1996 Hyundai Sonata Consumer Reviews

I bought this car used for an affordable price.It has been a great car economical after owning for 4 years and bieng that it's a1998 it still looks like new in the interior and outside.It has driven great never given me any mechanical problems have only done the regular required maintenance.over all great car.

Car right now only has 55000 miles but is holding up well. Replaced computer 3 years ago but nothing else major. Car is 16 years old so I consider that a blessing.

Good size for 5 people. Great ride, speed

Bought this ('97) from brother-in-law who let it sit outside for a year. Just rolled over 150k miles. I've replaced the water pump for the engine and the blower motor for interior vents. Despite being driven hard by all its' owners. It's exactly what I expect from a high-mileage car. And being a V6, acceleration is great! I know it's a sedan "family car", but I tend to drive it like a little sports car. The oil pan is easy to reach without jacking up. However, working on the engine to replace something can be difficult -- i.e. you have to remove the timing belt to get to the water pump. Thank goodness those don't wear out often. I have had the power locks get stuck and want to stay locked/unlocked, just lube it up a little and it's fine

My Sonata just rolled over 200k last month & is still going strong. I paid $200 for it, I've had it 2 yrs & have only ever replaced the battery. It has never given me any problems & still does 80 mph on the highway. I'm constantly bragging about it's gas mileage & reliability.

I owned this car for a few years and it gave me nothing but problems - more maintenance costs than the car was worth, and they all started at around 60,000 miles too (even with the scheduled maintenance done on time). The accessory/interior components are so cheap - the driver's side door handle broke multiple times, the windshield cracked very easily multiple times (ok so only the first crack was Hyundai's fault, the replacement glass is another issue - although that model of glass was really expensive). There was a problem with the cooling system that I spent many trips to the shop and probably $1,000 altogether, to try to fix, but it was never remedied. The car would overheat after about 2 minutes of stop & go, it was absolutely undriveable in any city or highway traffic and that was at only 60,000 miles! So the car was basically worthless when it was 5 years old. The service was really expensive. The window mechanism stopped working, leaving the window stuck in the down position, and that fix cost $400 due to the parts involved. The sunroof leaked and the metal arms broke. Sometimes when I closed the door hard, like when pumping gas, it would just power lock itself - all 4 doors. Fortunately the first time that happened, I had my keys in hand. What an awful example of an early model Sonata. Supposedly they have come a long way, but based on this past experience I'd never buy one again.

i baught this car b/c the engin is a dream to work on plus i had a buddy who had spair parts. i fixed it up and it ran like a top never had a problem and actually got 37 mpg i was really happy untill some guy ran a red light and i got hit, good news the air bags work well too