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2003 Hyundai Elantra Gls Sedan 4-door 2.0l Perfect For Young Driver on 2040-cars

Year:2003 Mileage:150134
Location:

Austin, Texas, United States

Austin, Texas, United States
Advertising:

Offered for sale, a vehicle perfect for your teen driver! Oh, sure, I've cruised the high school parking lots and seen the late model Mustangs and the shiny new Jeep Patriots. Don't be that parent! Start with an inexpensive way to get from Point A to Point B, and when your child wrecks it (which, statistically, they will), no one is out a fortune. There are many life lessons to be learned here; a beater is the way to do it. And, as beaters go, this one is pretty dang nice.

I purchased this car in late 2002 in Las Vegas, and have been the only owner. Run the VIN through CarFax or your favorite VIN verification. The car has never had any body work, even though I have rear-ended a car, then gotten sandwiched in when a car hit me from behind on a rainy Oklahoma highway with no turn lane. I have pictures of that damage. Additionally, there is paint fading from the bumpers. One piece of trim is missing from the front driver's side of the... part of the car you sit in. Listen, I'm not a mechanic. I don't know the correct term.

Other than that, the only damage is normal wear-and-tear from ten years of use, including several dings made from cars in parking lots designed with spaces the exact width of the vehicles, with no apparent thought to the need for egress. Also, it's possible that I've backed into the occasional telephone pole, trash can, or zombie, but sometimes these things cannot be avoided.

There are two things to consider about this vehicle before you buy, both of which might be seen as drawbacks if you were purchasing a car for your parents or spouse, but please allow me to show you the benefits they might post for your student driver.

The air conditioner just went out. The fan works, and I can hear the compressor, so it's possible that it just needs a recharge. Then again, it might need $900 worth of work. So that's a gamble. However, if you choose not to get it fixed and are buying this car for your son, he might not mind arriving at destinations this summer in full-bore sweat. If you are getting it for your daughter, then sell her on the multi-tasking capabilities of both transporting herself AND experiencing a sauna without having to visit her local gym or sweat lodge (which, I hear, are all the rage among female teenagers). If this is the case, be sure to compliment her on her radiant complexion, and comment often about how much healthier she is now that she's sweating out all of those toxins.

The second thing is that reverse will randomly not work. There doesn't appear to be anything physically wrong with the vehicle; it is likely an electrical problem. When reverse works, it's perfect. The way I have dealt with this is not to park front-end-in anywhere unless the parking space is angled so that I can coast out should the gear fail. The times I have forgotten this mandate and had reverse refuse to cooperate, though, I have had the privilege of meeting extremely helpful strangers, many of whom do not possess the overt musculature seemingly necessary to push a vehicle up a slight incline.

For your young adult child, this offers an opportunity to learn real-world social networking skills. Going back into the cupcake shop to ask if any burly men work in the strip mall, only to have three tiny women absolutely bust it to get you back out on the street again teaches one a lot about the kindness of humanity and about humility. And don't forget to pay it forward!

The power windows and locks all work fine, with no sluggishness, sticking, or weird motor noises. The doors and trunk all close normally, and the interior is still waterproof, even though you will notice some gouges in the lining made from a couple of times I locked my keys in the car. As a side note, without the help of a professional (burglar or locksmith) or a willingness to break a window, you cannot unlock the door with a foreign object from outside.

The rear seats lean forward to allow for storage of large items, and also for escaping in the event that one of your kid's smart aleck friends thinks it's a laugh to shut him or her into the trunk. The trunk also has a glow-in-the-dark safety latch for that, but that smart aleck will probably be sitting on the trunk, and this will surprise the tar out of him.

Everything else is really good. I bought the radio/CD player, so it's not the stock Hyundai one. The interior fabrics are all completely intact. Rather than extolling the virtues of this vehicle, I encourage you to come take a look at it. Test drive it. I think you'll agree that this will be a great set-the-bar-medium-low vehicle for your beloved offspring.

When I was 16, my grandparents gave me a canary yellow Chevy Caprice Classic. It was hideous, and it didn't need a key to start. But I drove it until I totaled it, over-correcting when my back tire went off of the pavement on the winding road where we lived. Although my dad made me drive the next day so I wouldn't lose my nerve, I didn't own another car for over a year. I had to buy my next car, and my expectations were pretty low. When I did get a car, I paid cash for it. Now, I'm an adult with no consumer debt, no car payments, and I'm pretty content in addition to being fiscally responsible. So let those other guys buy high-end show-off pieces for their kids. You know better. You don't have to prove anything to anyone, and you want your kid to be awesome!

