It's "Hyundai" Like "Sunday"

It's "Hyundai" --- like "Sunday", bub. That's how the new 2009 Super Bowl Sunday ad (the one with the car maker CEOs yelling) for the Hyundai Genesis presents the brand. More than a touch of smart-mouth bravado there delivered by Jeff Bridges. I like it. It takes what Americans may see as a foreign hard to pronounce name and saying it ain't really hard to pronounce at all. It should roll off your tongue like the most easy-going day of the week. (View it here...it's the second video down)

The rest of the ad reminds me of the old "Sylvania Beat Sony Again" TV spots, but on steroids.

I didn't know that the Genesis won the "North American Car of the Year" Award until seeing this commercial. I didn't know what the hell was a "North American Car of the Year" Award until visiting this site. Its not one of those given out by magazines. It only takes into consideration new models and those models with substantial changes in 2009. The commercial pokes fun at BMW and Lexus, but Lexus didn't even have a model that qualified for the award this year and BMW only had the 1 series in the running. Still it beat the new Audi A4 and Cadillac CTS

Is this impressive? Of course. This is the first time a Korean car has won this award. Maybe it's not as ground breaking as a black man becoming our president, but it still ground breaking.

10,000 miles on the old Elantra

Odometer: 10045 mile
MPG: 28.6

I have reached the 10,000 mile milestone.
Took about 15 months. I am usually 90% street vs 10% highway driving. My work commute is hella short and sometimes I take my bike instead, so that's why I am not the average 10k a year driver. The MPG figure above is higher than my avg because of extra freeway driving I did over the holidays.

So what has been going on?
1. Right front mudguard got knocked crooked --probably during a storm.
2. I found some scratches on the right side rear door, not sure where they came from
3. Haven't washed it in a while...just let the rain do it. Though I think I better wax it soon to help the clearcoat last longer.
4. This is not a new issue, but at certain gas stations, the pumps won't stay "auto-on". It stops pumping as soon as I can my hand off of it. I need really hold it in there. I've had problems like this on a rented Mustang, but none of my older cars. I wonder if newer cars are using a cheaper pump interface than older cars.
5. The interior: I expected to be dirtier and more scratched at this age, because the material shows dirt easily, but it isn't too bad.
6. I seem to get a lot of condensation after using the air conditioning to defog my front windshield. I don't know if it is coming from the AC or humid air (it was raining) is coming from outside.

Otherwise the car is about the same as it was at 5000 miles. And I hope it stays that way for a long, long time.