Quote Originally Posted by Woochifer View Post
Unfortunately for Hyundai (and for me, I guess), they chose to carry over the previous Touring model. I'd driven the last generation Elantra as a rental, and did not like it at all. Felt too much like someone at Hyundai put a Toyota Corolla on a pedestal and said, "Copy this!"

The current generation is a clean break from Toyota both in styling and supposedly driving dynamics as well. It was a risky move for Hyundai, but it seems to have paid off. Alas, it's only available in the U.S. as a sedan.
You're not far off - about 10 years ago Hyundai hired all the top engineers away from Toyota and Hyundai's reliability greatly improved and Toyota fell into the toilet.

Hyundai I think wanted to tackle reliability first - it's what made the Japanese basically destroy the American car makers who sold complete caca in the reliability department.

The 5/5 rating comes from the Lemon Aid - which is based on actual repair records, survey reports - Phil Edmonston is the Ralph Nadar of the car industry. He was talking about the sudden surges in Toyota cars well before(several years before) it cam to light.

Lemon-Aid author talks tough about buying cars | Wheels.ca