Who would you say makes the most well rounded cars right now? By well rounded, i mean a consistent combination of style, reliability, features, and bang for your buck.
Who would you say makes the most well rounded cars right now? By well rounded, i mean a consistent combination of style, reliability, features, and bang for your buck.
I was a dealer tech for Hyundai, Dodge/Jeep/Chrysler, and Jaguar/Land Rover over the years.
Of all the places I worked, the cars that I saw the most only for service and not for major repairs ironically were Hyundais. Don’t get me wrong, cars still came in that needed major repairs, and I was the guy doing them. But looking back at my time there, most of my day was spent doing routine maintenance - oil changes, brake services, transmission fluid exchanges, etc, and minor TSBs like computer updates and the MDPS coupler on old Sonatas. 2.4L engines from the big recall were common, of course, but those were free for the customer and they usually got a free rental car for the duration of their service.
I don’t know how you like Hyundai styling, but I was with Hyundai from 2015-2018, and I liked the styling then. The lease terms were pretty good and the cost of the car was quite low. The quality didn’t feel like a Land Rover, but the reliability impressed me for the time I was there. As long as you take care of it, it should take care of you. The ones that I seemed to see the absolute least were V6 equipped Santa Fes and Cadenzas, those seemed to be the most reliable in my experience. 2.4Ls had the recall but seemed to be fine after, and 1.8Ls are okay for the small cars but totally gutless.
Recently I haven’t really liked Hyundai’s styling because it seems too “Audi” for my liking. But if that’s up your alley, try asking the service departments if you can speak to a tech just to see if they mostly do a lot of major repairs or maintenance work.
Dont get a Jaguar unless you drive it on a racetrack regularly, they like to spring random leaks if you drive it like a grandma. Don’t get a Land Rover, their superchargers often grenade and end up overheating the engine from coolant leaks. And don’t get anything made by Stellantis, just don’t.
I’ve got an ‘07 grand Cherokee that I’ve had for years and years (bought at 94k and it’s right around 150 now) and it may very well be the only Jeep in existence that hasn’t absolutely exploded horrifically.
I agree on the style-side of Hyundai. Reliability-wise I honestly can’t say all that much; my brother’s got a Veloster and that car has broken down on him way too many times, but it’s only one example so to be fair I can’t just base my opinions off of that. But style-wise I think the new cars are trying too hard to look futuristic. And the rear end of the new Santa Fe looks absolutely awful, to be totally frank. But that’s probably gonna buy me some flak; I know a lot of people love what they’ve been doing with their styling recently.
Oh… and don’t buy a Nissan. I had a 2012 Rogue and to be honest I didn’t hate it, but those CVTs are just about the least reliable thing in existence.
Fortunately, Jeep was not owned by Stellantis until the 2021 merger with Chrysler. Not that Chrysler is that much better, but they used to have good relaibility at least until the 2008 crash when automakers were getting government handouts.
Velosters are generally driven by people who want to drive them like a sports car, but then they don’t also take care of it like a sports car. I saw many Veloster owners bring their car in trying to get an engine replaced or repaired under warranty but they had modified the PCM. Dealer scan tools have a function that can check the computer for any sort of modification, including if the PCM was swapped from a different vehicle, and if that stuff comes up that’s an instant warranty void. Usually teenagers that think they have a racecar, that sort of thing. It was the same with the Genesis Coupe, though the Coupe was a lot better with surviving that kind of abuse. Thats not to say that the reliability of a Veloster was bad, its just I often saw them in disrepair because they werent taken care of or from owner stupidity, which is why I didn’t mention the Veloster before.
I love the styling of the Hyundai N Vision 74, but I wish they put an actual engine in it instead of being electric only. I also don’t like the new Santa Fe, the weird dog bone shaped tail lights look pretty stupid IMO. It probably would have looked better if they made it look more similar to a Land Rover Defender, honestly. I don’t know how I feel about the Santa Cruz but it seems like it is too small to be a truck but too big to be a Ute.
CVTs are horrible. They combine the worst parts of an automatic transmission with the worst parts of a manual transmission. Chrysler I believe once had a PCM flash to add an intentional cylinder misfire when people would expect the transmission to shift because so many people complained that it didn’t feel like their CVT equipped vehicle was shifting. Unfortunately, thats what they are supposed to feel like.