Quote:lol, so you drive around in your toaster?...

My wife and I rented a car in Hawaii a couple years back, and the Kia Toaster was what we ended up with. All things considered, it was a surprisingly solid car, and handled paved mountain roads well. Ok gas mileage and decent performance. I still wouldn't buy one, but it was far better than the Kia Rio we ended up with during our honeymoon in North Carolina back in 2007. That thing was a complete joke. I'd floor the car going up a 6-degree incline on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and it would still lose speed.

 

Quote:I've been sent to dealerships at the company's request to mediate an end-user's complaint many times and the bottom line was always to make the dealership happy, not the end-user. My first encounter with the dealership manager before we talked to the end-user was to ascertain from him whether he wanted the end-user to be a repeat customer. From there we proceeded to tackle his issue and my decision was always in accordance with the dealership's preference.

That jives with a lot of things I've heard from a friend who works with one of the major US manufacturers in a customer support role. When he's sent out to handle an end-user complaint, the first thing he does is ask the dealership GM how they want the problem resolved. He then sits and talks with everyone, and his decision is always exactly what the dealership wants it to be. Ford doesn't care if there's something wrong with your two-week-old Focus, nor do they care if you go and tell ten friends never to buy a Ford. They care that the dealership is happy with their support, and that even if your ten friends don't buy a Focus this year, over a million people will anyway.

 

Quote:I'm in the market as well. The old Caddy finally died on me.


I went and took a look at a 2011 Elantra today. Anyone have experience with Hyundais?

Not first-hand, but I do know a handful of people who've owned them. 2008 would be my cutoff year. Anything before that was pretty much junk. Afterwards, they improved gradually year-to-year. A 2011's probably worth a test drive.

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