Are Elantras prone to oil consumption? Other known issues?

My brother is looking at a 2013 GLS.  Auto trans. 123K. Car looks good. 
 

He's in CA, and is not mechanically inclined. He need some decent reliable transportation. Drives less than 10K per year. 
 

His mechanic says these cars are prone to oil consumption. I never heard that. (And don't have issues with my 2015). 
 

Thoughts?  Other known issues?

These were the cars that either died at 50k or didn't. It should be a 1.8L and if s a 123k it's past the normal issues those had. Now it's just going to be an older car with likely deferred maintenance. 

In reply to bobzilla :

Thanks. I was hoping you'd check in. 

I yield to the knowledge of Bob.  

From a practicality stand point.  I'll figure he's not gonna be diligent about checking the oil.  Instead, I would recommend one un-opened quart bottle of oil be put into the trunk.  Instruct him that if the oil light ever comes on, stop IMMEDIATELY and put in the entire quart of oil and then call you.  Otherwise, push him for a staunch schedule of 3k-5k changes and he'll likely never go low enough to trigger the oil light.  

I like these Elantras though I have never owned one.  I find them easy to recommend. 

I think his mechanic does not want to work on it.  ("flat-rater")

Find a mechanic that loves cars.

If it passes a compression and leakdown test, You could do an oil analysis?

It more often depends on how it was taken care of, except for if it has a funky PCV design (which can be managed).

In the end if performance does not suffer and it is not coking up the back of the intake valves or killing spark plugs, what's a little oil consumption? (as long as you are not killing mosquitos)

In reply to bentwrench :

My Rio burns abou a quart in 3500 miles. Granted that includes track time at WOT as well so I'm not exactly concerned that a 100k mile 9 year old car burns a quart between oil changes while gettuing beat on. 

Just to add context, this is probably the news where the mechanic got his info from: https://www.consumerreports.org/car-recalls-defects/hyundai-elantra-kona-veloster-recalled-due-to-engine-problems-a1121205321/

While it's not the end-all-and-be-all carcomplaints.com is a decent starting point for problems and they rate the 2013 poorly

https://m.carcomplaints.com/Hyundai/Elantra/2013/

As a counterpoint, I just looked back at that story of the million mile Elantra from a couple of years ago and it turns out that's a 2013.  So...

rslifkin said:

As a counterpoint, I just looked back at that story of the million mile Elantra from a couple of years ago and it turns out that's a 2013.  So...

True and really a slight alignment problem, bad OEM brake pads and possibly needing to check the oil wouldn't phase me.

But someone not mechanically inclined? Maybe

My brother is not mechanically inclined (and that's a little concern), but he is not foolish. He is a smart grown man who is perfectly capable of managing minor repair maintenance schedules as instructed   (although he will probably hire someone to do the actual work)

I don't mind telling him he should check the dipstick semi-regularly. 

I don't know about oil consumption, but I saw a number of these things fling connecting rods through the block for no apparent reason. Our sales department stopped doing UVIs and reselling them used for a good long while, after 4 or 5 of them randomly blew up in a year's time. All different mileages, no apparent signs of abuse, customer's were properly servicing and then, bam, window in the block. We also had a couple pushed in our driveway that we hadn't sold or ever serviced, where the customer was going down the road and it happened to explode right in front of our dealership, so it got foisted on us.

Not caused by water ingestion?

In reply to bentwrench :

no, the 1.8 had a weird production issue that was literally random. Theory was a bad batch of rods with poor metallurgy which was why there was never any warning. 

In reply to bobzilla :

Those weren't the ones where they did a poor job of cleaning during the assembly process?

Yes they were

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

In reply to bobzilla :

Those weren't the ones where they did a poor job of cleaning during the assembly process?

I thought that was the Theta?

I have a habit of changing cars as often as kids change their underwear, but I had a 2013 Elantra couple that I actually kept for a while.  Mine was a 6spd and I put something like 70k miles on it.  I bought it with about 70k and sold it at 140k, IIRC.  I never had a single issue with the car.  No oil consumption, no CEL, no brake issues.  Nothing.  It was rock solid and got 30+mpg without trying too hard.  It also had a huge interior for the size of the car, especially the back seat and trunk.  The only thing I didn't like was the suspension wasn't the best set up for sporty driving, but most people would never notice.  I'm a huge fan of the car.

In reply to SKJSS (formerly Klayfish) :

That's my experience as well with my 2015.

My brother bought the car. We shall see how it all works out. 
 

Thank you all for your help.