While entertaining my girlfriends sister and family, my 2005 Hyundai Elantra suddenly stopped running, and locked in second gear. It had been losing power regularly, and Hyundai said there was nothing they could do about it, as they did not see anything wrong. The car would rev extremely hard while in second and third gear, but it would not move any faster. After it locked up, it was towed by aaa to a dealership, because Hyundai improperly told my girlfriend that my roadside assistance was invalid ( it was not). The car had 26,000 miles on it at the time. After the dealership looked at it, the said that the clutch pad had burned up, which, had fused the gear box, and caused the car to lock up. They stated that the clutch pad was not covered under there warranty, as the damage was a result of "riding the clutch" I have been driving manual transmissions for 34 years, and have never ridden the clutch. After numerous complaints to Hyundai, both to the dealership and to Hyundai usa, I was told that I was responsible for the repair costs. To the tune of $3500!!! they had my car for over 2 weeks, and refused to give me a loner, saying since it was not a warranty issue, they were not required to give me one. This was after Hyundai usa had told me specifically that the clutch pad was under warranty and that I would get a loner while it was repaired. I was unable to get to work for over a week, which cost me a significant financial problem, not to mention having to pay $3,500 out of my pocket. This is a defective transmission, as I know 4 other people who have had exactly the same issue with their cars, and in all cases all Hyundai would do was say they were riding the clutch, and make them pay for repairs. An outside mechanic said he had talked to a Hyundai mechanic, and was told Hyundai knew about the problem, and had failed to notify owners of it, that they had refused to replace any transmissions and in fact they had changed their warranty enough to make it vague.

- Rutland, VT, USA