![]() ![]() Imagine if a Volvo shopper didn’t exhibit digital dexterity and accidentally entered the Volo cars Web site, and rather than getting a new Volvo ended up with a ’57 Chevy! each year, became upset when it learned that Volo Auto Museum, in the hamlet of Volo, west of Grayslake, which displays and sells about 700 antique, vintage and collector cars annually, had an Internet domain name similar to the carmaker’s– vs. Volvo of Sweden, which sells about 130,000 new Volvos in the U.S. Volvo II: We reported that Volvo, the carmaker, and Volo, the car museum, were at odds (Cars, May 5). Of course, it is a $14,000 car and there are some drawbacks, such as a narrow tunnel between trunk and cabin opening when the rear seats are lowered that blocks easy loading of items into the cabin, plus rear seat backs that are a tad stiff. Other noteworthy touches include impressive trunk size, rear seats that fold to increase cargo room through the trunk, a black-dot matrix on the glass behind the rearview mirror to reduce glare and more than ample, leg, head and arm room front and rear. That’s about $2,000 in goodies added to the $14,149 base. The GT comes with four-wheel disc brakes 15-inch, radial tires AM/FM stereo with CD changer air conditioning power locks, windows and mirrors cruise control trip computer keyless entry purple gauges rear-window defroster tilt steering split folding rear seats carpeted floor mats and dual front and side-impact air bags.Ī trio of options complete the package–anti-lock brakes with traction control at $525, power moonroof, $650, and automatic transmission, $800. ![]() In addition to the numbers, the letters are impressive, the ones that spell “included” on the window sticker when it comes to standard equipment. highway, and we swear that it took two days of driving before the needle on the fuel gauge slipped off the “F” mark in the ’03 Elantra GT tested. ![]() You’ll not only feel blemishes in the road, you’ll also hear the tires slapping against them while in the cabin.īut it’s easier to accept a few compromises when you check out the numbers–a base price of only $14,149 and fuel economy of 24 m.p.g. The suspension will hold you in corners and turns, provided you enter and exit those corners and turns more gingerly than you would in a Mustang GT. The 2-liter will get you moving but won’t get the radials smoking. Like a Saturn coupe, Elantra is an economy car dressed in sporty attire with spoiler so it doesn’t look like a blue-light special. But it’s not a car you have to be ashamed of, either. With its 2-liter, 135-horsepower 4-cylinder engine, the Elantra GT sedan we tested will never be mistaken for a Mustang GT coupe. Sales have risen to nearly 49,000 in the first five months of this year, up from about 47,000 a year earlier.Īnd to ensure the popularity of its best-selling model, Hyundai has added a new offering for ’03, the Elantra GT sedan as a companion to the GT hatchback it offered for ’02. Through May, ’03 sales rose to 164,524 units, from 153,102 a year earlier, well on the way to reaching the target of 420,000 for the full year, up from the 375,119 sold here in ’02.Ī major contributor to its growth has been the Santa Fe sport-utility vehicle, with sales rising from 50,000 in its first year in 2001 to 75,000 in ’02, and an expected 100,000 in ’03.īut the best-selling nameplate in the lineup is the compact Elantra, and it, too, is making a contribution. ![]() To help meet that goal, it will add an assembly plant in Montgomery, Ala., to produce 300,000 cars and sport-utility vehicles annually starting in 2005. It replaced Excel with the Accent in 1995 and followed that with an expansion of the lineup to include the Sonata, Elantra, Tiburon, XG300 and Santa Fe.īut more important, it focused on quality to win back consumer confidence and now, rather than worry about survival, it’s talking expansion and has targeted sales of 1 million vehicles in the U.S. Sales began a steady decline until they reached 90,217 in 1998, and the fat lady began warming up her vocal cords.īut Hyundai has reversed its fortunes. Then folks started paying attention to quality and not just price. Within two years, the South Korean automaker rang up sales of 264,282 cars in the U.S. market by storm in 1986 with a new subcompact car called Excel that sold for about $4,000, less than most used cars sold for at the time. market was considered a coin toss at best. Wasn’t so long ago that Hyundai’s survival in the U.S. ![]()
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