We bought the car the first year they came out, so they were unproven yet. Also, Hyundai was still questionable compared to Nissan and Toyota, but we took the chance because the car looked so good. best decision we could have made - no major problems other than rust 16 years and 300,000 km later. We are sold on Hyundai at this point as they have come a long way in the 16 years since we "took the chance" !