2003 Hyundai Elantra Consumer Reviews

We have owned over 200 used cars since we got married 45 years ago. We like to find high quality cheap used cars with one or two things wrong. It's a hobby to own nice older cars cars that we get super cheap. . We usually buy top of the line older SUVs. Explorer Land Rover Mercedes ML350 Subaru Outbacks My wife even rents cars just for fun 5 or 6 times a year. (Last year she rented for a week each a big huge Silverado, a Tesla, a Maxima, a Mazda 6, even a tiny Spark-wow...THAT car was a surprise!) ...So last week my wife's cousin in LA was going to send a 108k miles Elantra to the junkyard. He's not mechanical so he got convinced the Elantra would be too expensive to fix. It has crummy paint but absolutely no body damage at all. Not even a ding. My wife knows I like to fix minor things on cars... so she told her cousin that we would give him what the junkyard would pay ($385)... there were no cheap flights to LA from Phoenix so we rented a Versa (They aren't the little tiny car they used to be - yet it still got 42mpg on the 400 mile drive from Phoenix to LA.) ... anyway... ......left the car at the car rental place at the airport. Cousin Donald picked me up ... And 20 minutes later... there it was. Hasn't moved in two years. Had lunch at a Okinawa Barbecue place... then bought the car and drove it 400 miles north to the wilderness north of Yosemite. OMG! ! Yes it drove pretty darn well even at the pretty high flow of traffic speeds (80-85'mph) (yup once rush hour is over LA traffic moves very fast)........( but yikes i could see why the Elantra really did need 4 things right off the bat. Front struts. AC blend door sticking defrost mode.... Can of 134A, rear hatchback stuck super stuck it would not open at all. . Key Fobs not working. •Struts were first and foremost. Nasty frozen up struts not floating just frozen up. You could feel every bump. Every pothole. Terrible. Cousin D was told that the struts would cost him $675-750. . Fixed them the moment I got home to the mountains.... w new complete struts cost all of $112. Took all of 75 minutes. Would have only taken 4( minutes but one of the big lower struts bolts was completely frozen. Had to us 3rd world tactics to get it to free up. That one bolt took almost an hour. The rest? Were fine. EZ. No problem. Then onto the next repair. Rear hatchback stuck? No idea why. Now - THAT was a bear(!)... it took two hours of upside down maddening/frustrating/uncomfortable sweaty/surgeon like intricate labor.... but.....somehow it magically got fixed for no cost. I think....He inadvertently had inadvertently got something into the latch mechanism when it closing. Jammed every up. Like totally. Somehow got it back to normal. Works great now. . Heck... Even the hatchback struts are strong even on cold nights. HVAC blend door...-was afraid of it being a real problem. Another painful upside down under the drivers side dash... on yer back...feet up over the top of the back of the drivers seat. Not comfortable .....turns out the HVAC box was designed very well. Turns out the blend door is exposed without having to take apart the dashboard...the blend door mechanism itself is in excellent shape and was built with surprisingly high quality materials. ... turns out the electric actuator was bad but it was cleverly designed to be exposed and easy to get to. Ez to remove with only three Phillips screws. After the actuator is off the HVAC blend door can finally move manually by hand. Very surprised to see the logical design and the high quality materials. It's not cheap plastic. It's more like thick nylon type plastic. It'll never wear out. Very logical design made for easy repairs on the temperature controller or the blend door controller. Yea actuators go bad but in this car it's a five minute fix. Not a $1,200-$1,500 fix like in an Audi or BMW. . On my SUVs it would be a$700 job to switch out a $26 actuator. In this car? It's a five minute fix. . Truth is.......It took a lot longer to figure out where the blend door actuator was located...!... than it took to do the fix. . All the YouTube tutorials never correctly identified this years specifics. No help at all actually. . So... took it for another long drive. OMG it drives like a real car. It's got almost a BMW3 feel to how it drives. WTH? In an older mid range Korean car? (!) Leather seats. In shockingly good condition. . Tons of sound insulation. Great stereo. HVAC gives excellent heat and excellent cold. Brake rotors seem brand new. No vibration at all. With the new struts 80-85mph is graceful and quiet and sure footed. It's not "squirrely" at high speeds at all . It actually has a bit of a "personality". The 2,0 engine with an older conventional 4sp automatic gives plenty of low end torque feel and plenty of high speed reserve. Even at 80-85 the drivetrain still has room to accelerate. This thing easily cruises at 80-90 mph and it doesn't feel funny at all. . The Fobs? The remote locks? Just needed new batteries and one needed a tiny bit of alcohol in a Qtip to clean one of the tiny clicker buttons on the Fob's control board. Now? ... even the remote lock-unlock works. The surprise? That a midrange Korean car is actually nice. Many reviews by owners say it goes to 300-350,000 miles with only expected cheap repairs being needed. I believe it. The older style 4sp automatic is a work of art. It feels great. Maybe not the best mpg (30-32 max) but its reputation for reliability is totally believable and makes up for not getting 34-35mpg. The reliability makes up for the lower mpg. Heck 30-32 is fine with us. . Will we keep it? Sure as a cheap backup car to store in in the mountains until it's needed ... this car is nice. If it gets painted it could hold its own in any part of town. The verdict? This old 2003 Elantra...is....A lot nicer than we thought it would be.

