How Hyundai Became 'The Coolest Carmaker In The World' - The Autopian
How Hyundai Became 'The Coolest Carmaker In The World' - The Autopian
It’s easy to make a great $300,000 car. It’s much harder to make a great $30,000 car. Hyundai just unveiled the 2024 Hyundai Santa Fe and it’s another reminder of how quickly the Korean automaker has radically transformed from a builder of mediocre cheap cars to a designer of great affordable ones. ...
This completely ignores any drivetrain failures that are prevalent in their entire line up.
Also just sweeps the glaring theft issues under the rug
8Setting aside much-deserved flak about the Theta II and the immobilizer, there is little-to-no argument that Hyundai has been consistently pumping out the best and most innovative designs in the large auto manufacturer space.
8I'm honestly curious why you think that. Can you please elaborate. I'm really not trying to be argumentative here.
As far as I can see, they have just copied others, with some small tweaks. The aesthetic ones are unreasonably offensive to me, but the technical ones don't seem to be terribly innovative, or huge leaps, and seem to bite them in the ass, a lot.
I'd argue the Mazda supercharged 2 stroke with low load compression self ignition) or, I can't believe I'm saying this, Nissan variable compression ratio engine of the world, who are experimenting with alterative techs, even for ICE, are leaps an bounds above Hyundai.
6I typed something up but it looks like it didn't post. I think we're saying two different things.
I'm talking specifically about the design language that you don't like. The EV9 and the new Sante Fe, the Santa Cruz, the hatch IONIQ5 and even the divisive IONIQ6. I love those designs. They feel unique and bold. I would put them among some of my favorite designs of major, non-exotic manufacturers. Clearly just personal opinion but I feel like they've put out hit after hit on design, compared to whatever the hell BMW is doing as an example.
I can't really say anything about their engine design or internal components. I'm ignorant there. I'm saying I find myself intrigued by Hyundai in spite of their terrible track record because of the design language.
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Yeah, Hyundai (and Kia) went from making copy cats and uninspired cars, to pushing new trends and clean, cohesive design.
I'm not totally thrilled with the bumper height taillights of the Sante Fe, but otherwise its a nice design.
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As an owner of a Kia with the exploding engine option I'll pass.
7As a former Hyundai and Kia tech, exploding was incredibly rare. Usually they just seized because of oil starved crank bearings. I only ever heard of one that actually exploded with flames, and thats because the owner wasn't taking care of it and driving with a leaking fuel line.
4Perhaps exploding was the wrong term but that doesn't excuse them from having two engine families with issues and not supporting the owners. I had fight to get the engine replaced.
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