rear lift/pull hook on the frame, where it drops below the frame. Even with that, the cost estimate is $867+ (the plus being whatever else they find is damaged once they actually get it up on a lift and pull the bumper off). I'll update to let folks know what the final tally is (lucky for us, the woman who hit my wife's insurance is the same as ours, so our company just said "Get it done ASAP, you are 100% covered on everything, including the rental next week when the work is done") My wife, obviously, was not at fault since she was stopped in traffic, and was unhurt, other than a scratch she got after the accident trying to see if the car was damaged. I'm amazed though that the car suffered so little obvious damage after the other car was damaged so extensively. Makes me glad I own two Sonatas, knowing they are that safe.  Bad news is that CARFAX will now have a non-routine maintanence ding... good news is we were going to keep the car until the tires fall off at 200K+ miles anyway.
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Replying to: billward (Oct 20, 2009 12:46 pm) 
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Replying to: billward (Oct 20, 2009 12:46 pm)
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Replying to: terrymsu (Nov 04, 2009 8:18 am) The total came to over $2000; I'll try to give a breakdown tonight or tomorrow, but there was a lot more work that needed to be done once we and the auto repair shop discovered just how smashed in the spare tire wheel well was in the trunk. However, the car looks perfect now, externally (the paint job is incredible; I'm reminded of how nice the metallic fleck paint is on the car, with a nice deep fire). It is possible, if you know what you're looking for or if you have two Sonata's side by side, to see that our spare tire wheel well is "off" slightly, but it's pretty much the best that can be done without total replacement of the trunk. My wife's back is even starting to get better, and she's back down to not needing the pain relievers that she worried were making her too drowsy. The loaner car our insurance got us was a 2010 Sonata GLS I-4 (with 8500 miles on it; I thought we were racking up the miles!) that did NOT have PEP, and that someone had smoked in. It was a nice car.... but there is a HUGE difference in the feeling of quality in the car between having PEP or not, especially in the feel of the driver's seat; my wife really needed that lumbar support that was missing in the rental after how her back was hurt from the accident (she was rear-ended in a pretty horrific accident by a car doing >50 back in 1989, and her back has been problematic ever since; it's one of the reasons I wouldn't even look at the non-PEP Sonatas, she needed the extra lumbar support normally, much less after this last accident). I'll say it again here for the record though: Hyundai should seriously consider just making PEP standard on ALL Sonatas, as the feeling of quality in the car (especially in Rentals and such) would be a useful marketing tool all by itself. Doing so would probably only add $500 to the base price, which is not going to be noticed after two years. Oh, and as a preview of my "Full Report" to come: XM (the company) is just AWFUL. They need to just wither and die, and be replaced by a company that actually gives a darn about customer satisfaction. I have NEVER seen a company that treats their own PAYING CUSTOMERS (when our 3 month trial ended two months ago, we purchased a three year XM Everyingthing subscription (though not Best of Sirius) for the Sonata) so poorly. I'm not normally a "Write a letter to the company" kind of guy, but I'm going to end up writing a letter expressing my extreme disappointment with them, along with posting it here in the next week. Since they've also reneged on promises to Congress that they made when they merged with Sirius (the ala-cart packaging promise, in particular), I'm also going to contact my Congressman to see if they want to reexamine whether Sirius/XM needs to have some corrective action taken about their monopoly. Something needs to be done. |
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Replying to: billward (Nov 04, 2009 9:09 am) |
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Replying to: billward (Nov 04, 2009 9:09 am) The original estimate for the repair itself was $857.20 (total), with $425.28 in parts/painting, and 3.2 hours labor, plus 4.2 hours for painting labor (and an additional for the painter's helper, but at a lower rate). Final cost was $2079.72, with $462.28 in parts; the huge difference wasn't parts, it was labor, as they ended up needing 28.8 hours of labor and 6.6 hours for paint, with the increase in time being mostly from the damage inside the trunk (in the wheel well, primarily, 18 hours was in that). The crushed spare tire wheel well is the only place where you can still tell the car was damaged, even after all of that work, and you have to be LOOKING to see it even then. In fairness, we only discovered