If you buy this car, I guarantee* that will happen.

*I don't guarantee that. No one can. But it's 55%** more likely to happen.

**I just made that number up.

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Auto blog

2013 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport

Thu, 18 Apr 2013

The Crossover For The Kardashians Of 1895
My wife and I are holdouts among our friends and family in the offspring department. Our heir-free lifestyle, however, affords us the opportunity to travel this great land, and road trips are our favorite. So while I'm unqualified to remark on how well the new 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport will swallow an infant son and stroller, I can pass judgment on this two-row crossover's talents for carrying people and cargo over great distances.
The lady and I recently drove a new 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport to one of this country's national treasures: the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. The Biltmore was built between 1889 and 1895 by George Vanderbuilt, grandson of Cornelius Vanderbuilt who was one of this country's earliest captains of industry. Despite the Biltmore being the largest privately owned home in the United States, which it remains to this day with a footprint of 178,926 square feet, George and his wife, Edith, only ever had one child. A family of two parents plus one child would have made the Vanderbuilts exactly the type of people Hyundai hopes to attract with this two-row Santa Fe Sport - George's eldest brother, Cornelius II, had seven children and would've had better luck fitting his brood in the larger three-row Santa Fe (sans the "Sport" suffix).

Are old airbags killers?

Sat, Jul 25 2015

Takata airbags may not be the only ones with some very serious problems. A new report from TheDetroitBureau.com claims that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened its second investigation into bad airbag inflators, and this time, they aren't from Takata. The focus of this latest case is on the airbag inflators in some 500,000 older Chrysler Town and Country minivans and Kia Optima sedans, all of which come from ARC Automotive. While the Takata case looks at problems stemming from the engineering and production process, the ARC investigation focuses on the age of the inflators. As TDB explains, airbag inflators are essentially what the military refers to as shaped charges, sort of like Claymores (for fans of the Call of Duty series). In combat, they blow up in a specific direction, protecting those behind the explosion, although in the case of airbags, the explosion "[creates] a precise rush of hot gases" that inflate the bags. NHTSA's worry is that with the increased average age of today's vehicles, years and years of being bounced, jolted, and shaken about and exposed to often-radical temperature changes have altered the nature of the explosives in these vehicles, causing too big of an explosion. "It may be a reasonable assumption that as these things age they deteriorate." – Analyst George Peterson "It may be a reasonable assumption that as these things age they deteriorate," analyst George Peterson told TheDetroitBureau.com. NHTSA boss Mark Rosekind backed up aging angle. "Cars are lasting on the road a lot longer than ever before," Rosekind told TDB, adding that seals could start breaking down. "Is aging now an issue? That's part of the investigation going on." NHTSA has only identified two "incidents" so far, although according to Center for Auto Safety Director Clarence Ditlow, there's genuine concern that there could be additional unidentified cases. "Could we have missed more? That could be the case," Ditlow told TDB, citing the misidentified deaths in the Takata investigation. Ditlow was quick to point out that, even in older vehicles, airbags are much more likely to protect than harm. "No one is saying you should disable your airbags," the safety advocate told TDB. "You're far more likely to be helped than hurt by one if they go off." At least one automaker, meanwhile, has already been advised of the investigation by NHTSA and is checking its airbags.

Albert Biermann, the man behind some of Hyundai's sportiest cars, retires

Fri, Dec 17 2021

Hyundai Motor Group, which includes Kia and Genesis, made big news by announcing at the end of 2014 that it was bringing on Albert Biermann to its research and development division. He had spent just over 30 years at BMW and was in charge of the M division before he left. His time at Hyundai led to some of the company's best driving cars, which meet or beat the global competition. But now, the company has announced Biermann is retiring. At 65 years old, it's not entirely surprising that Biermann would be looking at retirement, and he seems to be leaving on good terms. "Korea will remain as my second home, and all of my colleagues at Hyundai Motor Group will always be considered part of my family. I would like to recognize that our success has always been based on the strong collective spirit of the many talented people at Hyundai, and I will value our unique achievements wherever I live," he said in a release from Hyundai. Fortunately, Biermann will still be an Executive Technical Advisor for the company. Specifically, he'll be advising on electrified performance cars. We say fortunately, because Biermann has been so involved in some of the company's best cars. He helped make the company's rear-drive-based cars such as the Kia Stinger and Genesis models so fun to drive. He also helped setup Hyundai's N sub-brand, and the N models are among the best sport compacts in the world. Assuming Hyundai has taken to heart many things from Biermann, and with his continued advising, the company should still be in a good position. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. 2022 Hyundai Kona N Short Cut