I bought a brand new 2013 Hyunday Elantra 1.8 GS a month and a half ago, and the experience has been an absolute nightmare! If you've had the same experience, please reply.

The original car I bought was not this one; the first one proved to have defective steering (stiff steering on one side at all times), and the dealership recognized this issue and offered to replace it (since it was barely driven). I was impressed.

I was told, however, that the car they wanted to replace it with had not passed a quality inspection. I was surprised, because that meant there must be a line of bad cars.

When they finally gave me the replacement, I was horrified!! The car manifested, again, very bad steering!! And on top of the, the car veered dangerously to the right! I had already wasted so many days with steering issues by now and had continuously brought the car in to the dealership to have the issue solved, but to no avail. The short version of the story is that after 6 or 7 alignments, the car is STILL acting up! The car does not veer to the right as much, but the tension in the steering wheel is tight to the left and super easy to the right. Also, the steering wheel wants to go right and prefers to sit slight to the right of center, even though they've supposedly centered the thing many times. Additionally, the amount of turning of steering while to make the car go right is bigger than the amount needed to make the car go left.

They insist that the alignment has been fixed, and since the alignment on paper looks ok, they insist the car has no problem. This even after the service manager of the Hyundai Central EDSA branch admits to me that he noticed the problem this morning when I did what was to be a final test drive!! He and his mechanic admitted right there that the car was behaving badly!!! And yet, they have the nerve to tell me the alignment is correct and that the car is ok!

I've written 2 letters by now to the president of HARI (Hyundai Asia Resources, Inc.) and have had NO responses aside from an insulting auto reply. The letters are the following:

1st letter:
________________________________________

Dear Ms. Perez-Agudo:
I write to you today with a plea. I am at my wit’s end and the stress level is simply too much for me now. I hope you will read this and help me with my request.
One month ago, I decided to give Hyundai a try, as I had heard wonderful things about it from friends who own Sonatas and Elantras. My nightmare began immediately after purchasing the 2013 Elantra 1.8 GS model. To save you time and to keep this letter concise, I will enumerate my dilemma aspects from the past month.
1. August 17: we traded in our Honda City, which had served us very well, for the new Elantra Clean Blue. We had decided to go for Hyundai instead of another Honda partly because my wife loved the Clean Blue color so much. The test model also drove very nicely so I was very happy to switch. Immediately, we noticed that the steering was not behaving well on the new car we bought. The steering to the right was extremely tight while to the left was super easy. I told our sales person (Anjo of Hyundai Pasig) by phone about this problem, and was advised to bring it in.
2. August 19: we took the car to Hyundai Pasig, but nobody told us they were not opening for the day because of rain, so we drove from Fairview to Pasig for nothing.
3. August 22: service technicians were finally able to look at the car. They said it was an alignment issue. They returned the car to us, but the car still drove very badly. We had to cancel appearing at a family wedding in Tarlac because we could not drive the car.
4. August 27: we brought the car in again; I asked to test drive a model unit again just to make sure I wasn’t imagining things. The test model drove beautifully. Service techs drove my car and noticed there was a big problem. This time they decided to replace my car, but offered us a grey color. They did in the end find another new Clean Blue, but told us that one was defective also and could not be used. Finally, they found another Clean Blue and assigned it to us. While we waited for the processing, which was to take some days, they kindly let us use a loaner vehicle, and we were very thankful for the customer care. Unfortunately, while driving the loaner in Intramuros, the air conditioning broke and the car overheated. I had to cancel my work meetings for the rest of the afternoon, AND I missed my wife’s grandmother’s funeral. This was a huge problem for me. Luckily, later that afternoon I was given another loaner car, which worked well.
5. September 2: We got replacement car, and were happy to hopefully be done with the car troubles. However, we quickly noticed this new car had also steering problems! This time, the car was veering to the right and the steering wheel was not at all centered, wanting to stay left of center.
6. September 5: my wife brought car to Hyundai Pasig again ( I could not skip more work to do this). They did an alignment again and told her the car was good. When I drove it that evening, I noticed the car was still not functioning properly. The steering was still heavy on the right side and very easy to turn left, and the car still veered dramatically to the right.
7. September 9: we dropped off car again, and this time Hyundai Pasig had the car 3 days and brought in techs from HARI. The service techs agreed that a significant steering problem existed, but after three days said the car was fixed. Even though service adviser Fred told us they were doing an alignment and promised to give us the readings, when we got the car back, no papers were given to us, and then we were told no alignment was done after all. Actually, most visits, NOTHING was given to us to show us what was being done. This time I was very annoyed because up to this date, we had nothing to show for the many times we had taken the car in, except for one time that we were shown the computer readings. Nothing was shown as to alignments that were done. On top of it, when I called the branch to ask for the papers, the person who answered the phone even referred to me as ‘a pain in the ass’ when she was speaking to Lea, who by this week was refusing to take our phone calls. The customer service we were receiving in the beginning was excellent, but by this time, we were getting only run around and Lea (CRM) was refusing to take any of our calls. We were frustrated, to say the very least. I had already taken so many days off work to deal with this car. I was now limited to calling the branch to inquire about the car about the supposed test results, but I was being refused service.
8. September 12: We got the car back. The problem this time was worse. The steering was veering dangerously to the right. This is even AFTER the HARI technicians supposedly had examined the car. The car now was driving so erratically that as soon as you let go of the steering wheel on a very straight road, the car drove violently to the right. I have video documentation of this for your reference.
9. September 21: I managed to get some time off work again, but this time, since we were so disenchanted with the cold reception we were getting from they Hyundai Pasig branch, I decided to take the car to Hyundai EDSA. I was so happy when the service technicians there drove the car and IMMEDIATELY told me that there was a huge problem. The tech named Jun told me he thought the rack and pinion should be replaced because the car’s steering was so bad. He was also very shocked by how erratically the car’s steering was, especially considering it was brand new. I was so relieved, because I thought finally that I would see the end of my problems with this nightmare car. However, after three days, and another alignment, they decided that the rack and pinion was ok and that the car was fixed. They advised me to get the 1,000 KM preventive service, which of course I agreed to, since I always take good care of any car that I happen to own. For reference, I’ve attached the last alignment results (the only ones I received from any service adviser; this from JC at Hyunday EDSA, who was helpful). The alignment results speak for themselves – according to JC, the alignment is fixed, and yet the steering handles just as badly (and the car, just a day later, is still veering to the right).
Much to my absolute shock, the car today STILL drives dangerously. The steering to the right has returned after just one day and the hard steering has switched from the right now to the left. I cannot drive this car in its current condition.
Ms. Perez-Agudo, I urge you to please help me. I’ve had such a nightmare with this car’s steering. I actually love this car otherwise. It’s a beautiful car, with comfortable seats and just the right amount of power. However, I feel like I’m getting into a death trap every time I get into the car. Please help me, as I want at this point to either:
1. return the car and close my bank loan
OR
2. exchange the car again and this time let me test drive the new unit for a decent amount of time to make certain that the car is not defective. You may have a batch of cars with defective steering, as mine is the 3rd Clean Blue car with problems, which are corroborated by your Hyundai technicians.
I thank you in advance for your help. I am just looking forward to enjoying the new car that I was buying, as I do love the Elantra, but really feel in danger because of my car’s defective steering. So far, it’s been such a nightmare and has really destroyed the new-car experience that any new car owner enjoys. I hope you can help me, and humbly ask you to put yourself in my position and to feel for a moment how I feel after going through this.