The next challenger to BMW and Mercedes?

BMW, Mercedes -- And Hyundai?

Not quite, but the carmaker is gunning for the luxury market

Amid the current spate of riches-to-rags tales in the auto industry, Hyundai Motor Co. stands out for moving in the other direction. Since 1999, Korea's largest carmaker has transformed itself from an easy target for late-night comedians into a global leader in quality. In the process, the company has grown faster than any other major auto maker, setting up factories, research centers, and design labs worldwide, including its first U.S. plant -- in Alabama -- in May

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phantom330 - 11/29/2005 11:24:17 AM

+1 Boost

Will, your hard-on for Toyota is getting really, REALLY old.

Being serious, I don't think Hyundai is going to be taken serious in a luxury market. Any manufacturer who makes cars that somebody in a trailer park can afford is not going to be taken seriously competing against the likes of BMW, Lexus, Mercedes, etc.

mrgrooken - 11/29/2005 11:49:52 AM

+1 Boost

GHETTO-FABULOUS??? If not, look it up sometime. Its not the fact of competition with the ballers of the auto industry... its gonna come down to numbers and if Hyundai can spit out a car that has the feel of luxury with the Dollar General price... their numbers will look real competitive in the long run.

janos2769 - 12/1/2005 1:21:46 PM

+1 Boost

Sure Toyota can boast about quality. However, they are gloating on their success and letting quality slip of late.

How much of a quality gap exists between Toyota and other Luxury European Brands? Not much at all. In fact, if you offered me a boring, soul-less, uninspiring, low performing vehicle, such as ... a Toyota lets say, which also has a rating of, say, 98/100 rating on a reliability scale and you offer me a high performance sport luxury vehicle with great looks, awesome styling, incredible interior, exciting to drive but with a LOW reliability rating of 96/100 or 97/100... hmmm, tough choice isn't it? NOT! Toyotas are bein gubbled up by people with Reliability as their #1 priority. Auto enthusiast can deal with a 1~2% lower reliability but make it up in every other category!

About Hyundai, they compete with Honda and Toyota. Volkswagen already attempted to go against the luxury brands and it has failed, not due to their reliability so much, but their reputation for being the people's car. Hyundai, if anything, started even below the "People's car", they were more like the lame and unemployed people's car.