l1tech,
What you are saying is true, but it also applies to all new car warranties. Nearly every car maker provides a minimum 3 year, 36K mile, bumper to bumper warranty with the exception of normal wear items like brakes, clutches, etc...just as Hyundai does.
They are also required by Federal law to cover the emission systems for 8 years as does Hyundai. But they all limit the warranty to cover certain parts that they choose. Oddly enough, most do not cover the ECU computer that controls all of those emission control sensors???
The only real difference is that Hyundai will cover certain major components of the drive train for up to 10 years or 100K miles. Again, this only covers certain major components of the drive train that they choose. You are correct that the odds of these major drive train components breaking are rare, so Ford, Chevy, Honda, Toyota, etc should be able to do the same thing but they choose not to, and that opens the door for Hyundai to step up and grab a bit more market share.
In reality, all warranties by all auto makers are filled with carefully worded escape clauses and exceptions to reduce their liability and expense on the auto maker in the event of a failure.
Unfortunately, many people fail to read the details of their warranty and just assume the hype that a 3 year/36K, 5 year/50K, or 10 year/100k warranty covers everything under all conditions, which is so not true.
Most auto critics, reviewers, and auto experts will say that Hyundai quality is on par with the rest of their competitors in any of the classes where they compete. They are also quick to state that Hyundai has the best warranty in the business. Reviews by owners of late model Hyundais indicate that most owers are very pleased with their purchase.
If you look at most vehicles in the same class, they are all pretty much the same. Hyundai may have made cars to compete against certain vehicles and in doing so copied some styling so that it had some resemblance to the other vehicle. I think that made people do a double take just to verify what brand it was?.
I am not alone in feeling that Hyundai has made major steps in making their styling unique so that there is little doubt that the vehicle is a Hyundai. Most critics and reviewers also mention the appeal of Hyundai's styling. Hyundai quality has improved to the point that it no longer has to rely on copy-cat styling to get attention, since the produce vehicles with similar quality at a much lower price.
If you were to remove the emblems off of all the vehicles and nobody knew or had ever seen these vehicles, and let people choose which one they liked simply based on styling, I think Hyundai would be the popular choice.
...Richard
