The ONLY Gas Car I'll EVER Review

So while yes, i am reviewing a gas car today, its purely because i want you guys to understand where im coming from what ive been driving for the past seven years and hopefully thatll make. You understand why even the most boring tesla is a major upgrade for me. So for the one and only gas car review were talking about the hyundai sonata from 2007., we have a lighter grayish interior with a white exterior, and you can clearly see that the paint has seen better days for sure, but its cosmetic things we dont care a Whole lot about that, especially considering a whole lot of miles on this car. It was originally my parents. They were not even the first owners of this vehicle, but then they sold it to my sister and then sold it to me, using basically what i had left in college funds. But this vehicle has been on the road. A lot were currently sitting at over 187 and a half thousand miles on the odometer and im happy to report that my parents after buying this vehicle, bought two more hyundais because of their pleasant experience with them. You know, as far as gas cars go. This is some of the more reliable ones you can get out of it, so i dont know publicly what theyre known for they may be rocking negative stigmas for certain issues, but the engine, the transmission and everything has been pretty reliable. No major issues with head, gaskets or shifters, or anything like that, a few issues with the starter in the past but for the most part, a very reliable engine, although not a very quick one, theres, definitely some times where im trying to catch up with traffic.

On the freeway and it kind of struggles to just keep up with how quickly i put my foot on the gas, so even the slowest tesla will absolutely be an upgrade for me, but while it lacks in performance, it makes up for in efficiency, which of course, Is something i care a lot about given im interested in making the switch to an electric vehicle and im planning on buying the most efficient ev on the market right now, but as far as gas cars go, this one is pretty dang good. This vehicle sports around a 16 to 17 gallon tank and when youre driving at highway speeds, it is able to just sip fuel at a very, very small amount. To the point that, if i maintain a consistent speed and weve done this with multiple thousand mile road trips, we can actually get close to 500 miles on a single tank. Theres people online that have said theyve taken this exact model and gone over 500 miles. But its sketchy, because you have to get really really close to empty and were usually not that dangerous, but it does have a fairly accurate range. Estimator and thatll update based on the mileage youre getting and when were on those big road trips. And we fill it up with gas after weve been driving at a consistent speed for a long time. The car will estimate that well get around 470 miles on a single tank, so thats, something no tesla can actually beat this car with is just trip time.

So, like you can get to your destination in record speeds, which my parents have complimented me on with our road trips up to their house or relatives, places out of state ill tell them what time were leaving and then they see when i arrive and theyre like Man, you must have been driving fast and im like nah. We just kind of ate our food in the car and didnt need to stop for gas. All that often so very impressed with the range very impressed with the efficiency of course, theres other gas cars out there that get faster. But this was, you know, not a hybrid and frankly, just looking at the exterior of the vehicle, its a pretty aerodynamic design not drastically different from the model. 3 were going to be getting in terms of general shape. It is actually a tad bit larger than the model 3, though pretty much in every dimension, its like an inch taller, a couple inches longer and i think even a little bit wider. But i have sat and driven in model 3s before and they still feel a lot more roomy on the inside. This one just has a bit more bulk and, of course, not a glass roof which just makes you feel a little bit more claustrophobic. But the one thing that me as well as my parents have always applauded hyundai for is the insane size of the trunks, while theres no frunk on this vehicle, they do have a ton of space in the back.

In fact, if you compare it directly to the model 3 trunk, i think this one is a little bit bigger, but the compromise is that when you fold down the second row, there is a very narrow gap to access things in the back. So if you are not seating, a lot of people and youre just folding down the second row, then youre kind of limited with how much you can actually take up in the back seats thats. One improvement that i noticed with the model 3. When i checked one out is that the second row has a much wider gap between the cabin and the trunk plus the model 3 can make up for that slightly smaller trunk with a full size frunk, not to mention that a lot of the storage space in The sonata trunk is taken up with a spare tire model. 3 doesnt have that. So you could look at that as a win for the sonata and a slight cargo advantage for the model 3.. So you win some. You lose some but overall, having driven large pickup trucks in the past, both an f 150 and an f 350 very regularly for my old job at a manton ranch. I am not a fan of driving big trucks or larger vehicles. I wouldnt mind a higher ride. Height that doesnt bother me so much, but what i love about this car is just how easy it is to navigate the turning radius is pretty good and its easy to fit it into narrow parking spaces, and you get a good idea of visibility through the windshield.

