[Sagar.Agarwal]

Originally Posted by ChoosetoCruze

I am honestly surprised that this thread doesn’t get the amount of eyeballs that it actually deserves. All Hyundai/Kia new car reviews deserve to have this thread linked in the cons section, just so that prospective owners know what they are getting into. If they still choose to ignore the extremely high safety risks & still choose to buy them for their features, all I can say is good luck.


In your case, if you want to continue along the pre-owned route and want a fuss free ownership experience and a high GC vehicle, look at Innova/CRV/Fortuner. If you’re looking at new vehicles, stay with the City/Yaris. For me, safety & fuss free ownership ALWAYS trumps features & power especially if this is going to be your only car at home.


It’s your money & it’s your choice at the end of the day, but choose wisely.

Thanks for the insight. After reading this thread I am cancelling the booking of my sonet and going for new Honda City. The pre-owned innova, fortuner are slightly out of my budget and after using pre owned cars for last 7 years, we want to go for a new one this time.

[VRJ]

Originally Posted by ChoosetoCruze

I am honestly surprised that this thread doesn’t get the amount of eyeballs that it actually deserves. All Hyundai/Kia new car reviews deserve to have this thread linked in the cons section, just so that prospective owners know what they are getting into. If they still choose to ignore the extremely high safety risks & still choose to buy them for their features, all I can say is good luck.

Korean automobile engineering & reliability standards are still far away from the Japanese, in my opinion, and you can forget about fuss free ownership if you hold onto your cars for any considerable length of time.

The Toyota/Honda drivetrains are extremely reliable as proven by a plethora of reviews on this forum alone.

Yes, I totally agree with you. This thread deserves to be seen by every Hyundai/Kia prospective owner. I had a horrible experience with my 2014 Fluidic Verna diesel MT. I spoke about this in my introduction thread as well.

1. The day I got it, the engine oil started leaking and it had to be sent to the workshop to change some part (can’t recall) and they said it’s a manufacturing default.

2. Couple of months down the road, the brake pedal kept getting jammed over bad surfaces, the car just wouldn’t break, it was unnerving. The service folks kept telling me that is how the ABS works. Nonsense, I know how ABS works and upon further checking, they found that the brake vacuum booster wasn’t functioning properly and they changed it. The brakes still felt like shit. They still behave soo weird over bad roads, the pedal literally behaves like a spring at first and then becomes hard and dead. Hyundai’s breaks are the worst I have come across in my life.

3. When I thought my problems are finally over, the clutch plates were worn out. The clutch kept slipping. This is a very common problem in Verna and Creta. The car ran only 9k kms by then. My father just couldn’t believe this. My Toyota Innova ran more than 200k kms before we had to change the clutch plates. FYI, it was not because the clutch was slipping, we changed it only because I complained that the clutch was hard and was giving me knee pain.

4. I reach 20k kms and the clutch goes kaput again. AGAIN . I couldn’t believe this and my father and I were done dealing with this unreliable junk and changed the clutch plates and sold the car. All of this in just two years.

5. The person who purchased the car (we gave him our entire service history) called us within a month and said the car just stopped while he was on a road trip. He got it towed and it costed him 50-60k to get it repaired. Not sure what the problem was.

6. It’s not only me, my friend has an elite i20 diesel MT and a Creta Diesel MT. His i20 breaks are even worse. His clutch started slipping around 35k kms. His Creta’s clutch gave away at 15k kms. The brakes on the first gen Creta were not confident inspiring as well.

7. Hyundai’s are not cheap to maintain. It’s like they have a standard service fee of 10-12k no matter what car you take in. My friends i10 costs 10k to service, my Verna used to cost 10k to service, my friends i20 costs 10-12k to service and the Creta costs 12k to service.

8. Based on my experience, Koreans don’t age well. Their engines are just not as responsive and smooth as they were in the initial period. I drove a friends Verna(done 90k kms) and a first gen i20 (done 100k) and I got to drive my Verna recently as he came to meet us for some other work (done 50k kms) and their engines were just rough and they completely lost the smoothness that Hyundai diesels are known for. They’re all well maintained and serviced at the official service centres.

9. Toyota’s age soo well. My 2008 Innova which has done 270k kms still drives like how it drove in 2008. The engine and the gearbox are so smooth. I say this because I learnt driving in my Innova back in 2012 and it still feels the same in 2020. There is a reason why Toyota’s sell very well across the globe. They are very reliable and as you said the probability of a break down is very less. Not once did our Innova break down. All it needed was a regular service and few parts changed according to the service schedule.