Had the car for years since almost new been in the family very very reliable and very dependable and affordable and economic friend car.

Got her 6 years ago with 195,000 miles already on the clock. Changed the timing belt twice ( every 60,000) due to the interference engine she has and did other routine maintenance on time. She now sits at 320,000 miles and literally runs like a sewing machine. Most proven reliable car I've ever owned as she's never put me down by the road and wouldn't start. Made me a Hyundai fan for life. Get you one.

Got my 2003 Elantra GLS in 2020 with 195,000 on the clock. It's now almost 6 years later and it now has a whooping 318,000 miles on it and never missed a beat. Still peppy and quite handsome with a new paint job. Regular maintenance has it where she never put me down by the road and wouldn't start . Timing belt change every 60,000 to keep her interference engine from going out and she purrs like a kitten. These little car's are tanks,rock solid. And even look decent. No bells, no whistles but it has the one most important quality, reliability. Don't matter how much horsepower you have if you're sitting on the side of the road. Most miles I've ever had on a car but I'm pushing for 4/500,000 and confident she'll make it. Get you one!

liked car comfort, good mileage, AC works great! car has dents , could use a paint job. Not sure of worth, looking for feedback. Bill

Bought my car with 190,000 miles on it about 1.5 years ago for $700. Rusty, ugly paint. Needed tires and rear brakes. So i did that, got to 219,500 miles and wanted to go on a far trip so i did the front struts, timing belt, water pump, coolant hoses, a new axle, and a few other things. Noted that the lower ball joint boot was gone, but no play, check engine light for purge valve, and that the rear struts needed to be replaced cause they were leaking. We drove that car almost 3,000 miles in 9 days and it never skipped a beat. Even up and down the mountains of KY it really did get some hard use. Couldnt be happier with the car. Hoping to get at least another year out of it.

I got the car from my children's mother to relieve her of garage space,at 200,000k I thought it would be a real pile.WRONG,what a viking little beast.it never fails to start.at 216k now,if I want to get out and pass another car,I can.its still got zip,ALL the options actually work,even the CD plays.I wouldn't hesitate to take this extreamly reliable car on a multistate trip,I'm that confident my 06' Hyundai Elantra 4-door,would get me wherever and back.Ive owned a lot of hand me downs,this by far is the best everyday driver I have depended on for 10,000 miles and one oil change later WITHOUT A HICCUP.Great car!

I bought this new and have never regretted my decision. I have never had a major problem and have maintenance done on regular schedule. Love the visibility this car gives me while driving.