By Chio He-suk

Hyundai Motor Co's compact car Avante, known as the Elantra in overseas markets, was included on the U.S. magazine Consumer Reports' list for the third consecutive year.

In its April issue, the magazine selected the Avante among the nine most reliable small cars.

The Avante was also among the six small vehicles recommended by the magazine from the list of the nine most reliable models.

In addition to the Avante, the Hyundai Tucson and Kia Motors Corp's Sportage were among the six small sport utility vehicles deemed most reliable by the magazine.

Both vehicles were also recommended by Consumer Reports.

Scoring 73 points, Hyundai was also ranked fourth after Honda, Subaru and Toyota in terms of overall brand reliability.

"Hyundai/Kia has introduced good cars in the past several years but showed a dramatic improvement in our report-card rankings, led by newer models such as the Hyundai Genesis sedan, Elantra, Santa Fe SUV, and Kia Optima," the magazine said.

The Genesis sedan was given 92 points the vehicle was among the top 10 among the 280 vehicles tested by the Consumer Reports.

cheesuk@heraldm.com