Is owning a Hyundai no longer embarrassing?

Is owning a Hyundai no longer embarrassing?

I’m sure you’ve noticed that there are a large number of Hyundais rolling around especially compared to as little as five years ago. So what has changed?

To start, let’s talk about the Korean auto industry, which started out more or less as a protected monopoly of sorts. Korea places incredibly large taxes and importation fees on foreign cars, so unless you are ridiculously rich, a Korean car is the only car you can really buy. These taxes were set because they were necessary to ensure their citizens actually bought Korean cars. For instance, if you had a choice a couple of decades back to buy a Hyundai or a Honda for roughly the same price, I’m sure you would have gone and bought the Honda, simply because everything about it was better. The trouble with this policy is that the Korean car makers would probably make a shoddy car to make more money, and keep making shoddy cars because no one can afford to buy a foreign car. Fortunately the Korean government had a solution. Competition is the greatest motivator in business, and Korean car manufacturers were required to export a large quantity of cars to capitalize on this idea. What this meant was that they would face daunting competition in the foreign market, and if they did not try to compete by making a good car, their respective car company would simply die off.

Korean companies did originally make vastly inferior cars compared to their rivals, but they sold their cars at bargain prices in order to entice some buyers; and it worked to some extent. The downside though, was the image that was given off. If you drove a Hyundai, it meant you simply cannot afford better, and the exterior styling confirmed this to people who had no idea what a Hyundai is. This image worsened as time went on, since if you drove an old Hyundai, the paint was probably peeling off and black smoke exited your tailpipe.

Hyundai and their subsidiary Kia, decided it was wise to try and shake off the image of poor quality their cars had by offering the longest warranty on the market. Surely, if a car company gave you a ten year warranty, they had to be pretty confident the car will make it to the end of that warranty without exploding. This idea worked, since people started buying Korean, because it seemed like they had nothing to lose. By curing the quality concerns, this started Hyundai’s image building, but it did not cure the cheap, inferior car image.

In 2002, Hyundai restyled the Tiburon into a truly beautiful car, and despite what many people would like to think, it’s what’s on the outside that counts. There still weren’t many Hyundai’s around, but most of the ones you did see were Tiburons, usually with a teenager blasting loud music inside. The car itself was pretty good, except the V6 engine (which is unfortunately still used today) was rubbish. 2.7 liters 170 hp, and fuel consumption that would make an SUV driver happy (18/26). This rubbish engine problem plagued Hyundai ever since it started selling cars, but happily it’s all changed.

The 2006 Hyundai Sonata, with its Accord copying styling, was a major step forward for Hyundai. For the first time, the exterior of the car looked to be of quality and the interior, especially if you get leather and wood, rivaled the competition. Then the 2007 Accent, and Elantra (and the SUV’s) came out and they took the same step up in visual quality. If you line the previous generation Hyundai range against the current one, you will probably be staggered by the progress. Because of the revitalized styling, I’m starting to see Hyundai’s everywhere, even in the slightly wealthier parts of town. The engines on offer for the new Hyundais put out good figures too, which in some cases surpass the Americans, but are not quite as good as the Japanese. It now makes sense to buy a Hyundai, since they are cheap, reliable, well made, and reasonably good looking cars. Kelsey Grammer will even tell you on the television adverts that buying a Hyundai is just the smart thing to do.

To get back to the original question at hand, is it no longer embarrassing to own a Hyundai? I think so, the new ones admittedly. Hyundai’s don’t give off that sense of cheapness they used to, and since they build a good car and sell it for less than the competition, (as opposed to building an inferior car and selling for less) no one can really make fun of you for making a poor car purchasing decision by only thinking with your wallet. I’m not saying that everyone should run out and buy a Hyundai over every other car in the market (they’re not THAT good), but I believe that owning one now is no more embarrassing than owning a Toyota, i.e. it isn’t.