10. The new generation Hyundai’s and Kia’s might have been improved. I don’t know. However, I’m not putting my money on these Korean twins anytime soon. Verna was my first car in life and they ruined the experience.

11. Coming to Honda, we never owned one. But there are 5 Honda City’s in my apartment. Two second gen, one third gen and two fourth gen. All petrol and all of them love their cars. Everyone says they’re very reliable and smooth. The fact that people are still using their second gen City’s tell us how reliable they are. Not a fan of Honda’s 1.5 Diesel engine in their City. The engines clutter is bad and it gets worse as the car ages. They offer brilliant kmpl numbers though.

I’m Team Japanese, when it comes to cars.

Cheers!

[jasjotbains]

Originally Posted by Pashin

A known issue for most Hyundai Cars is the exhaust pipe rusting right at the original welding point of the pipe. The photo is taken from a 3.5 year old Elantra with under 30k kms on the odo.

This issue is known to Hyundai as the company excludes exhaust pipes from their Extended warranty packages.

I faced a similar issue with my i10 but it was 7 years old (problem started at 5yo mark I guess) and it had its own share of nasty bumps on the bottom side. But my other i10 is 8 years old and does not have this issue.

I got the silencer welded during my latest service after the silencer started moving during deceleration (sound and vibration was felt in the cabin). Will probably get it replaced under insurance though since it can no longer be rewelded as per the dealership.

But I did love the racecar like sound my i10 made on starting the engine the sound is no longer there though

[ChoosetoCruze]

Originally Posted by Sagar.Agarwal

After reading this thread I am cancelling the booking of my sonet and going for new Honda City.

Read this extremely valuable owner review from VRJ if you still had any lingering thoughts of going ahead with Hyundai/Kia.

Originally Posted by VRJ

This thread deserves to be seen by every Hyundai/Kia prospective owner.

I’m Team Japanese, when it comes to cars.

I rest my case.

You have rightly called them *junk*, because in my opinion, they absolutely are! Once you see through their bling & features, they score extremely poorly on the core competencies that make a good automobile. What use are all the features if you aren’t assured of safe & reliable transportation from point A to B? A vehicle after all isn’t a lawn ornament; it’s a means of transportation.

You aren't the first owner narrating this familiar nightmarish ownership experience of these Korean brands, and unfortunately, won’t be the last.

It’s another sad thought that elsewhere, Hyundai/Kia actually have some well engineered & reliable products with proven safety records & reliability (still not up to Japanese standards). It’s such a pity that they choose to palm off this substandard junk to the unsuspecting Indian buyer when they are fully capable to improving their QC & product longevity.

For all the Korean car fanboys waiting to defend the fort with vengeance, I only have this to say - Let there be a similar thread of ownership complaints (bad quality/unreliable) of Japanese products, and I will change my stance on Japanese reliability. Until then, I’m going to continue to vehemently warn unsuspecting buyers against buying Hyundai/Kia products, at least in India.

Japanese reliability for me, please, thank you.

[sandx]

This news is from the US region, posting it for reference. I wonder if similar issues will arise for the India based models as well.

https://auto.hindustantimes.com/auto...919310186.html

Per the article there could be a fire incident even if the car is stationary and turned off.

[chiranjitp]

Originally Posted by ChoosetoCruze

Let there be a similar thread of ownership complaints (bad quality/unreliable) of Japanese products, and I will change my stance on Japanese reliability. Until then, I’m going to continue to vehemently warn unsuspecting buyers against buying Hyundai/Kia products, at least in India.

I am not a Korean car fanboy, nor do I own a Korean car, but there's a similar thread on the 4th gen Honda City. Here's the link: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...e-anymore.html (Honda City (4th gen) niggles: A compilation. Are Honda cars niggle-free anymore?)

[chiefpk]

Just read this whole thread and was shocked and way surprised about such serious issues being reported in comparitively almost new cars. (Odo with 9k , 15k , 20k).
Was considering the i10 Nios Sportz/i20 Magna but this thread has going me off. I can't imagine driving a car and wouldn't be able to stop it and the clutch wearing out so early.
My cousin have a 2014 i20 and he agrees with the service being higher. He pays around 6-7k for a petrol i20.
Told my father about this issues and he was surprised as well. He assumed that this was only in a type of lemon car but when I showed him this thread, he was completely clear of the fact that our first car won't be from Hyundai's stable.

