With Hyundai’s eye-catching “fluidic sculpture” design language working its way through the lineup, the Hyundai Elantra Touring was starting to look like the sensible but homely middle child of the family… according to my guide to codger-friendly pop culture references, the Elantra Touring had become something of the family “Jan Brady” (whatever that may have been). But as Michael Karesh found in his recent review, the Touring model, which is sold in Europe as the i30, is something of a hidden gem, as

no other car offers a similar combination of crossover functionality and hot hatch driving enjoyment.

And now that it’s joining the family at the fluidic sculpture salon, the new Elantra Touring brings some style to the table as well. Look for the new model to debut at the forthcoming Frankfurt show, and hope along with us that it’s new-found good looks don’t change its fun-meets-function personality.

According to Germany’s usually well informed AUTO BILD, Korea’s Hyundai either did or still does cast longing eyes on struggling Opel. Opel is on Hyundai’s horizon, literally: Hyundai’s German tech center in Rüsselsheim is only a few miles away from Opel. “Hyundai is growing faster than any other automaker. They are desperately seeking new engineers at the Hyundai tech center,” writes AUTO BILD, “and the plant in Czech Nošovice cannot be expanded further. Opel with thousands of well trained engineers, precious EV know-how (Ampera) and underutilized plants would be a great fit.” And this is how the latest car-cliffhanger started … Read More >

Carmakers the world over are looking towards Korea where Hyundai reported sales results for June today. Hyundai’s global sales rose 12.3 percent to post a monthly record in June. Kia has not released official results yet, but Reuters says that  “Kia’s June sales surged 22 percent.”

To bridge the time until Kia reports hard numbers for June, we did some spreadsheet acrobatics and arrived at the attached. The black numbers are hard reported numbers, the grey numbers are calculated. If Reuters’ 22 percent are correct, then the June table for Hyundai-Kia should look something like this: Read More >

Hyundai and Kia are capitalizing on their strong sales momentum in the US market, as Reuters reports

South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Group said on Thursday it was aiming to raise its U.S. auto sales by 18.2 percent this year to 1.06 million vehicles, up from its previous target of 1.01 million.

The announcement was made during a visit to the United States by Chung Mong-koo, chairman of the world’s fifth-biggest automotive group which includes Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors .

Hyundai and Kia’s combined US market share hit 10.1 percent as of May this year, up from 7.7 percent last year and 3.3 percent in 2001. And with the group’s sales seemingly limited only by its ability to produce cars fast enough, Reuters notes that the Korean media is rife with speculation that Hyundai could open another US factory. The company denies any such plans exist, but if its sales keep growing, more US-market production is only a matter of time.

Someone is really trying to shop around Opel. Or maybe it’s just a tactic to cow German unions into submission?  Two weeks ago, Volkswagen and the inevitable Chinese were floated as possible buyers. What other bogeymen could there be? Ah, yes, the Koreans! Read More >

Bloomberg [via Automotive News [sub]] reports:

“We’ve now been able to secure production capacity to safely say that we will surpass 600,000 units,” Mike O’Brien, Hyundai’s vice president for U.S. corporate and product planning, told reporters here Tuesday.

The South Korea-based company said in January it didn’t have enough production capacity to meet that level of U.S. sales.

Since then, Hyundai has raised output at its Montgomery, Ala., plant that makes Sonatas and Elantras, and it will also have a larger supply of the new Accent subcompact from South Korea than initially planned

The heads of the European automobile industry are assembling in London for their annual European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association meeting. While they were there, they dropped in with UK’s Prime Minister David Cameron to talk a little politics. Norbert Reithofer of BMW, Sergio Marchionne of Fiat, Carlos Ghosn of Renault, Nick Reilly of GM Europe and their leader Dieter Zetsche, president of the association and chief of Daimler, asked for assistance with fair free trade with major economies such as India and Japan, government support for the swift introduction of breakthrough technologies and less bureaucracy through lean regulations. All noble goals. But the BBC found a fly in the ointment: Read More >

