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Comment by SecretDreams | Hacker News Reader

The two main Achilles Heels of Hyundai/Kia are their ICE Engines and their EV ICCUs. Google reliability for both and proceed accordingly. They're good about replacing/fixing both issues when they come up, and normally have extended warranties, but they are critical components too and long lead times to fix.

Outside of those issues, which don't happen on all vehicles, I view the brand as pretty rock solid. I'm impressed by how quickly they iterate, their styling, and their NVH attributes. Their pricing has crept up a bit, but still not terrible.

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If you have a problem they take 4 weeks to fix it all while you're paying $50+/day for a rental car that they will fight you tooth and nail on reimbursing.

One local dealer refused to honor under warranty the work another dealer did.

If you have any damage (even minor cosmetic) they will blame that on your issues regardless of relativity.

(I have a Hyundai that's had the ICCU replaced once, the ABS IEB twice, and the low-voltage battery 3 times, two of the 3 times on my dime. All on a less than 3-year-old car with less than 100k miles)

The company has been miserable to deal with compared to my past experiences with other brands.

Everything I've heard of their dealers & service departments are what keep me away from their EVs. On the one hand, performance/looks/fun factor to price, they are a pretty good value. On the other hand, if I were to spend $70k on an Ioniq 5N, I would have expectations of service which they are clearly not going to meet. So at that pricing level, its back to BMW EVs.

fwiw I've heard from others that their experience with Kia has been much better. That seems hard to believe since Kia is owned by Hyunday.

I definitely expected more Hyundai when I bought the most expensive EV they had to offer at the highest trim level available.

Very interesting. I had considered the Genesis sub-brand if only for the separate dealers, though there are much fewer of them.

On the plus side a lot of the Genesis vehicles seem like they slap every option the Germans make you pay $1000s each for into the base model, so decent value from that perspective.

I've sat in their EV hatch thing the GV60 in showroom and was impressed by the base features set. I also had a decent length uber ride sitting in the back of their ICE sedan, either the G80 or G90 and it was a nice executive sedan. My backseat reclined, it had motorized shades, the air vents in the back were actually powerful, etc.

Honorable mention - Hyundai Kona EV managed to build a reduction gear that blows around 100k km - just after warranty ends and they specifically recommend not changing the gear oil.

They managed to make an unreliable EV. Great kob, one of the few remaining gear in drivetrain and you managed to fuck that up. Maybe it's on purpose...

I recently got rid of a 2016 Kia Sonata with a severe (and getting worse) oil burning issue. It was well under 100k miles. We really liked the car otherwise overall. Great price, seemed to be made well, easy to work on. The extended warranty on these only applies if you actually blow up engine, which I wasn't willing to do deliberately because I have scruples.

(And according to forum threads, at the time this happened to this us, stealerships were putting people on a 1-2 year waitlist for remanufactured engines, or straight-up totalling their vehicles and giving them "market value" for the car, and these models had awful resale value exactly due to these problems.)

Do you mean Hyundai Sonata, or another Kia model?

Sorry, I meant Kia Sorento. I guess my brain is already actively trying to forget it.

Lol, I think I did the exact same thing with a Tucson. Similar mileage, too. Did you have the 2l or 2.4l engine? I had oil burning and reduced power. Dealer actually said they'd replace the engine... After it actually died. No shot I'm going to drive my car w/ my fam just waiting for it to die. I did absolutely love the vehicle otherwise, so that was a real bummer.

We had a 2015 Sorento with a similar issue. Kia said the oil burn rate was within specs and refused to act. It died at 105k, and they refused to do anything about it, even with documentation of the oil burn rate going back to 75k miles. We replaced the engine on our own dime, and it took me three weeks to find a single engine that was compatible.

That said, a few months ago my daughter was t-boned in it by a driving going 60+ MPH. The impact was directly on the driver’s door. She not only survived, but did so with only superficial facial cuts and some longer-term, back pain.

I can’t be too hard on a car that saved my daughter’s life.

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