How many people got the $2.99 gas guarentee that you know? I really want to find out and see if they haven’t tried to commit suicide because on top of not getting the rebate on the car and owing more, with Chrysler going bankrupt your car’s value has again tumbled and for what? A card that lets you buy gas for $.50 over the pump’s price.

And what I want to know is when someone (hint: I’m hoping maybe Leftlane) will write a piece that examines how it is that Hyundai can offer so many discounts, insurance plans, etc. Methinks there is an issue of government funding behind this. Has anyone looked at what Hyundai’s bottom line is? How much cash the company has on hand to support these programs? I’m just not seeing how this is fiscally possible and I’d rather see a professional reporter dig into this, so that there’s a little bit of authority to the results. People say the free markets have failed the U.S., but I just don’t think we’ve seen the free markets functioning in a long time. Our competitors seem to get away with a lot more than we can, whether through our own moral rectitude, which I doubt, or our ineptness.

What I see in Hyundai thinking is simple this:

Get people into there cars (knowing that there quality and workmanship has improved since it Introduction in the 80’s)

Hopefully there will buy Hyundai cars in the future (ie 5-7 yrs latter)

This is the same thought that Toyota did, you buy the cheapest toyota model you can afford at the time and eventually you purchased another toyota (creating brand loyaltiy) and word of mouth adversing

For example, most people I talk to who drive Hyundai says they would buy other another, because it the “best bang of the buck”.

This would be awesome if Gas Prices Rose to like $5.00 a gallon or more. And no one should expect that Gas Prices will stay down for long. Another good reason car companies should start thinking we need to go Non Fossil Fuel ASAP. As they say Necessity is the mother of invention.

Lion…this is obviously a gamble that the price of gas will go down (although not less than $1.49) in the next year, therefore it will cost Hyundai pennies per fill-up for a program that can increase sales significantly. I am sure they crunched the numbers to know what is possible and reasonable for this situation to work out.

Bid deal. You’re guaranteed to get gas for 99 cents if you insist on eating tacos from any value menu.

LOL Johnny!

Yep, those Chrysler buyers certainly got hosed.. not only did they have to buy a Chrysler, gas prices dropped just as quickly as their vehicle’s resale value and the incentive was worthless. Luckily for Hyundai, if you buy one and gas prices drop below $1.49 (highly unlikely), at least you still have a Hyundai.. and a 10 year warranty to offset the depreciation.

Asians will do anything to lure people inti their POS vehicles. Notice how General Motors doesn;t need gimmicks like this to sell their vehicles? That’s because they sell on merits of world class quality, Industry leading reliability and dependibility and the respect of being Americas brand of automobile.

Let Hyundai throw out the gimmicks, it only makes them look like that much more of a joke than they already are.

GM. An American Revolution

How long does the program last? Is it just one year/12000 miles or is is 12000 miles every year for X years? If it’s only one year, that’s only a savings of $400 (based on Elantra getting 30mpg, current price at $2.50), which makes it out to be not that great of an incentive.

on a 25mpg car this is worth about $500, and less the higher the mpg. Wont swing me one way or the other, but I like the Gen-duo.

Lionwithoutpride is it realistic to search for professional journalism here?

If you do the math – on an average of 25 mpg and assuming that thsi lasts 3 years, gas averages $3.25 a gallon, and you drive the entire 12,000 miles per year – that makes 36,000 total miles/ 25 mpg = 1440 gallons times the amount saved per mile (1.75) and you save $2520.00. That’s not bad – but if you don’t drive that many miles, gas stays under $3 or you trade it in after 2 years (which would be me) you could lose alot of money if you don’t take, for example, the $2000 rebate. You also pay interest on the money you neglected to take as a rebate, in addition to owing more at trade in.

I always say go for the rebate (or 0% interest rate) and be assured of what money you get back, but for some it’s worth the peace of mind knowing you only pay $1.49 per gallon.

Jake, it says it’s a one year (12000 mile) program.

Hyundai is running the serious risk of losing their shirts on this. Then so did CHRYSLER, but that bet wasn’t what cost them their shirt.

This is a cheap move that may or may not work. But don’t expect anyone else to follow suit.

it doesn’t look like a serious risk of losing their shirts, imo…and hyundai is not a company that typically takes such risks…the numbers are dependent on the price of gas for the next year, of course, but if we make the same assumptions as the other folks above…25 mpg…12k miles…that’s 480 gallons of gas…for every full dollar above $1.49 a gallon they “lose” 480 bucks per car…

but that loss is offset by the increased number of units sold (this promotion is only for july/august, which limits their exposure)…so if the incentive does lead to more sales, they’ll have more profit to balance out the gas expenditure…

it’s not like this is going to sink the company here, even if gas jumps to $3.50 a gallon…for one thing, only cars bought in july/august are eligible, and even at $3.50 a gallon this may not wipe out the hyundai’s profit margin…

@freeyellow2000

You are exactly right with Hyundai’s plans for this. I would not have bought my Genesis Coupe had I not gotten to spend some quality rental time in a couple of loaded Sonatas (which are fantastic cars, btw).

Doesn’t really fit in with their $60k Equus brand-building strategy, does it?
DrFill

Most people, I hope, know that Hyundai is the #1 Shipbuilding company in the World. With their level of resource management, Hyundai can certainly subsidize the cost of their automobile unit. The strategy is simple. Create a car, sell it at lower prices than the competition. Once, Hyundai becomes an accepted brand, then Hyundai’s cars can expected to be priced at similar prices with the likes of Toyota. The growing pains for Hyundai is now. Since mass amounts of people still get it in their thick skull that Hyundai makes POS jalopies of the 1980’s. Hello, we are in 2009, Hyundai has changed significantly. And it will be the perception of Hyundai’s quality that will be the biggest hurdle to climb.

I do think that Hyundai does need a name change regarding their luxury unit, as well a badge redesign. Simple marketing efforts to change the perception can be done with a beautiful logo and a Prettty Name. I can think that Hyundai can change American/Euro name to the likes of Silo Motors, or Rock engineering.
Have a sword, or a beautiful crysanthumum as the logo front for the compay.