The rear view glass as well is pretty easy to see through with a very large mirror, and the side mirrors are quite big as well, so visibility is pretty great for this vehicle and ive, never accidentally bumped into anything or slightly scratched another car. In the seven years of driving it, so i appreciate its agility and ease of driving its not like youre driving a big tank. Some people may prefer that feeling, but i personally really like having a smaller car, because it makes parking like miles miles easier than it is for big pickup trucks or even some full size, suvs, so thats, where a lot of the positives lie for this car, where I have to leave a lot of negatives, though, is the interior, okay, its very basic and its very classic and probably pretty standard for 2007.? You know this car retailed for around 18 000 before dealer markups when it was new. So the fact that we were able to get this car for four figures is pretty amazing, considering how reliable its been, how efficient its been, but obviously its relying a lot on cloth interiors, which i always thought got a bit more hate than they deserved. But as you can tell its very hard to keep these clean compared to vegan leather or real leather, i was never a fan how, with fake leather, it was really easy in the summers for your legs to get kind of stuck to the seats and it kind Of hurt to peel them off, but hopefully with the next car well have pre cooling, so the car wont get too hot on the inside anyway, but weve had the hvac go out many many times on this vehicle theres a leak somewhere inside and basically we have To recharge the air conditioning once every year and a half to two years, there were several summers where it was just not working very well at all, and we got a quote from the car repair guys and they said that it was gon na cost.

Like eight hundred to replace the ac system so that it doesnt leak and it only costs like 20 or 30 bucks to recharge the ac system, so because we werent convinced we were gon na have this car for much longer. We just decided lets, use the band aid approach to fixing the ac and not do a permanent solution, because something else could go wrong with the car by then or we may not even have it and also keep in mind theres a lot of complaints. I have with this vehicle, but its not that im necessarily searching for a solution. Some of you guys may have suggestions or like drew. You can simply do this to fix it. I know most of this stuff is probably fixable its just im, not that interested, because i dont plan on using this car very much in the future. I dont really want to keep using it, especially once a teslas in our lives, but by far the biggest complaint for me and my wife in this interior is that because this was basically made pre smartphone, like the iphone had just launched when they built this car. Its really not aged very well for one theres, basically, a radio and a cd player, somehow even back in 2007. This car did not have a headphone jack to plug into your ipod or definitely any modern day smartphones and, of course it doesnt have bluetooth either, which means that we have to use this aftermarket accessory called the bluetooth to fm transmitter where, basically, this connects to your Phone via bluetooth and then transmits your audio signal to an fm radio station which you then tune into, and it doesnt really work that well, we live in a pretty rural area so for the most part around where we live, it works fine.

But whenever you go on a road trip, you start interfering with all of these different radio signals and weve tried, changing it to all kind of vacant stations, but no matter when we go on a big road trip, we always run into scenarios where it starts getting Interference and then we cant listen to our music, so oftentimes well just end up listening to the phone speakers, because the 13 pro max actually has pretty decent speakers, but its not a great solution and its a bummer, because the sound system in this car is surprisingly Good very low bass gets pretty loud and remains clear for such a cheap car im genuinely impressed with the sound system in here, but the connectivity is just awful. Of course, this was pre displays so theres, no gps in this car, theres, no backup camera or anything like that, its pretty old. So you dont get those modern day luxuries, like carplay or bluetooth, or even a headphone jack, so im very much looking forward to having a car that just has bluetooth built in that will solve like 99 of our complaints. But the one thing that hasnt aged very well in these vehicles is a lot of latches and handles and stuff like this little center console latch is busted so oftentimes when you accelerate really quickly or youre going uphill. It will pop up – and it wont fold back unless you manually, push it back down and keep your arm on it.

If i dont keep my arm on it, then just the natural driving around of the vehicle itll, naturally pop up again also on many drives. This thing will just pop open all by itself without me pressing the button. I guess this latch has just weakened over time, because if the car hits a certain bump ill be going 70 miles down the freeway and ill see this thing flapping around. So that has not aged super well also, the lock and unlock buttons dont work very well on the key fob anymore. At first i thought the battery was dead, but the trunk button and the panic button on the back still work, but essentially what that means is every time we want to lock or unlock the car. We have to do it. The uh old fashioned way, just with the regular key and theres only one keyhole on the whole car. So often my wife or friends are waiting to get in the car because its locked and they have to wait until i come here and uh, either lock or unlock it for everybody and ive tried to rip this apart and get the buttons working again. But uh. No success there also the buttons on this vehicle have not aged very well for the media controls or the cruise control like. I know some people hate on tesla because everything has to go through the display and they feel like thats, dangerous or annoying im more.

