1. Overview
2. Gallery
   • Photo Gallery (20)
   • 360° View
   • Video
   • Web Videos (11)
3. Trims and Specs
   • Select a Trim (2)
4. More Resources
   • Related News (0)
   • Other Expert Reviews (8)
   • Consumer Opinions (260)
   • Car Tweets
   • Q&A (12)
5. Next Steps
   • Get Hyundai Insurance Quotes
   • Get Hyundai Financing Quotes
   • Check Local Classifieds
   • Find a local dealer

     Select State Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Select City
     

     See all Hyundai dealers

April 3, 2008 http://www.thecarconnection.com/fullreview/hyundai_xg300_2001

  Marc K. Stengel
EditorMarc K. Stengel

You review the '02 XG300 

If a stranger handed you a $100 bill and said, "Just take it," well...would you? Chances are you would at least hesitate a moment and wonder, "What's the catch?"

Such is the predicament in which I find myself now that I've confronted the new flagship sedan from Hyundai, the XG300. This is a five-passenger midsize sedan ripe with luxuries. It looks virtually identical to Lincoln's $40,000 LS sport sedan. It's even reasonably spirited with a 192-horsepower V-6.

And the catch? Well, the darn thing costs only $23,615. That's bottom line; as-tested, the whole banana. That's thousands less than Hyundai's stalwart Japanese and European rivals — cars like Camry, Accord, Maxima, Passat, and A4, just to name a handful. So here's this relative stranger, then, handing out what looks like free money. Should you take it?

Merit payback?

In all fairness, the XG300 deserves to be evaluated on its own merits. That means disregarding Hyundai's many years of iffy reputation. For a lot of folks, this South Korean upstart has always represented the bottom-dollar-bare-minimum option in vehicles. Folks who were lured in the 1980s and '90s by the Excel econocar because it cost under $10,000 soon learned to their chagrin that you get what you pay for. Hyundai's once-execrable, now-extinct Excel is irrelevant to an evaluation of the XG300 so many years later. Still, it's only fair to ask: what do you get when you pay less than twenty-four grand for Hyundai's new flagship?

You review the '02 XG300  If a stranger handed you a $100 bill and said, "Just take it," well...would you? Chances are you would at least hesitate a moment and wonder, "What's the catch?" Such is the predicament in which I find myself now that I've confronted the new flagship sedan from Hyundai, the XG300. This is a five-passenger midsize sedan ripe with luxuries. It looks virtually identical to Lincoln's $40,000 LS sport sedan. It's even reasonably spirited with a 192-horsepower V-6. And the catch? Well, the darn thing costs only $23,615. That's bottom line; as-tested, the whole banana. That's thousands less than Hyundai's stalwart Japanese and European rivals — cars like Camry, Accord, Maxima, Passat, and A4, just to name a handful. So here's this relative stranger, then, handing out what looks like free money. Should you take it?Merit payback? 2001 Hyundai XG300 interiorEnlarge PhotoIn all fairness, the XG300 deserves to be evaluated on its own merits. That means disregarding Hyundai's many years of iffy reputation. For a lot of folks, this South Korean upstart has always represented the bottom-dollar-bare-minimum option in vehicles. Folks who were lured in the 1980s and '90s by the Excel econocar because it cost under $10,000 soon learned to their chagrin that you get what you pay for. Hyundai's once-execrable, now-extinct Excel is irrelevant to an evaluation of the XG300 so many years later. Still, it's only fair to ask: what do you get when you pay less than twenty-four grand for Hyundai's new flagship? You review the '02 XG300 If a stranger handed you a $100 bill and said, "Just take it," well...would you? Chances are you would at least hesitate a moment and wonder, "What's the catch?" Such is the predicament in which I find myself now that I've confronted the new flagship ...