Faults:

I am going to precurse this segment with the fact that this car was NOT looked after well before we got it. Burn mark the size of a fist on the TOP of the hood, miscoloured touch up paint all along the side, ruined spark plugs and clutch, no antenna, and the entire underside has been scraped worse than the curb at a nursing home. The car ORIGINALLY came with an undercarriage plate, and it has been completely demolished by the previous owner.

However, in the ~113,000km this car has been driven since I purchased it, we replaced the spark plugs with Iridiums a week in, the door handle, the front seatbelts and the clutch, and have had no problems since.

Has had an oil leak since day one, but only a light one and we have only gone through about 20L of oil plus about 3 services worth of changes in 4 years.

General Comments:

Okay, as mentioned in the problem section, was worth the $500 we paid for it. I learnt how to drive in this thing, and it was only expected to last me till my P's, but this thing has surpassed expectations in every way.

I live in a mountainous regional area, and the relatively high clearance on this car means that with the right angle of attack, you can get it just about anywhere, AND it still matches my 2009 Corolla for fuel efficiency.

Front wheel drive, but I've gotten places in this car that minor four wheel drives have struggled. It's traversed heavy mud, gravel at up to ~60km/hr, about 30cm of snow uphill and down, keeps cool in the heat and warm in the cold.

The interior is as interesting as a biscuit tin full of sewing equipment, but the combined low cost and high traversability makes its real selling point the freedom of being able to do just about anything you want with it, so it's easy to look past the dull seats and dash.

On performance, when I got this thing I loaded in a few tanks mixed with injector cleaner, topped up all the liquids to full, ran through the engine bay with a wire brush and a dream, and haven't had problems since. It's lightweight and it packs enough punch that with the right driver and a good double clutching you can overtake, match speed with, or lag behind anything, flat or uphill, without a problem.

When more than 3 people plus luggage are in, this car can struggle with steeper hills, but at 4,000rpm, the slight hole in the muffler makes all those worries disappear. Never had to go higher than 4,500rpm for any reason other than fun, and I've toughed some STEEP hills.

If you get one of these things in better condition than mine, it'll get you wherever you want to go with absolutely NONE of the style. I foresee a good 450,000km+ on this, and I'm gonna love every kilometer of it.

Faults:

This model is called the Hyundai Avante in Korea.

I have purchased this car as used car, at 600,000KRW (approximately 580USD / 400EUR). It was about to be scrapped, but someone listed it on the board of open-market.

The domestic (in Korea) versions are very vulnerable to ust, because they are not galvanized with zinc. Mine is also suffering from rusting of the rear wheelhouse and side-seal. This is chronic in domestic Korean cars manufactured before 2009.

Nevertheless, it certainly is value for money. The only problem that required maintenance was one CV-joint, so I replaced it.

Except for this, no problem was caused at all, the engine is so reliable and economic (average consumption is around 14KPL).

Just for the maintenance, I replaced the rocker arm gasket and trivial parts.

General Comments:

Since it has got a lean-burn engine (I think this lean-burn system engine is not equipped for the export models), well this can make the movement quite sluggish when the system is on, but in urban areas, it isn't really annoying. When driving on the motorway, except for the up-hill sections, or sudden acceleration, the power is enough.

The only drawback is the rust problem (only for the domestic Korean models).

Except for this, this J2 Lantra (Elantra/Avante) is the perfect car still, nowadays. The parts are very cheap, easy to obtain and fix. The design of this car is still not that old-fashioned.