2000 Hyundai Sonata Base Sedan 4-door 2.4l on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Hyundai recalling 15,500 Entourage minivans over rust in cold-weather states

Hyundai has increased its quality by leaps and bounds in recent years, but we're not sure the Entourage minivan is the best representation of the brand. Essentially a rebadged version of the Kia Sedona, the Entourage has been out of production for about five years now, and it's evidently run into some trouble.
The problem apparently revolves around the suspension - specifically the front lower control arm - which could rust and fracture, particularly in snow-belt states. As a result, Hyundai and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have issued a recall for the Entourage from the 2007 and 2008 model years, the only two years it was sold in the United States.
The recall applies to some 15,500 units sold or registered in Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode Island, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. Hyundai will notify owners as to when they should bring their vehicles in for inspection before either rustproofing or replacing the components in question. What's interesting, however, is that the nearly identical Kia Sedona has not been subject to the same recall.

2016 Hyundai Elantra spied uncovered

The next-generation Hyundai Elantra has been speculated on and teased throughout this year. In March we got a leaked photo of a South Korean-market Elantra, the question being if this is was actually the new car and if we'd get in the US. Then we got officially sanctioned sketches of the exterior and the interior. Now Korean site Auto Tribune has leaked photos of the next Korean-market Avante, which is our Elantra, and they actually line up with the automaker sketches. According to Google Translate, the pictures were taken at a Hyundai factory in South Korea by a contractor. If this is the real deal, Fluidic Sculpture has given way to a grille that might want to at least send a "Thank You" note to Audi. Flanking that are smoother lines and a more subtle treatment of the front end, with sleek, pulled-back headlights decorated with a lengthy LED signature above boomerang inlets in the bumper. The sides have been flattened out, losing some of dimensionality of the current car to go more mature. The rear end looks similar to the current sedan, but wider, with long taillights featuring three LED elements. Inside, a three-spoke steering wheel veers toward the plain, and the current continuous waterfall center console gives way to a two-section instrument panel that has an eight-inch infotainment screen at the top, above HVAC controls. At the base there's an open cubby that doesn't look to have a cover, and the gear selector lever incline appears reduced. The overall impression is less engaging to the eye than now. Auto Tribune says a 1.6 liter GDI is under hood, which puts out 175 horsepower and 196 pound-feet of torque in the 2016 Tucson. We'll see the real car at the LA Auto Show later this year. Click through to Auto Tribune for more photos.

Recharge Wrap-up: Tesla battery degradation graphed, Hyundai plans fuel cell hub in Korea

A man has created a graph of Tesla Model S battery degradation over time. Merijn Coumans of Holland is tracking the owner data gathered on from Model S owners in a single file and graphing it visually. Coumans continually updates the graph of drivers' maximum ranges to give a look at battery degradation over the life of the car. Coumans tracks mileage and even number of visits to Superchargers in his data. Tesla provides an eight-year battery guarantee regardless of mileage. Read more at the Steinbuch blog. US plug-in vehicle sales are expected to surpass 300,000 when the data is tallied at the end of this month. That is 30 percent of President Obama's goal of 1 million battery electric cars and plug-in hybrids by the end of 2015. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz admitted the US won't reach the goal, saying, "We're going to be a few years after the president's aspirational goal of the end of 2015, but I think that we are within a few years of reaching that goal." Green car analyst Alan Baum projects the 1 million EV milestone will be met in 2018. Read more at Hybrid Cars. Hyundai and the South Korean government plan to create a hub for fuel cell technologies. Hyundai and Kia will give up unused patents to automotive startups focused on fuel cells at a recently launched innovation center in Gwangju. "Hyundai Motor will offer substantial assistance in the whole process of corporate growth ranging from the development of ideas to industrialization to making inroads into global markets," says South Korea's President Park Geun-hye. Hyundai hopes this will make the city a center for hydrogen technology. Read more at Just Auto. Mayor Boris Johnson has approved a cycling superhighway for the city of London. Set to be built along the Thames embankment, the system of cycling lanes could help encourage more people to ride their bikes, reducing automotive traffic congestion and relieving pressure on other transit networks. Opponents are upset that the cycling highway will increase driving time across the city, and call cyclists a "loud minority," whose numbers doesn't justify the new lanes. Read more at Treehugger. Kansas and Nebraska are joining the challenge against the EPA's new ethanol emissions rules. The EPA's Moves2014 regulations seek to reduce automotive sulfur emissions by 60 percent, but, says Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, the ethanol emissions measurement model is faulty and was adopted without public comment or review.