Hyundai Problems

You could upgrade to a more-powerful high-beam halogen globe but it's a common problem as many Asian makes focus on low-beam performance because their countries are mostly urban. So they use Xenon gas for HID low beams but do not bother to upgrade the high beam from halogen.

I recently drove an Elantra and was pleasantly surprised, because the original drove quite badly. The value is good on the Trophy, too.

There is also a petrol-engined Santa Fe. The crossover point for getting the money back on diesel power is about 30,000km a year.

You will struggle for space in a CX-5 as it's smaller than the CX-7. I would go for a Hyundai Santa Fe, which gets The Tick with seven seats, quality, a five-year warranty and lifetime capped-price service costs.

For your specific needs, including serious outback travel, I would also go for a Toyota. But the discussion was about regular compact family cars and in that class the Koreans are ahead of all but the Mazda3.

Hyundai will have a prestige flagship, the Genesis, in showrooms soon from about $60,000 and it's getting great reviews overseas. Sadly, there is no impartial rating of road noise because it varies so much with tyre brands and the actual road surface.

The Forester has been a top choice but these days I would rate it behind the Hyundai ix35 and Kia Sportage for class and value. And the best car in that class is now the Mazda CX-5.

When the Japanese brands slashed development spending through the global financial crisis, the Koreans spent more to improve their cabin quality, engines, gearboxes and everything else. Kia and Hyundai now also have specialist engineers who tune their suspensions just for Australia. They also lead on warranty and service costs, for a compelling overall package on cars like the Hyundai i30 and Kia Proceed.

A globe upgrade is always good with a quality brand like Philips. However, I would really do the homework before trying an HID conversion as factory units involve a lot of engineering work.