It's all about safety!

Author's Rating:

Pros: This car saved my life..read full review.

Cons: A/C belt sqeaks.

The Bottom Line: 
Great price for a great car!

Author's Review
My husband and I purchased the Hyundai Elantra mostly for it's reasonable price. We liked the fact that it looked good and certain features like Air Conditioning and power windows/mirrors were standard. We had our Elantra for about a year when last week we were hit nearly head on by a man who passed out at the wheel and came into our lane from the opposite direction.

Not only did our dash airbags spring into action, but because the collision was slightly more on the driver side of the front, my husbands side airbag deployed as well. Even though the car was totaled, we could see from the crumpling of the hood that it withstood much more damage than it should have. Considering that our combined speed at impact was about 65mph, my husband would have been killed quite easily if not for the solid construction of this car. I would highly recommend this car to anyone who can't afford a Honda. Hahaha. We did have a few minor issues, like the belt for the A/C squeaked and a few of the little plastic pieces inside the car would break easily, but other than that...it was a good car and we are sad that it met such an untimely demise.
**UPDATE**
One of the things that made owning our Hyundai such a pleasure, was that it was pretty affordable to fuel. We took three cross country trips (from Oregon to Mississippi) and we averaged about 32MPG. In town, we averaged around 28.
The interior was about what you would expect in the $12,000. range, nothing outstanding, mostly neutral shades of cloth. I really liked the carpeting though, it seemed to be of pretty good quality.
When I mentioned the plastic pieces breaking inside the car, what I meant was the little clasps that hold the sun visors in place broke, it still was able to hold itself in place, but it was looked a bit chintzy. The decorative plastic ring around the shifter also wore off about eight months into our ownership. We could have superglued them back into place quite easily though. The only real complaint I ever had about the interior was that the center console, while big enough to store cd's and other "car stuff" wasn't elongated enough to allow the driver or passenger to easily rest their arms on. All the driver controls were easily reached though, and operating the radio or heating system was very easy.
During our ownership, we only had a few minor issues with the car like a spark plug went out, headlight went out (we managed to replace the headlight ourselves, but you have to literally remove the battery to get to it). I was a bit surprised that the spark plug wasn't covered in the "Bumper to Bumper warranty" that Hyundai prides itself on. With regard to the A/C belt squeaking, it was intermittent. Every 30 seconds or so we heard a muffled squeal (not loud enough to bother the average person though). We had it tightend up a few times, but it never went away. Somehow though, I think it was more the fault of the dealership we took it to. They seemed a bit on the incompetent side.
Our Hyundai was a four door sedan (Elantra GLS) but it always felt like driving a sports car. It handled great, accelerated quickly and smoothly and going around curves was effortless. I was surprised at how un-sedanish it felt. If you are looking at cars in this price range, check out the Hyundai Elantra. You'll probably get more for your money considering some of the perks come stadard like power windows, A/C, radio w/tape player.