Hyundai at speed

[chinamonty]

I had to go to the north of China the other day so I flew to Tianjin and then went by car to the eventual destination of Changli which is near Qinhuangdao where some of the Olympic soccer will be played -it is up in the Gulf of Korea. Big trip though. 3hours on the plane and 3-1/2 in a Hyundai Elantra. It actually suprised me. It was a Chinese built one and it was quiet inside and comfortable for me in the back seat. I am 175cm so I am under 6 feet in that language but we had one pitstop in the trip and I was not cramped at all.
The driver was very experienced for a Chinese. he had been a company driver for 20 years and it showed. He took a few more risks than I would but they were calculated ones so I felt relatively safe (he always seemd to have somewhere to escape to in necessary.
The speed thing was what surprised me most. We were on a new section of motorway and we sat on 160kph for 35 minutes straight. The Elantra was very good. It was not overly affectly by wind and there was no percetable shake in the wheel. We could easilly converse at this speed.
Before anyone makes the comment I will say if you have an accident at that speed you will most likely die NCAP or otherwise so I was not concerned at that aspect.
Hyundai has never been my choice of cars but a couple of guys I have worked with in Australia have had them and replaced them with newer Hyundais so that says something.
I cant help thinking how nice it would have been to have our company MB500CL on that road though.

[EldoFan]

What's sad is that Hyundai performs better than my Taurus on a motorway/interstate........you try to go over 75mph in that beast and the whole dash starts shaking so hard, I feel like something's going to fall off haha

[paul8488]

I never drive really nice cars, but I get to drive many small, affordable cars quite often as rentals. It seems to me that these days even the smallest of cars is pretty capable, and that you're hard pressed to find a car that feels flat-out not good, even at highway speeds. Up around 160 km/h many cars are unlikeable, but at 100-130 almost everything is manageable.

My sister and her husband have an Elantra and it's quite a likeable car. The difference between the worst and best cars is getting uite small, so you have to start really searching for what you like and what you don't like.

Redo the trip in the MB500CL, chinamonty... THAT'S a review I want to hear!!!

[Kamshaaft]

For a bloke that feels the Hyundai Excel was (and still is) an insult to Automotive deisgn fans, Hyundai have really pulled their socks up in the last couple years. The i30 impresses me, after their track record.

[Smaart Aas Saabr]

Originally Posted by EldoFan

What's sad is that Hyundai performs better than my Taurus on a motorway/interstate........you try to go over 75mph in that beast and the whole dash starts shaking so hard, I feel like something's going to fall off haha

Sounds like you just need a tire balancing... maybe one of the weights flew off and that is the reason for the brain liquefaction on the interstate.