Safety is Affordable.

After my husband and I were fortunate to get the 12,000 dollars we needed to pay off our loan to Mitsubishi to get RID of the Eclipse GS-T that we'd been buying (see my epinion on it as to why we got rid of it), we got a Hyundai Sonata 2000.

I was not pleased with the color at first. It was "Cypress" green which brings to mind large, lush trees of green. In reality, it was a crappy pea green color with a slight gold sheen. Yuck. But, this color was on sale and we were low on money (thanks, Mitsubishi!) so we took it.

I was very pleased with this car for the month that we owned it. I drove it everywhere! I went and spent money on seat covers, air freshners, and even wanted specialized plates! I loved this car!

Not only is it backed by that unbeatable Hyundai guarantee and warranty, but it had LOADS of room in front, back and trunk. I had the moon roof, vanity mirrors, and even the very pretty 3.9% APR and 2000 dollar rebate! There were child safety locks and the safety feature on the front, passenger airbag that keeps it from going off if a child is in the seat. These were standard options! EXCELLENT!

Then, I let my husband drive the car.

He was driving home on the highway and thanks to a bad driver in front of him, he and everyone in his lane (and the lane next to him) had to slam on their brakes. Perhaps he was following a bit too closely, but he swerved to avoid colliding with the car in front of him in his lane and hit a concrete median at almost 70 mph.

My husband walked away from that crash. The EMT's were stunned that showed up on the scene! The wrecker couldn't believe it, either!

The side airbag and the front airbag went off and even with his seatbelt OFF at the time, my husband only sustained minor injuries which included a couple of bruises and a scrape on his shin. Our car was completely totalled, though, as can be expected in such a horrible wreck!

And Hyundai has been EXTREMELY cooperative with all of this! They have not pestered, irritated, annoyed or bothered us even ONCE for this happening! After we phoned to let them know what had happened, we were politely informed NOT to pay anymore on our bill and that if our insurance would not pay up, Hyundai would sue them for the damages.

Now that our insurance is paying up, you can bet that we'll be looking into another HYUNDAI!