The person thats annoyed by buttons and knobs, because at least in my car, as well as my dads tacoma, like theres, a lot of issues that happens with buttons and knobs theres volume buttons directly on the steering wheel. And sometimes when i press the up volume. It goes down and when i press the down volume itll go up like they somehow got their wires crossed. I dont know why. But we end up just controlling the volume straight off the phone, because that works more reliably, but same kind of situation with the cruise control ive played with it so many times and tried to figure out doesnt want me to hold it and then tap it, and That results in different reactions, but no even when i hold down or when i lightly tap the buttons there are still times when im trying to set the cruise control and it doesnt set so oftentimes ill end up pressing the button over and over again to try To get it to activate and theres supposed to be an accelerate button up here. So if im on cruise control – and i want to increase my speed a little bit im supposed to be able to either tap that or hold that, but no matter what i do. Oftentimes, it will just turn off other times. It will accelerate its, not reliable, so thats. Why im not really in love with buttons and knobs on interiors, because they havent worked well for me anyway, i will give them credit its a fairly simple design, though its not very complicated and its pretty user friendly.

As far as cars go, ive seen a lot more complicated ones, im not really a fan of having you know a gear, shifter and the parking brake down. Here, though, i would rather that be storage space, but that may just be because ive seen the model 3 and i know its possible to have all of your controls up more closer to the steering wheel, but its not over car stuff. You know, after about 15 years of ownership, you start to expect these kinds of issues. The only weird thing i would say about the button layout is that other than the esc off button theres a bunch of like blank ones that have nothing on them and thats, probably because of manufacturing efficiency, maybe on more luxury trims. They have other buttons there, but yeah theres, just like three useless buttons, underneath the blinker and light controls which have no purpose. I dont know why. Theyre there, the hydraulic lever for the trunk also has stopped working, so its actually really really heavy to try to open the trunk, because it is a massive opening back there. So, while its easy to load stuff in the back its hard to kind of get that door open and it slams really hard when you close it and im sure thats, probably an easy solution. But again i feel like were chanting it. Every time we go on a road trip with this car because it has so many miles on it and ive read that a lot of sonatas start to break down around the 200 000 mile mark.

So i dont want to spend too much money on this vehicle. Only for some major flaw for it to break after we invest some money in it, but i am very impressed with how the windshield glass has held up like, despite all of the thousands of miles weve driven on it. Weve never had the windshield crack after seven years of ownership, which feels bizarre, like i feel lucky, considering how most people have at least a couple windshield replacements within a decade. However, one thing that broke several years ago that i dont notice so much anymore, is that even if theres, no one in the passenger seat, the passenger seat belt light will turn on. So the sensor that monitors, if someone is sitting in the front seat, is no longer working. I guess because if im driving the car by myself and my wifes not here that light, keeps blinking and its like hey, you know your passenger doesnt have their seat belt. On and its like, no ones there, car and theres no way to turn that off. So it just kind of blinks all the time. But luckily my wife is in the car, mostly so shes buckled up and that light doesnt have to go off too often, but theres really not that many luxury features in here i mean theres, no heated seats of any kind. So thats. Definitely something were looking forward to in our next car and also a more magnetic approach to these sun visors, which have broken on the past when my sister owned it.

But luckily my brother in law seemed to have keep these things together, so theyre still working. It does also have the handles which make it easier for when you have older people getting in the car, which we do often give rides to older people in our family, and they like having those handles. The model 3 wont have that so theres a downgrade here and there, but other than that, its been a pretty great gas car for us, considering the price was pretty low and there hasnt been any major issues with the engine. Just of course, standard oil changes, brake pad replacements, smog checks and the ever growing cost of gasoline. So, while gas stations are quick, they are annoying because of how many steps are up one. You got your button because the can just cant be open because the car doesnt know where it is. When youve got a lid form of payment to swipe, and then you got ta enter code. Typically after that. Remove the nozzle pick. What type of chip is and then try to get the handle locked in the proper place, assuming you dont spill gas on yourself, so theres, a lot of extra steps involved and, of course, costs a lot, especially here, not a very clean, elegant setup. This is actually cheap Music. Someone in idaho was like so simply because of the time it was made and the fact that it runs on gasoline is why were planning on replacing it and upgrading to the model 3.

. I hope you guys understand why were so excited now, based on the car that weve currently had for years, and i promise never again, will i ever review a gas car. This was the last time i dont want to do it again, because i dont want to own another gas car. I want to keep driving evs and i hope that all the other car reviews from here on out will be all 100 battery powered. Thank you all for watching and, of course, thanks to all of our patreon supporters for kicking in an extra couple of bucks every month to support this channel directly.