[ChoosetoCruze]

Originally Posted by chiranjitp

I am not a Korean car fanboy, nor do I own a Korean car, but there's a similar thread on the 4th gen Honda City.

Thank you for bringing up that thread about the 4th generation Honda City, which I believe, drives home my point about the seriousness of this problem with Korean vehicles even further.

At the risk of derailing this thread, allow me to briefly point out that in the entire 27 pages of that thread, none of the posts mentioned a life threatening component failure of the engine, brakes, steering or transmission (let alone in a brand new vehicle). As that thread title rightly reflects, it was about the niggles, rattles & the glaring cost cutting performed by Honda which are *unacceptable* for ANY manufacturer.

This post by tejas08 is very applicable in the context of the comparison - https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...ml#post3570466 (Honda City (4th gen) niggles: A compilation. Are Honda cars niggle-free anymore?)

Now, coming back to this thread, we aren’t talking about minor niggles & rattles. I’m sure you’ll find them even in Toyotas, not just Hondas.

I’m not at all advocating having blind faith in Toyota/Honda, far from it. Honda themselves have the oil dilution class action lawsuit against their 1.5L turbo GDI engines, and Toyota recently has been having problems in their latest CVT transmissions. The point is, the number of lemons (some with life threatening consequences) rolling off, of the assembly line from the Korean twins are unacceptable.

This thread is titled - Hyundai India - The occasional serious quality lapse and apathetic manufacturer response. Let’s focus on the serious quality lapse and apathetic manufacturer response without dragging silly arguments about minor niggles from other manufacturers in.

We are talking life & death here. Not dashboard rattles.

If there is any other manufacturer/s which suffers from such serious problems too, let’s open a similar thread here & bring all these issues to light (Toyota/Honda included).

[apache_aayush]

Originally Posted by deetjohn

I do not think it is a surprise or a shock for anyone with some Hyundai cars in the close circle or have been religiously reading this forum in the past few years. Good that there is a single place now for reference.

If I am not mistaken, all this started when Hyundai stopped exports to the EU from India. Was it 2014? And when you stop the supply to the most matured market in the world, priorities and decisions change!

There were some tangible losses earlier - the rear disc brakes, ABS, rear wiper etc vanished from Hyundai cars. Instead, we got some fancy features (big touchscreen, DRL, electric folding mirrors....) which pops out in the catalogs and marketing collateral. All these fancy stuff is a big influencer for the larger public. I am old school and much prefer cars with solid basics and essential features like a rear wiper or all around disc brakes. But that's old school thinking and people in that club is a minority in our market nowadays.

I still recall the pleasant surprise when the first i20 had all this even in the Magna variant. Nowadays, you cannot get any of this if you aren't picking the top most variant in a Hyundai. And that is across segments. Forget a rear disc brake even for a Verna. Thanks to the govt. regulation for making ABS mandatory at least. But, they should do a lot more for the money they make through taxes when a car is sold. If I am not mistaken, the govt makes more than 5 lakhs through direct and indirect taxes when we buy a car for 10 lakhs. Anyways, that's a different topic altogether. Coming back to this thread, it looks like we lost more than some solid features though!

Now, will something change due to this thread? I honestly do not think so. Lucky if Hyundai takes notice and fix the multiple quality issues in the assembly line. But I do not think they will be pressured by the market. For all the noise about Indians being really smart and frugal with car buying, the larger market still works on stereotypes, perceptions and long held beliefs. And people will continue to buy Hyundai over other brands. Threads like this can only break the weaker manufacturers - the ones which doesn't do well on those sales threads.

Cars like Rapid Rider TSi or Kicks Turbo petrol AT will win a lot of polls on the forum, but when it comes to walking the talk or putting money where the mouth is, those hard working cars will lose out. We have been here before with many such scenarios before! This is no rant, just calling out our market for what it is. And manufacturers strong in our local market will try to align their offerings likewise while making the maximum profit after the govt takes their cut.

I am quoting your old post but I cant help but agree to each and every word of it. While helping my friend buying a new hatchback i20 was an obvious choice but when i went through the feature list i was astounded to know that they don't offer adjustable headrests even on sportz variant which is second from top. My 2010 magna i20 had automatic climate control and now in 2020 they are not even offering basics. Aam public is also to be blamed as they care for bling more than basics. Tata is almost forced to provide a sunroof on their xm variant which doesn't even have seat height adjust.

[wheelguy]

Came across this on Facebook, this guy's all new Creta which has barely done 16KM stopped running all of a sudden and he is having trouble getting it resolved by the dealer and Hyundai isn't helping it seems. Couldn't post the video as it is from FB, but here's a screen grab and the link to his post.

