Hi,
I need a little help in deciding about a car that I will be selling. Here is the scenario.
I have two cars. One 2002 Hyundai Accent and the other 1996 Toyota Corolla. The Accent has nearly 99500 miles on it and the Corolla has 145000 miles on it. The Accent is well maintained and still now I drive that on highways for 300 mi trip. whereas, I use the corolla for within the city and its not very well maintained. But never had any problem either. I heard that hyundai accent is not good beyond 100k mark. Is that correct?
I am buying a new car and need to sell either of these two. Please advise which one should I be selling?
Thanks for your help,
Deepen
When a car gets older, proper maintenance is generally more important than make or model for reliability.
I’m not a big fan of 2003 (or earlier) Hyundais, as it was more in the 2004ish range (depending on model) when they really improved their quality. But a 2002 Accent is not exactly a terrible vehicle in terms of reliability - there were really only a few minor common trouble spots on these.
Given that you admit that the Corolla has been poorly maintained and the Accent has been maintained well, I’d call this a no-brainer to keep the Accent.
Regardless of brand, keep the one with the least miles and the best maintenance.
The answer depends on how much you can sell each of these for. Let’s assume their market value is about the same, I’d keep the Accent.
Other factors: how long until one of these needs a timing belt changed, how well does the heat and AC work in these, are the tires in good shape?
The Accent should be good for a lot longer if you keep up on maintenance and the timing belt.
Both the 1.5 L and the 1.6 L engines in the Accent look like they’re interference engines, so change the timing belt.
It looks like the Corolla doesn’t have an interference engine so if the timing belt breaks, it won’t kill the engine.
Thanks for your inputs guyz.
Last time I changed the timing belt and other manufacturer mentioned services while the Accent had 70k on it. Now its almost 100k. How many more miles do you guys think the timing belt will last? Also, I recently changed two rear tires.
Based on all your inputs, I would assume that the fact “Hyundai cars are not good after 100k” is not really a fact and its all dependent on the maintenance. Please let me know if I am wrong!
What does your owner’s manual say about the timing belt frequency? 70K on the first one, why not go 70K on the 2nd.
Maybe they say Hyundais don’t last beyond 100K because they didn’t change the timing belt, the belt broke, and the engine needed replacing.