The Hyundai Accent has never been a “gotta have it” sort of car. Instead, it’s been a “what’s the cheapest thing you got?” sort of car. The 2011 started at just $9,985 (plus shipping and handling). That’s “started,” as in past tense, because the 2011 is history. The 2012, now arriving at dealers, starts at $12,445 plus $760 for destination. Add an automatic transmission, A/C, the $1,300 Premium Package (fog lights, cruise, remote keyless, Bluetooth, upgraded interior trim, 16” alloy wheels in place of 14” steelies), and floor mats, and you’re looking at a $17,350 sticker. Clearly Hyundai thinks they’ve developed a much more desirable car. Have they?

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After Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, we are back in the Americas this weekend, but we’ll go off at sea into the Caribbean islands to visit embargoed Cuba. Yes, I know you were waiting with trepidation to know which cars our Cuban friends are most fond of… Read More >

Assembly lines at South Korea’s Hyundai Kia ground to a halt this weekend after the companies ran out of a needed engine parts. Production of Hyundai’s Tucson ix, Santa Fe and Veracruz and Kia’s Carnival has stopped. On Wednesday, production of most of  Hyundai’s and Kia’s cars will be affected unless the parts shortage is solved. The Korean units of GM and Renault will suffer, as well as Ssangyong. Do they all get their engines parts from Japan? Read More >

With VW wading into the budget roadster segment with its forthcoming BlueSport mid-engine roadster, it seems that Kia wants in on the action as well. Reports are surfacing in Europe and the US that the Korean automaker is making good on Peter Schreyer’s threats, and is developing its first roadster since it bought up the tooling and IP for Lotus’s front-drive Elan, which it sold in Korea between 1996 and 1999.
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Is it an Elantra? A Sonata? The answer is neither… this is the sedan version of Hyundai’s “Mr Euro” i40, which launched first as a wagon. It’s the “Korea-Passat” that hopes to show up the “Kraut-Passat,” while taking the brand into the entry-premium space that the Passat CC helped define. And it looks every bit as good as you’d hope an Elantra-Sonata mashup might. Meanwhile, Euro-phile car lovers the rest of the world over now get to deal with the strange phenomenon of having to lust over Hyundai’s forbidden European fruit.

In late December, Ed Niedermeyer reported that Hyundai’s “Euro-market midsizer, known as the i40, will debut as a wagon at the Geneva Auto Show in March, with a sedan version coming later next year:” Ed was right: The sedan will be shown at the Barcelona Auto Salon, May 14 to 22.  Hyundai is taking aim at a big target: Volkswagen. Read More >

You’re an old fart. Or at least you think like one. You want a simply designed car that’s easy to see out of, capable of toting a bunch of stuff, solidly constructed, and fun to drive. Meanwhile, cars keep going in the opposite direction, with sci-fi styling, shrunken windows, oversized and overcomplicated instrument panels, cramped rear seats, and marshmallow suspension tuning (e.g. the Honda Civic reviewed a few days ago). But before giving up hope you might want to check out the Hyundai Elantra Touring SE.

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Hyundai’s latest Assurance marketing technique, which guarantees resale values on all 20111 model-year purchases, is already being hailed as the latest in a line of creative, zeitgeist-appropriate incentives. The one downside of guaranteeing residual values: well, people are free to draw their own conclusions from them. For example, it seems safe to say that the Azera and Accent should probably be replaced fairly soon, as their weaker resale values make them stand out from an otherwise extraordinarily consistent lineup. What’s that you say? The new Accent was announced at the same time as the resale guarantee? And an attractive new Azera replacement will be launched within a (the?) year? Er, carry on then.

In all seriousness, whenever Hyundai comes out with a new “Assurance” program, I’m sure a number of other brands look at copying elements. The genius of this latest program, however, is that it only really works if your entire lineup has been updated in a recent and consistent manner. Imagine a chart like this for certain other brands, and you’ll realize that the benefits of a strong and (possibly more importantly) consistent product line can be far reaching indeed.