A Coup for Hyundai as Its Elantra Makes Consumer Reports’ Best List
As auto makers arm themselves for a fierce battle to simply maintain market share in a year of tumbling sales, Hyundai Motor Co. of South Korea has been handed the equivalent of a small nuclear weapon for its arsenal: Consumer Reports magazine has rated Hyundai’s compact Elantra sedan as one of the best small cars in the United States.
The rating underscores how once-reviled South Korean auto makers are overcoming American buyers’ concerns about product quality.
U.S. sales of South Korean-made cars have nearly doubled in the last two years. Hyundai’s sales have soared 166% in that time.
The Consumer Reports review “is excellent news for us and reflects the progress the brand has made,” said Finbarr O’Neill, president and chief executive of Fountain Valley-based Hyundai Motor America.
Consumer Reports has more than 4 million subscribers, and its review should boost Elantra’s sales, said Jim Sanfilippo, executive vice president of AMCI, an automotive testing company with offices in Michigan and Southern California.
“These reviews resonate directly with the consumer, and this is the best third-party endorsement Hyundai could ever have hoped for,” said Sanfilippo, a former U.S. marketing executive for Kia Motors, a Hyundai affiliate.
The magazine ranked the 2001 Elantra GLS higher than the Volkswagen Jetta GLS 2.0, Nissan Sentra GXE, Toyota Corolla LE, Dodge Neon ES and Saturn SL2, among others. Only four vehicles, including the limited-production Toyota Prius hybrid, outscored the Hyundai. And none but the top-ranked Ford Focus bested the car’s overall rating of “very good.”
Not only is the Elantra the least expensive of the field of 13 small sedans tested, the influential consumer journal’s reviewers noted, it also is the quietest and has the most comfortable ride, the best warranty and one of the better powertrains.
