On January 28, while driving home from a friends house, I heard a "pop" from the bottom of my car and then lost compression in my engine. The car was struggling to idol. I limped the vehicle home, at high rpm and parked it in the driveway. Later that night, I decided to look at what might be the problem. I started the vehicle and noticed plumes of exhaust pouring out of the passenger's side front door. I raised the car with my floor jack and noticed an approximate 7 inch gash in the side of the exhaust.

I had the car towed to a local garage and they stated the vehicle had two catalyic converters for California exhaust ratings. Go figure, Hyundai shipped the car to the wrong coast! Missed by three entire time zones sport. They could not work on the vehicle because it needed to be set to specifications using Hyundai equipment and IT SHOULD BE COVERED UNDER THE WARRANTY. The vehicle was two years old and had under 40,000 miles. I had it towed to a local dealership and was not getting anywhere. I needed the vehicle fixed and was not getting a response except that they replaced an idle sensor that was not done on a previous recall (for free, must have been cheap to do). I had the vehicle towed to where it was purchased and they checked it in for repairs.

The following day they requested I pay them a visit. They immediately claimed that I had struck an object while driving and that this should be reported to my insurance. I firmly disagreed and given my deductible, decided to pay out of pocket and also avoid possible insurance fraud. There is only one possible way I could have struck something in the road and not have the front spoiler damaged; I would have had to run over something and have it shot from the tire into the side of the exhaust pipe. I figure it could happen, but the chances are quite remote.

It cost approximately $2,500 to repair the exhaust. It was mainly due to the dual catalytic converters having to be replaced.

Fourteen months later, I received a recall notice stating that the type of exhaust I have in my car could explode and send metal fragments throughout the exhaust and destroy it. I petitioned to have my money refunded from the Hyundai Corporation headquartered in California. They declared since the initial report stated that I hit something, I was not eligible for a refund. They completely ignored the fact that they manufactured a defective part and put it in these vehicles and did not consider that this could have been the problem.

Guess you get what you pay for. I love my Hyundai and the only other things that have gone wrong over the seven years is that the cigarette lighter doesn't work, the ashtray light burned out, the crank sensor malfunctioned, the driver's side window is misaligned and the passenger's side rear power door lock does not work.

I did find a good use for my warranty. I used it to light a fire in my fireplace. Unbelievably, it worked fine.