Archive for Hyundai

The most luxurious Hyundai ever has just been launched in South Korea. The long-wheelbase version of the Hyundai Equus callled the Equus Stretch is the largest and most expensive vehicle in the Hyundai line-up.

The vehicle is longer than major competitors by as much as 310 mm. Backseat legroom is longer by up to 376 mm. The new model is fitted with the most powerful engine ever built for a Hyundai production car – a 5.0-litre V8 producing 400PS and 500Nm of torque.

Rear passengers will find they have the world’s first power-driven footrest (I know for a fact that MAS first class gets a powered footrest), seat leg support, relax posture control and a massage system. It’s quite clear that an airplane’s first class seating is the inspiration for the Equus rear passenger room.

There is also a bulletproof version of the car and 3 units have been delivered to the Korean President. Hyundai is the first Korean company to develop a bulletproof car with its own technology.

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The GEMA alliance has ended this month. GEMA stands for Global Engine Manufacturing Alliance, and was a joint venture between Mitsubishi, Chrysler and Hyundai-Kia to develop a family of 4-cylinder engines.

There are currently three different sizes available – 1.8 liter, 2.0 liter and 2.4 liter. In Malaysia, there are a few cars that use engines derived from the GEMA project – the 2.0 liter motors in the Lancer and Lancer Evolution X, and the 2.0 liter motors in the Hyundai Sonata, Kia Optima and Naza Rondo.

Chrysler says it intends to replace its GEMA engines with new small engine technology it will gain access to from its new Italian partner Fiat. But interestingly, despite Chrysler stating an intention to replace its GEMA products with Fiat products, Chrysler is the one who has ended up with full ownership of the GEMA plant. Mitsubishi and Hyundai have just sold their stakes to Chrysler. It is likely that the plant will be converted to a plant making Fiat engines in the future.

Technology bought to GEMA by an individual company will remain the intellectual property of that company, so Hyundai and Mitsubishi will likely be able to continue using their Theta/Theta II and 4B series of engines respectively.

The new Sonata YF has been unveiled in Korea and I must say the specs list looks very good indeed. The cost of development to Hyundai was 400 billion won (RM1.15 billion) over a timespan of 4 years, and I must say the results look pretty good so far.

Not sure how long it’ll take to recoup costs but the car will be priced in Korea at 21.3 million Won (RM61,350) to 25.95 million Won (RM74,800).

The Sonata has a particularly powerful 2.0 liter engine from the Theta II family, which is a development of the GEMA world engine. Variants of the GEMA world engine are also found in Chrysler cars and locally in the Mitsubishi Lancer and Kia Optima.

The difference is with this latest stage of tune, horsepower and torque figures have been increase and are now even more impressive. The engine can now make a peak power output of 165 PS at 6,200rpm and a peak torque of 198Nm at 4,600rpm, which is very close to the 100Nm per liter ratio.

It’s one of the highest torque outputs available in non-premium segment engines without direct injection. This engine is mated to a 6-speed automatic, which is also the best in class so far in its segment (both competitors have 4 or 5-speeders).

Although only one engine option has been unveiled now, Hyundai says a 2.4 liter version with direct injection will be unveiled in January next year when it presents the US market version. Small engines like a 2.0 will never sell over there.

The body has a four-door coupe-ish look to the roofline, and most people are instantly reminded of the Passat CC when a few shots were leaked in the past few weeks. Hyundai calls this new design language “fluidic sculpture”. It’s designed to project a more youthful image for the car, so Hyundai probably intends it to be more Mazda 6 than Toyota Camry.

Vehicle Dynamic Control is standard, and there are also other driver assist features such as Hill-Start Assist Control and Brake Assist. The car also has the Korean market Mozen telematics system. This is not really likely to make its way anywhere outside of South Korea for now but its pretty interesting. It’s basically like BMW ConnectedDrive – the car can access various information systems via the WCDMA mobile network. You get features such as SOS calls and Mozen Autocare anti-theft tracking.

Look after the jump for a video and more shots of the YF Sonata.

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Total sales for the Getz in Malaysia recently hit 20,000 units since its 2005 launch, so Hyundai-Sime Darby Motors have decided to create a new limited run Hyundai Getz SE (Special Edition) to celebrate. The Getz SE will be limited to a 300 unit run and each unit will have a serialized plate in the car starting with the number 001.

The changes are all aesthetic as the 1.4 liter DOHC engine under the hood remains the same as before. The Getz SE is only available in a colour called “Icing White”. The front end receives a new grille and bumper. The side mirrors have integrated LED indicators. At the rear, the car gets a new bumper as well. The single exhaust tailpipe is hidden behind the mesh grille of the “diffuser-like” design.

On the inside, the center dashboard and the door handles has a new brushed-aluminium look to them. The interior seats and steering wheel comes in leather. Wheels are 15 inchers of a new design and are wrapped with Dunlop D01 tyres. Hyundai says they picked the D01 because of its double V groove pattern which does well on wet roads, making it suitable for the Malaysian tropical climate.

Other than that, the rest of the car is the same as the regular Getz. The SE version is available for both the 5-speed manual and 4-speed automatic options.

The Hyundai Getz SE 1.4GL(M) is priced at RM 60,984.00 (OTR) in West Malaysia and RM 62,716.10 (OTR) in East Malaysia and the Hyundai Getz SE 1.4GL(A) is priced at RM 63,888.00 (OTR) in West Malaysia and RM 66,277.00 (OTR) in East Malaysia. Hyundai offers a 5 year or 300,000 warranty with the Getz.

Look after the jump for more shots of the Getz SE.

