Getting What I paid for: A Hyundai
 

My 99 Sonata was driving fine until a month ago, recently when going from about 35mph-45mph if I stomped on the accelerator the car would start shuddering horrible like, some of my friends have likened it to releasing the clutch in a manual w/o applying gas. it happens a little more frequently whilst going uphill also. Seeing as somethign seems to be wrong with the shifting of gears, any suggestions as to what I should do? I should mention that if I accelerate smoothly, there is no noticeable problems.

I have no experience with "Newer" type cars, but my expieriece
with that sort of thing was the transmission in my " 82 " S10.
Blew the seals out of it . When it started, it felt like I was spin-
ing a tire from a stand-still. But only when I punched it. A short
time later, I was leaving a good size trail of red fluid. I added
transmission fluid, but I think I was about a month late in doing
that. Hope your problems don't get that severe. My experience
is that these things always tend to get worse.

Wasupchuq

Sell it and buy something more reliable. nissan/toyota/honda would be good, hell anthing is better than a kia or hyundai.

Ummmmm....if I'm not mistaken, I thought one of the points of buying a Hyundai was not just the price, but also the warranty....so unless you've gone over 100k mi in 4 years, USE THE WARRANTY!

My prejudice against korean cars increases a bit more.. :rolleyes:

why would you be stomping on the accelerator doing 35-45 in the first place?

Bought my daughter an Excel ($8K new) for HS graduation. She drove it for ~40K with absolutely no problems except tires (never rotated them) and to this day claims it was the best (most reliable) car she ever had (Neon, Escort, Cavalier)...

I've heard good things about the Hyundai SUV. You get a ton of features for the price. Do you get reliability and good resale value? Not likely!

my wife and i just got back from a 2,000 mile vacation, in our 2002 hyundai sonata, drove 80 miles/hour the entire way... absolutely no problems. by far, the best automobile ive ever owned. for the price, you cannot beat the value.

for an msrp of around $18k(we paid invoice), we got an automobile that has a v6, automatic/shiftronic transmission, sunroof, cd/tape, 16" alloy wheels, plenty of passenger and cargo room, PLUS a standard 5 year/60,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty, AND a 3 year unlimited mile roadside assistance.

...and because of a horsepower rating glitch on their v6s, we were able to add another 1 year/12,000 miles to our existing 5 year/60,000 mile warranty to give us a 6 year/72,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty.

and jd powers and associates recently rated the sonata as top on the list of total customer satisfaction/value - ABOVE the accord, camary, and of course the maxima. if you had problems with your car, well, theres always a few lemons in the bunch, but hyundai has proven to me that they are serious about changing the way people think about their products.

Ditto on the warranty. Aren't they supposed to cover this sort of stuff?

Sounds like a failing clutch

My van was running like that(its a Auto) but all I did was change the cap, wires and plugs and she runs like new, but this van is also 20 years old:)

That sounds like the torque converter is dying. If you punch the gas at low rpm's, its supposed to slip to allow the engine to rev high enough so that it won't bog down. If that function isn't working right, you'll get the problem you describe. Most torque converters also have a (usually computer controlled) lock, that makes them exactly like a clutch in a manual car when you're cruising. I think that's what's not working right. If the lock does not disengage at low rpm, the car will buck like a manual in gear too long. The lock also has to disengage when shifting gears. Maybe the transmission is trying to downshift when you gas it, and the lock is still engaged. That's kind of like downshifting a manual really really fast and hard, which can sometimes also make the car buck, depending on how everything is set up. Or the lock could be disengaging just after the shift.

It's not like Korean cars are the only ones to ever have problems with their transmissions (especially autos).

By the way, if they're so bad why did Hyundai tie with Honda last year in initial quality (problems per 100 cars), for 2nd behind Toyota? (Toyota had 19, Honda/Hyundai had 21)

Sure they used to suck, but they're pretty respectable now.