2011 Hyundai Tucson Gls Sport Utility 4-door 2.4l on 2040-cars

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2014 Hyundai Elantra

The reality of growing up and living in Detroit is an interesting one. You're essentially born with minute traces of gasoline in your veins and everyone you know is associated with the auto industry in some way. That's not an exaggeration. They might be the child of a line worker at the local auto plant, or they may hold down a job at a restaurant frequented by employees at a big supplier, but no matter what, everyone is part of the auto-industry ecosystem.
Because of this, the stories you may have heard about Detroiters and their distaste for foreign cars is, frustratingly, true. Simply put, Toyota and Honda are blatantly disliked by most, while BMW and Mercedes-Benz are merely tolerated. For a car reviewer who prides himself on making egalitarian recommendations, it's a frustrating environment to live in, particularly when friends and family ask that inevitable question - which is followed by an equally inevitable qualifier - "What should my next car be?" and "One more thing - it can't be foreign." It's this attitude that's perhaps the reason no one I know even considered buying a Hyundai Elantra.
Despite the fact that the compact sedan is built in Montgomery, AL and that Hyundai maintains a shiny, new, sprawling tech facility less than 45 minutes outside of downtown Detroit, the Elantra's status as a "foreign" car immediately precludes it from most Motown buyers' shopping lists. This is to their detriment, as I discovered during a week of testing the refreshed-for-2014 Hyundai Elantra.

Submit your questions for Autoblog Podcast #317 LIVE!

We record Autoblog Podcast #317 tonight, and you can drop us your questions and comments regarding the rest of the week's news via our Q&A module below. Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes if you haven't already done so, and if you want to take it all in live, tune in to our UStream (audio only) channel at 10:00 PM Eastern tonight.
Discussion Topics for Autoblog Podcast Episode #317
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