Hyundai Problems

The only reason to go European with that budget is to buy a badge, as the Asian cars do the job and are surprisingly classy with great warranty. Once again, I'd send you first to Kia to check out the Sportage.

The Tucson gets The Tick from me and rates above the X-Trail, but my first choice is the all-new Kia Sportage.

The Golf is a better car and the advantage for the Hyundai is a longer warranty. Both get The Tick. My pick is the car I prefer to drive, which is the VW.

Both get The Tick from me but I rate the Sportage as best in the compact SUV class today and that means it would be my pick. As for the ride, you are being misled — I find it's a great drive in all conditions thanks to local tuning by suspension guru Graeme Gambold.

You left out my choice, which is the Kia Sportage.

The i40 is a good choice; it ticks most of the boxes. It’s well equipped, well built, reliable and durable. You could also look at wagons like the VW Passat, Ford Mondeo and Mazda 6, but it’s hard to go past the i40.

Hyundai spokesman Bill Thomas replies on behalf of South Korean brands: "Hyundai uses only the finest grades of steel in the construction of its cars — in fact, we are the only car maker on earth that makes its own steel, so we can control its quality to very fine tolerances. It's not thinner or lighter, it's just very high quality. The new Elantra, for example, uses 53 per cent advanced ultra-high-strength steel in its body construction, which makes it 30 per cent stiffer than the model it replaces. It's also worth noting that Hyundai uses a huge amount of Australian iron ore in the construction of our steel, from Western Australia, so there's a bit of Australia in all of our cars."

In many cars today the engine management settings are biased to economy and low emissions and this is what makes them slow to respond. You should try the Sport mode in your Genesis as I'm certain that will give you the response you crave.

Drive the VW Golf to calibrate yourself with the best car in the class, but go ahead and buy the Hyundai because it's the modern-day Corolla and definitely gets The Tick from me.