When I purchased my silver 2010 Hyundai Sonata GLS, I knew I was missing out on some of the options available on the SE. As I bought it used, I had little to say about what "extras" to put on my car. Luckily, it already had heated leather seats, but as I looked into the matter, I realized I was missing out on several things.
The first obvious mod for me was to put chrome wheels on my used Sonata. It made a world of difference to the "sportiness" of the car. My used car dealer had a relationship with a local tire store and hooked me up with chrome wheels for just $250. My dealer later commented that he would have sold it for much more with those wheels.
The second obvious mod, to further add to the sporty feel that I felt was lacking to the GLS was to add a spoiler to the car. I was able to find one in the exact same color on eBay for just $25. Drilling into the back of my trunk made me more than a little nervous, but the installation went okay. I would rate my skill at doing this part of my mods at about a 3. But the spoiler went on, fully accomplishing the sporty SE look.
Third on my list was to tint the windows. I did research on the best way to tint and decided to go with the bake on approach with a film that has carbon in it so it rejects both light and heat. I went with a 40% tint instead of a darker 20% so I could see out the back window at night, and wouldn't change a thing. My front windows are at 70%, which is the most I could do in my state and stay legal. It looks great and, in the heat of the Summer or glare of the Winter, does the trick. All in all window tinting ran around $400.
I then upgraded the lighting throughout the car. I installed HID lights for the low beams and also for the fogs, The 5000k color shows bright white instead of the stock yellow or the blue look that so often is seen in HID lighting. This really does light up the road in front of the car. I replaced every other light inside and outside of the car with LED lighting, and may have gone too bright with the dome light leading my wife to call it "the sun." Footwell lighting is nice in the front footwells when getting in the car, but they have fallen off or broken in the back seats, so I would only do the front seats if I had it to do over again. These changes added up over time to about $400, with the most costly add-on being the HID lights.
My last upgrades were to the interior of the car. Luckily I had leather seats, but the steering wheel was plastic, as was the shift knob. My final upgrade was to locate a leather steering wheel with all the radio controls (I hated the plastic fill in plate), as well as buy a matching leather shift knob, all by scouting eBay. The feel of leather was well worth the $125 or so that it cost me.
Now I have made up what my GLS needed when comparing it to the SE, and even added some of the things that it wanted in terms of tinting and lighting. The total cost for these changes was $1200. The mods have not only added to my look and enjoyment of the car, but it has also made it mine. I guess that's the most rewarding part of the modification process: she's mine.
