Hyundai Repair: scheduled maintenance -are they reallly necessary??, maintenance recommendations, terrific holiday

Question
Hello-

Hoping you can settle a general curiosity I have about scheduled maintenance concerning my Elantra 05. I just had the car inspected and everything seems fine. The man at the counter that rang me up for the sale of the inspection suggested that I do a tire rotation, and a radiator flush..

I've had the car for close to 2 years and recently needed my back brakes changed (new rotors and pads unfortunately due to me procrastinating alittle too long to just handle it when I should have).. Other than that, no problems with the car... I suppose my ultimate question is that -are these scheduled maintenance issues really necessary ? does my radiator really need to be flushed before the winter... the heat in the car seems proficient to say the least, I could understand having the tires rotated and furthermore understand that the dealership is a business and will definately recommend anything they can think of that you may need to handle as a measure of precaution to the driver and a revenue builder for the dealership.. So, is another reason why they recommend these scheduled maintenance issues because the Elantra although dependable thus far -is an inexpensive car to buy.. therefore containing cheap parts overall that need the proper TLC in order to make sure the car runs.. I am not bashing Hyundai.. just want some clarification I suppose.. truly am not complaining that the car is inexpensive and I suppose if I wanted to spend more money I could've sank it into a high priced Lexus which is not like me to do so..

Any info would be great and have a terrific holiday!

Greg Tsaknakis

Answer
Hi, Greg.  You'll find that most well-run dealerships service departments and other shops will be knowledgeable about the maintenance recommendations for your vehicle and make recommendations to you accordingly.  Most of the recommendations have little to do with the overall build quality of the vehicle, and I find the '05 to be a quite well made vehicle.  

Hyundai recommends that the cooling system be serviced every two years or 30,000 miles, whichever comes first.  I don't personally believe in changing coolant based on time, but coolant does deteriorate over time.  If it becomes too acidic or looses too much of its lubricative properties, you can have future cooling system problems.  Hence the recommendation to drain and refill the cooling system.  Per Hyundai's recommendation, you don't need an entire flush, but you should do a drain and fill.

I find tire rotation to be a matter of personal preference and vehicle dynamics.  Some front drive cars will wear the rear tires unevenly.  In those cases, the flat spots on the rear tires and the constant load on the front tires will tend to wear both the front and rear tires about twice as fast as if they'd been rotated.  On my own personal rear drive vehicles, I had never rotated tires except to always install the new tires on the rear when I purchased new tires in order to get maximum traction.  But my first front drive car exhibited exactly the characteristics I mentioned above.  So I now rotate my tires every 7500 miles as recommended.  I haven't seen this problem occur on your model Elantra, so I suspect the only consequence of not rotating the tires on this car is that the front tires will wear out much faster than the rear.