Life with Sonata (Hyundai Sonata (1989-93))

Member Name: Stew Hall

Product:	Hyundai Sonata (1989-93)
Date:	16/06/01 (504 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Roomy., Extras., Comfy.

Disadvantages: Depreciation., Refinement., Cost of parts.

I have now owned the Sonata for a year. It is a Burgundy 2.0 cdi 1993 model which I purchased after a disaster with a Rover 820.

Living with Sonata.

It"s a big family saloon which seats 5 in comfort & has a massive boot, this suits us as we are a family of 5 & several times a year, travel to other parts of the UK. Whist never an MPV, the car serves its purpose well.Mpg is around 30 round town & 34 on a journey.
Servicing is standard with costs around £130 once a year at the main dealer where I got a 20% discount card with the car which counts against parts, labour ,etc. This is about to help as an unknown shopper crashed into my rear lights smashing a lense which is going to cost us £80 as they will only supply a full lense unit.

As you would expect, it has electric windows all round, power steering, fully adjustable seats & steering wheel along with air conditioning,(ok, we only use it twice a year but it helps when the kids start skwauking!)

This is our 3rd Hyundai & whilst impressed with the after sales staff, the courtesy cars sometimes let me down but this gets better every year.

I was stopped at work recently by a colleague who stared fondly whilst recalling how his Sonata pulled the family caravan for years with ease, worthy of note for potential buyers.

Who will buy the Sonata.
Someone like me who has a budget,a family but cant afford an extortionately priced MPV.
Marks out of 10= 7/10.

PS; Don"t expect luxury car refinement unless getting a much later model.

Just an update at 8/10/01. I mentioned previously that my customer Loyalty card allowed 20% off parts & labour, well, on Thursday, 4/10/01 after booking the Sonata in to Gold in Gateshead for a rear indicator lense(smashed by an u/k person's shopping trolley), wheel bearings & an MOT, I was informed to collect it at 4pm that day.

As I needed a courtesy car, Gold telephoned my insurance compa
ny & updated the premium to fully comp, in other words, I insured their car for the day!

At 4pm I was told the bill was £292 & produced my discount card which met with the reply,"You should have produced it this morning, company policy means we can't amend the bill" Needless to say they wouldn't budge merely pointing to an A4 sized sheet of paper on the wall adjacent to dozens of others which stated the policy.

So my loyalty wasn't worth the £50 after purchasing the car from them & having services & MOT's aswell.

Needless to say the cheque was stopped & a new one for the correct amount is winging it's way.

The funny thing is that we were just discussing the possibility of buying the Hyundai MPV around March 2002 from Gold, I reckon not!

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