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Here’s a first photo of Hyundai’s new electric i10 set to make its debut at the 2009 Frankfurt Auto Show. The Hyundai i10 Electric will begin limited series production in 2010 and will initially be offered in Korea only. It will be offered to the Korean government, state corporations, and utility companies. No price has been revealed as of now, but the press release mentions “sell” instead of “lease”.

The i10 Electric is powered by a 49kW (66 horsepower) motor, mated to a 16kWh battery which promises a range of 160km and a top speed of 130km/h. Because of the switch of powertrain, the steering, air conditioning, water pump and brake vacuum pump systems have been modified to all run on electrical power now.

The Koreans have improved the standard of their powertrains tremendously in the past decade. From the initial set of engines based on Mitsubishi products, they’ve moved to very competent engines with dual variable valve timing, new engines with turbocharging and direct injection, impressive and fuel efficient R-engine diesel engines, LPI Hybrids and now, an all-electric powertrain! Impressive!

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Official sketches of the new Hyundai Sonata has been released by the Korean company and the car is expected to make its official debut in Korea on the 10th of September.

With a roofline that looks like it was inspired by the likes of the Passat CC and the one that started it all – the CLS, it definitely distances itself from the generic looks of the current generation Sonata with an all-new look that employs plenty of curves and ‘flame-surfacing-esque’ creases.

So okay, these are just sketches and its easy to make a sketch look good. There are actually some photos leaked of the Sonata in the metal that have made their way out onto the internet. Look after the jump for how the actual car looks like.

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Here’s the first undisguised full image of the new Hyundai ix35, which gives us a clear view of Hyundai’s new C-segment SUV. The ix35 is the replacement for the aging Hyundai Tucson. Thankfully that new “Genesis’ grille that has recently graced the facelifted Starex did not really find its way onto the ix35, instead we get a front end which has more in common with the Veracruz.

In other markets it will also be called the Hyundai Tucson ix in Korea. Under the hood will be Hyundai’s new all-aluminium “R-engine” diesel in 184hp tune (of which specs sound pretty good by the way), or the 166hp Theta II petrol engine, both mated to Hyundai’s new 6-speed automatic.

The rear view mirror has a built-in 3.5 inch colour LCD to display images from the rear view camera to assist with parking. The ix35/Tucson ix will feature typical SUV driver assist functionality such as downhill brake control to help the driver negotiate a downhill slope, and hill-start assist control. The car will of course be available with stability control, and a panoramic sunroof helps enhance the interior.

More details and information on the ix35 will be available when Frankfurt opens its doors in mid-September. You can watch a movie from the Korean Tucson ix launch after the jump that shows all angles of the car in motion… pretty decent looking!

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This is supposed to be the new 2011 Hyundai Sonata and it’s probably going to be revealed soon since it looks like these shots were sneaked out during a photoshoot for its product images. The front instantly reminded me of the latest Mazda 6, except with a whole lot of more chrome going on there. It’s not easy to see how the side profile of the car looks like in these shots but I really think I’ve actually seen the new Sonata on test (or perhaps it was its Kia Optima sibling) at some proving grounds when I was in Korea for the Kia Koup preview drive earlier this year, and it’s got a very Passat CC-like coupe roofline to it – very sleek and nice. The interior seems to look good as well. The Koreans just keep getting better and better each time they try. They have to, it’s the only way forward.

Hyundai is currently developing a new 800cc turbocharged inline-3 engine for its smaller models. producing about 90+ horsepower, which is about the equivalent of a normally aspirated 1.2 to 1.4 liter engine, depending on how aggressive the tune is.

This new 800cc engine will likely be offered first as some form of alternative to the new 1.2 liter Kappa engine (80 horses) in the markets that can afford it, and later probably completely replace it if they are able to price it well. This engine will likely find its way into the Hyundai i10 and the Kia Picanto and later other cars like the Hyundai i20 (Getz).

There are not many turbocharged gasoline engines in the Hyundai-Kia line-up, with the most modern one coming to my mind being the 2.0 liter GDI Turbo unit based on the GEMA engine that was announced late last year. Hyundai’s turbocharged GEMA engine trumps its rivals with the addition of direct injection.

The Kia Forte Koup with its killer looks are just dying for a more powerful engine like a turbo inline-4, as the 2.4 liter version just doesn’t cut it, being quite far off from hitting the 200 horsepower mark. There was also a 1.6 liter GDI Turbo that was slotted into the Hyundai ix-onic Concept from March this year – that one made about 170 horses.

Hyundai has updated the Hyundai Grand Starex with a new front grille that features a slatted design rather than the original Starex’s mesh grille with a chrome surround and a chrome bar going through it. The new model is called the Hyundai Grand Starex Royale. The wing mirrors are also now body-coloured instead of black, and now feature signal indicators on them.

One of the gripes that we had in our Grand Starex review was also the absence of a rear windscreen wiper – this has now been added onto the Grand Starex Royale. On the interior there is a new Pioneer touch screen LCD DVD player that is linked to a 7 inch LCD screen located at the middle top of the MPV for rear passenger enertainment purposes.

For more details on whether the Grand Starex is a worthy addition to your fleet of vehicles especially if you have a growing family (the Starex has a total of 11 seats with seatbelts – that’s alot of people!), check our our test drive review of the Grand Starex. Or look after the jump for more photos of the updated Hyundai Grand Starex Royale. It’s priced at RM148,888 OTR in West Malaysia and RM153,997.50 OTR in East Malaysia. Four colours are available – Crystal White, Stone Black, Sleek Silver and Carbon Grey.

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