Irrespective of which automotive pond you are fishing for your next catch, one of the foremost factors that will affect your decision will be the vehicle’s overall reliability. While it is a fact that most automakers today have come a long way when it comes to how well they perform on this front, some players invariably play their cards better - one of whom is the Korean giant Hyundai.
Hyundai Motor Company, simply known as Hyundai by a vast majority, was first founded in the end of 1967 - that’s well over fifty years ago. Just like most auto companies, the initial phases were quite difficult for the then fledgling Korean make. Where the Japanese were pushing out ship loads of quality passenger cars to North America, Europe and the rest of the globe, Hyundai hadn’t yet established itself with the same calibre.
However, all that was set to change quite dramatically, though only in the coming few decades. Beginning sometime in the early-to-mid 2000s, Hyundai started growing rapidly and was churning out models that catered to customers in almost every genre. Along with the introduction of new models, the company also focused on improving the quality of its vehicles. This meant that in the coming years, Hyundai cars started gaining positive reputation in the industry and among customers.
Among their current line-up, the all-new Hyundai Kona received praises for being one of the most reliable crossovers in its segment by Consumer Reports in the US. However, the Kona isn’t alone in the brand’s vast offering to have been given the ‘thumbs up’ by famed organizations such as Consumer Reports. Other models that do relatively well in terms of their overall reliability include the likes of the Hyundai Accent, Hyundai Elantra, Hyundai Tucson, Hyundai Santa Fe and even the new Ioniq.
Not too long back, many used to sneer at Hyundai cars for their unproven track record and less-than-ideal designs and other such aspects… Not anymore. The Korean auto giant has passed its litmus test on all of those counts, plus credibly discharging any notions of poor reliability without any fuss. If anything, current-day Hyundai cars are often used as a benchmark to test models from other automakers - goes to show the tremendous progress this marque has made over the years.
On the offbeat chance that you want to go premium but still want to stick to the Koreans, Hyundai has its very own luxury brand division in the form of Genesis. With Genesis, Hyundai has the liberty to go pretty much all out with extravagant touches without strangling its top-notch reliability ratings. Furthermore, the brand is also channeling its vast technical prowess and financial might towards concretizing plans for future generations of Hyundai electric vehicles (EVs).
However, let’s say your budget for new car isn’t very high nor do you want a big vehicle. And all you really need is a compact city car that is easy on the wallet but doesn’t look like it was designed by a group of people while on a coffee break. The new Hyundai i10 might just be the right car for you - it is built well, really frugal, ships with decent features and is an incredibly reliable hatchback.
In all these years, Hyundai has gone from a manufacturer that not many people care about, to one that has grown to become the third largest automaker in the whole world! Now that’s what I call real, tangible progress. In the UAE, the Korean marque sells several models - with prices ranging from AED 43,000 to over AED 350,000 for the flagship Genesis G90.
