2012 Hyundai Accent Gls Sedan 4-door 1.6l / Automatic / With Only 25,511 Miles on 2040-cars

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Hyundai, Kia announce buyback plan for angry Korean investors

Hyundai's controversial decision last September to move its Korean headquarters to an expansive (and expensive) new facility was met with a swift backlash by shareholders. After making the biggest land purchase in South Korean history, the company's share price took a nine-point nose dive.
Now, in a bid to get back in the good graces of its stockholders, Hyundai and its subsidiary, Kia, will make a $615-million stock buyback plan. Reuters claims this is the first time in ten years that Hyundai has made a buyback offer with the explicit purpose of pumping up share prices.
The total deal bumped up Hyundai's share prices 5.7 percent while Kia is up two percent, although neither company has fully recovered from the battering that followed the headquarters announcement. It's unclear what else it will take for Hyundai to recover the ground it lost during the land deal.

Korea's sport compact | 2017 Hyundai Elantra Sport First Drive

When we drove the then all-new 2017 Hyundai Elantra earlier this year, we came away impressed but slightly bored. There is nothing fundamentally flawed with the compact sedan, but there also is nothing about the car that gets our blood pumping. The new Elantra is an affordable and reasonably well-equipped people mover. It's an improvement over its predecessor, but the driving experience leaves us indifferent. Hyundai was aware of this from the outset. The product plan includes the Sport model you see here, intended to inject some life into what is otherwise a rather milquetoast car. On paper, everything looks good and all of the right boxes are checked, including more power and a tighter suspension. Hyundai was clear that this is far more than just an appearance package like the previous generation's Sport trim. As such, the new Elantra Sport is fitted with a 201-horsepower, 1.6-liter turbocharged engine mated to either a six-speed manual or a seven-speed dual clutch automatic. A revised suspension replaces the standard torsion-beam rear axle with a fully independent multi-link rear setup, paired with bigger brakes, wheels, and tires. Other accoutrements, like sport seats and a flat-bottomed steering wheel, are also included. Check, check, check. The Elantra Sport with a manual transmission starts at $21,650 before destination and, sitting just below the top-of-the-range Limited model, comes very well equipped for the price. Heated leather seats are standard, as are HID headlights, keyless entry and ignition, and a seven-inch touchscreen display with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. That's a lot of equipment for a car in this size and price range. The only option on both the manual and paddle-shifted DCT model (that one starts at $22,750) is the $2,400 Premium Package. It adds an extra inch to the display, navigation, an eight-speaker Infinity sound system, Hyundai's Blue Link connectivity, a sunroof, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, dual automatic climate control with an auto defogger, and an auto-dimming rearview mirror with HomeLink and a compass. Lots of checks in lots of boxes at a reasonable price point and a long warranty has been Hyundai's modus operandi for a while now, and that's fine for most of its models. It's the case with the non-Sport Elantra, which is packed with features but otherwise makes us shrug. The Sport may not be a revolution, but it is a lot of fun to drive.

10 automakers sued over keyless ignitions

Keyless ignition has rapidly proliferated throughout the auto industry to become a fairly normal feature on new cars. It's supposed to offer the convenience of keeping the fob in your pocket and just pressing a button to drive away. However, ten major automakers are now being sued in US District Court over claims that the system is dangerous, Reuters reports. The suit alleges that people are forgetting to shut off the engine, and the lack of an idle timer is the cause for 13 deaths by carbon monoxide poisoning and multiple injuries. The suit currently includes 28 plaintiffs, according to Reuters, but the lawyers are asking for class-action status to potentially add many more. The case goes after a major swath of the industry, including BMW, Daimler, FCA, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, Toyota, and Volkswagen, plus their related brands like Acura, Infiniti, Mini, and Lexus. In all, over five million vehicles are affected. The assertion here is that people walk away from their vehicle without shutting it off because they believe the engine shuts off automatically. If parked in a garage, carbon monoxide can build up, leading to poisoning. The lawyers claim automakers know this is a problem and also cite 27 complaints to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration about the issue, according to Reuters. The plaintiffs are asking for an automatic shut-off and damages from the companies. These concerns have come up before, though. Toyota previously faced a lawsuit over a carbon monoxide death after a woman accidentally left her Lexus running. Also earlier this year, GM recalled 64,186 examples of the 2011-2013 Chevrolet Volt because owners weren't shutting them off. The problem resulted in two injuries, and the company released a software update to limit the idling time.