HI Guys
I am writing about the New Hyundai Sonata (2001) which is launched in India just a few weeks back with a price tag of 30, 000 USD (INR 14, 00, 000). I went and saw the car at the new showroom and it is really cool car after one looks at the Hyundai’s previous offerings in India i.e. The Hyundai Santro/Atos and Hyundai Accent .
Altough I was a fan of Hyundai cars when they were launched in India in 1998 when they steped into the Indian Automobile Market with their baby Santro as it is called in India, I even bought one of them in the first lot and was really happy but found that once I had driven the car for 15000 Kms it started rattleing and none of the people at the service center could repair the same. Also since the then it started giving me a very low fuel mileage 7KMPL which is supposed to be really low with other cars in the segments giving a mileage of 15 KMPL, I have also heard about this from some of my friends who have been owners of the Accent , they also complain about the low mileage and poor ride after they have driven the car for around 15000 to 20000 Kms.
Thus I am afraid that would Hyundai be able to provide better quality in the Sonata in India or not, becaus now they are steping into tough competition with Honda which has just launched their Accord in India which seems to be a much better product than the Sonata and also Honda commands a better Market Image than what Hyundai enjoys in India.
Thus I think that the Honda Accord would be a better product than the Sonata in terms of Long term usage, mileage, quality, comfort etc.