just how badly the wheel well was crushed the evening before we turned the car over for the repair; the estimate did not include that, as it was only something that was suggested as a possible problem prior to going up on the lift, until we pulled the carpet up and examined the well; we would have had quite a problem getting the spare out if needed prior to the repair. They totally replaced the rear bumper, the lower cover (the piece beneath the bumper, which was shattered badly), and the right and left rear lower panels (behind the rear wheels, on the side, below the join line). I was surprised they needed to replace those, but I suppose they must have been part of the rear crumple zone, or were damaged when the other car dove under the rear. The paint job is outstanding; just seeing the paint job, I want to fall in love with my poor car all over again, as the metallic flake still picks up the light so nicely. They were very careful to ensure that it all matched perfectly, although that wasn't difficult since it's a 2009; Hyundai still uses the same color, of course, so it wasn't tough to match, and the car was so new there wasn't any fading. I haven't been able to find any orange peel or overspray, either, though I haven't had the ability to look extensively in bright light to be sure. Regardless, the car looks outstanding. While our car was in the shop, our insurance company obtained an Enterprise Rental Car; Enterprise arranged to do their best to match our Sonata, and got us a Grey 2010 Sonata (with 8500 miles already on the ODO... WOW, that's high for a car that had to be less than 2 months old!). Unfortunately, the previous renter had not bothered to read that he or she was not allowed to smoke in the vehicle; it REEKED of smoke, but that wasn't Enterprise's fault. The car did not have PEP, however (the Preferred Equipment Package, for those who don't know the shorthand), which was the first time I'd driven a Sonata without PEP since we'd bought ours in May (although I'd had a rental 2008 without it in the Spring of 2008 for almost a week while down in Florida, after having had a 2008 Limited V6 with all options for a week in fall 2007). The lack of PEP was a bit tough; my wife was the one who ended up needing to use the rental, and she had a bad back to begin with; it' been particularly tough since the accident. Ironic that one of the reasons we had PEP to begin with was the driver's seat with Lumbar support, and when she needed it most, the replacement didn't have it. The difference between PEP and non-PEP is sufficient that I would urge Hyundai to just make PEP standard on ALL Sonata's except for the I4 Manual, and consider it even for that. In the rental market alone, the difference in perception for folks who've never driven a Sonata would be worthwhile, I believe. The last point to bring in is an odd one, but one I've already strongly eluded too in a message earlier: the rental car, though equipped with XM, did not have it activated. However, last week, my daughter (away at college) was assaulted by one of the other college students, and needed to come home for the weekend. She's attending a well known (in Virginia, at least) private college three hours+ each way away from our home. Since we have XM-Everything, specifically so that when we have to travel we can have radio we want to listen to, I called up XM to ask them to turn on the rental for the weekend; after all, it's not like we could make use of the radio while our car was in the shop. I had all of the information available for them, and ended up spending an hour before being told "We don't allow even previews. If you want to MOVE your subscription, it's a $15 charge, and you can only do it once." No working with me. No "Customer is always right." No customer service. No >POLITENESS< as they were quite hostile to the idea of doing anything unless I gave them my credit card FIRST so they could bill. At a time when folks are having a hard time with finances, that's not the attitude that will win them customers. I PROVED to them that I have a subscription, gave them everything they needed, explained what was going on, etc. The attitude of XM was "We don't care, we already have your money." That company just needs to DIE, or to have the entire company replaced with people who'll do a better job; shouldn't be hard to find folk who are willing to do what it takes to have happy customers. All in all, XM is just AWFUL.
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Replying to: billward (Nov 05, 2009 12:27 pm)
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Replying to: targettuning (Nov 06, 2009 6:26 am) The more who listen, the more potential customers you'll have... and the more you make. It's what capitalism is about: show why the customer wants your product, and they'll buy it. Like I said, XM needs to DIE; they are SO mismanaged, and customer hostile, that they need to just be replaced by a company that gives a darn. |
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