Hyundais are in DEMAND!

Hello all;

Just an FYI. I took the 06 Sonata in for her oil change and fluid check
(15k, $20 with e-mailed coupon from Hyundai!) and the dealer had a "Wanted"
borad in the service department, offering "top dollar" for used Sonatas and
Santa Fes.

So I talk to the GM and Finance Director who are pretty honest with me and
they tell me that they cannot find any used Sonatas.SF at auction. They
offered me $17k for mine, I've got chrome 17's, aftermarket grille, LX with
gray leather and Ebony black paint.

Anyway, not sure about you guys/gals, but according to a close friend,
Consumer Reports pushed Nissan out of the #3 spot in favor of Hyundai and
I'm thinking we have a great vehicles, aside from the occasional lemon. Too
bad the Sonata doesn't have the 3.8 V6 as an option. I scoped out the 07
Platinum Edition, all black leather interior and Infinity sound system, my
heart started racing...I continue to see more and more Hyundais on the
road...


Steve in AZ

 

They really just want to sell you a new car, believe me, I always get
letters from the dealer saying my "99 sunfire is in great demand!" or my
"2003 Monte Carlo's are in great demand!"

Had the Huyndai dealer do some work my fiances old 99 elantra and a few
months later got a call from the sales department saying they were in "great
demand"

 

You are right that dealers do that stuff all the time.

But the original poster is also correct that Hyundais are in great demand.
At my current Hyundai dealership, the sales manager, a man I have gotten to
know and respect, tells me that the demand for used Hyundais have gotten to
the point where they are looking nationwide for anything they can get their
hands on. He is convinced that if they had five times the number of used
Hyundais that they do finally get, they could easily sell all of them.

When you combine a brand that provides a good value with one that is now
getting a very good reputation, I guess this is what it adds up to.

 

I bought my Sonata last September. I'd see may one other of the new 06/07
style on the road in a week at that time. Now I'm seeing three and four a
day. Sales must be way up all of a sudden.

I'm not sure why you want a 3.8 though, the 3.3 has great performance and
good mileage. I got 27 mpg on a 300 mil trip today, cruising mostly at 75.
It out accelerates any car I've owned in the past 15+ years and at least
four of them had 3.8 liter engines in them.

 

Maybe mine missed the Reducing Downshift Time Campaign, I'll check with the
dealer on it and also verify if I need the updated timing chain tensioner.
Looked at alot of stuff on hmaservice.com today. Thinking about the auto
door lock at 20 MPH.

I love the performance, but with gas where it's at, you betcha the 3.3 will
do! My K&N gets me 31MPG if I drive her right...

Steve

 

I'm seeing a lot more of them too.

Part of it is simply due to the $199/mo Sonata lease campaign that has
been running for the last couple of months. The TV ads have been
everywhere. Hyundai always has lots of rebates and deals at the end
of Q2. It's a good time to buy.

Also, the Sonata has become a favorite of rental car companies. One
of the major rental chains has a storage lot along my commute. Fully
half the passenger cars in there are Sonatas nowadays.

Both of these things actually hurt the Sonata's value because the end-
of-rental-life cars and cheapo $199 lease cars will be suddenly dumped
on the resale market all at once in about a year or two. Good if you
want to buy one used, bad if you want to sell yours in 2008 or 2009.

Rental sales and cheap leases do put more of them on the road which is
good for the brand image at some level and it does keep the factory
working. But techniques like this have also done horrible damage to
brands like Mitsu. It's knife-edge risky.

 

Yes, I had a Sonata as my last rental car. Rental car companies like
any car that is cheap to buy. The Sonata is about the cheapest car out
there in this class.

Matt

 

It might be true. There could be a demand for the Santa Fe. I live in
a large city in the South East, and in the auto-truck trader, there is
only one Santa Fe listed. And the price seems a bit high at 10.495 for
an 02

 

Hyundai's position on the timing chain tensioners is that if they don't
have a problem, you don't need them. If your car is quiet on cold starts,
they're performing normally.

The downshift time reprogramming is a campaign, so you can have that done
for free at any time if it hasn't already been done.

 

'but according to a close friend, Consumer Reports pushed Nissan out of
the #3 spot in favor of Hyundai and I'm thinking we have a great
vehicles'

REPLY: Consumer Reports ranked the 06 Sonata with perfect 'reds' in all
the system categories which indicates very high reliability. They also
give it their 'best buy' status . I have a friend who just bought an 07
Sonata and he is thoroughly impressed with the ride, quality, and value.

 

Must be why the dealer gave me exactly what I wanted for her 99 elantra when
I asked for it when we traded it in on a 07 santa fe.

Pretty much asked KKB Private Party Good value minus what it would have
costed me to get her car fixed internally at my body shop and they gave it
to me.

 

Steve I find this hard to believe. I bought my '06 Sonata LX used last
month here in Phoenix, AZ and I had a TON of used Sonata's to choose
from, they are all over the place because of the rental car companies
dumping them at auction. I Carfax'ed at least a dozen at 9/10 were
rental cars. The prices are all over the place as well. I got mine
with 23k miles for $15.3k which is awesome when most are $16k+.

Paul