Don't know about authenticity of this issue, but as has been said by bhpian padmrajravi previously in this thread, Hyundai knows hushing up things, rarely automotive publications ever talk about Hyundai issues, they always(or mostly) keep silent if it's Hyundai.

[sumeethaldankar]

https://auto.hindustantimes.com/auto...102204357.html

Meanwhile in other parts of the world.

South Korea’s two biggest automakers are taking a 3.36 trillion won ($2.9 billion) earnings hit because of costs related to a 2019 settlement of a US class-action lawsuit linked to alleged engine defects.

Hyundai Motor Co is setting aside 2.1 trillion won and affiliate Kia Motors Corp 1.26 trillion won in third-quarter earnings to be reported next week, the companies said in separate regulatory filings Monday.

The suit was brought by US drivers over an alleged defect that could cause certain engines to catch fire. As part of the settlement, the two automakers pledged to provide lifetime warranty on the engines in the US and South Korea.

More than 350 consumer complaints were reported to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration over non-collision fires in Hyundai and Kia vehicles as result of the automakers’ “concealment of the defect," according to the class-action lawsuit filed in December 2018 in the US District Court for the Central District of California by law firm Hagens Berman.

[babukvishnu]

Such a beautifully documented thread on the increasing instances of serious quality lapses which have started to plague the automobile industry. As rightly pointed out by you, such issues seldom reach the common man and there isn't even a platform wherein an average joe could voice his grievances. And with almost all the mainstream automobile journals and their reviews becoming biased and getting degraded to the levels of "paid promotions", Team Bhp seems to be the last bastion which offers us a platform for documenting and collating such appalling quality issues and niggles.

I myself have been a victim to such issues albeit from a different manufacturer namely Maruti Suzuki. I was among the first few to own a Baleno Type 1 1.3 DDis from the initial batches and had to put up with some serious quality issues. My vehicle suffered from more than one component failures including the high pressure fuel injection pump, the steering column and premature timing chain wear at just 50 thousand kilometres despite the vehicle being maintained in an immaculate condition. From my understanding of all the issues, many Baleno owners suffered from the abovementioned issues and nowhere was it documented nor was it acknowledged by the company except the steering column issue which was reluctantly acknowledged by MS. Lax product recall rules and an even more ineffective consumer protection laws enables the manufacturers to conveniently ignore these issues at the expense of the customer and walk scot free. My vehicle was one among the first to report the sticky steering issue and the moment I encountered the issue, I raised a complaint and attempts were made to stone wall my grievance by describing the issue as a safety feature by the dealer. According to the dealer, it was purposely incorporated to help in high speed manoeuvres. Such were the kind of weird explanations one got for an appalling quality control issue. And many Balenos still run around with such sticky steerings either because the owners don't seem to care or aren't informed enough.

I personally believe Team Bhp should act as a platform to collectively inform and put pressure on the manufacturers so that such awful issues which are repeatedly plaguing a number of models of various manufacturers are duly acknowledged by the manufacturers and suitable product recalls are undertaken to rectify such issues rather than leaving the hapless customer to the mercy of the unscrupulous dealers who always come up with weird and interesting theories for every niggle and issues.Good work CrAzY dRiVeR

[PankajKara]

Really appreciate the collection of defects and threads you’ve put OP. I’m super vary to even consider Hyundai after reading the OP.

My money is better spent on a VW polo, especially for the price that i20 is demanding.

[fhdowntheline]

Originally Posted by wheelguy

Came across this on Facebook, this guy's all new Creta which has barely done 16KM stopped running all of a sudden and he is having trouble getting it resolved by the dealer and Hyundai isn't helping it seems. Couldn't post the video as it is from FB, but here's a screen grab and the link to his .

Don't know about authenticity of this issue, but as has been said by bhpian padmrajravi previously in this thread, Hyundai knows hushing up things, rarely automotive publications ever talk about Hyundai issues, they always(or mostly) keep silent if it's Hyundai.[/left]

After the Baba ka Dhaba episode, I would take anything sensational posted on social media, especially FB, Twitter, YT with a mound of rock salt. Social media. has become a scamming racket that is rapidly undoing its benign objective of connecting and spreading awareness.

[CliffHanger]

Now that the jury is out, it is time to remove 'Occasional' from the thread title. Almost every car that is sold by Hyundai in India is structurally unsafe. Talk about Quality.