Memes

They are still leaps and bounds better than other manufacturers. 3 of the 4 major Japanese manufacturers put out quality. Nissan used to a while back but really lost their way. Despite the implied monopolization aspects I was excited when i heard honda was going to acquire nissan but then disappointed to hear that merger fell through.

Their power trains. Engines are very important and when you cut costs in manufacturing it lowers the quality and the standards of quality on crucial parts of the engine. Hyundai had a class action lawsuit that involved about a dozen different vehicle models over a 15 year period where due to a casting flaw in the engine block it was common for the engines to consume/burn oil even with exceptional maintenance and proper oil change intervals of 3000 miles and this resulted in the crank case being starved of oil and when the crankshaft doesnt have enough oil to build pressure and send it through the valleys built into the block and cylinder head and drip back down through the valves and adequately lubricate all those running parts then the rod bearings which are thin slivers of metal between the crank shaft and the connecting rods which connect to the piston they end up getting small pieces of metal between them which scratches these bearings and loosens them and creates a very loud knocking sound that will now be permanent even if you were to top new oil into the engine immediately once it starts knocking from the bottom end the engine is cooked. Go to any junk yard and you will find many hyundais that were effected by this issue (that hyundai literally attempted to sweep under the rug hoping it would go away without doing anything to resolve the issue because it would have been to expensive to redesign these engines techs were being instructed by hyundai to tell owners of their vehicles that burning 2 or 3 quarts of oil every 1000 miles was “within specifications” it was pretty damn absurd) in greater numbers than any other engine subvarients of other manufacturers. It gave hyundai/kia/genesis a really bad name in the automotive industry for years and that mistrust and dislike of Hyundai as a brand still persists today.
Granted electric cars are an entirely different animal i would still much rather spend my money on a brand that has shown a commitment to producing a quality product that lasts. One thing toyota does right is they assume people will neglect to maintain their vehicles so they over engineer their vehicles so that they will last longer under extreme operating conditions than they should. This is why it is so common to see toyotas from the 90’s and early 00’s still on the road today. Even if a toyota has some oil consumption issues As long as you keep toping the oil off it won’t be an issue. And when i say oil consumption issues i mean on a 30+ year old engine with 200-300 or more miles on it maybe burning one quart every 2000/3000 miles but no more than one quart per 1000 miles. Anything beyond 1 quart per 1000 miles is ridiculous and usually a symptom of a bad oil leak or sludged piston rings and means you need an engine rebuild or you can try an engine flush. (bG fluids engine restorstion flush kit is $350 for the kit but it works and is quite amazing from what i have seem) there are cheaper enfine flush products. One thing you can do is just mix 20% marvel mystery oil into each oil change untill you notice a reduction in oil consumption but with tbe hyundai thing this wouldn't fix the underlying issue which was caused by a poorly manufactured engine block.