Don't you dare ghost us, Hyundai! We need the Casper - and so do you!!

Hyundai’s Australian success story started from humble beginnings.  

The very cheap, not so cheerful first-generation Hyundai Excel was an important car that paved the way for what was to come. Beyond it was a newer-generation Excel, which was again vital in building brand recognition and acceptance of Hyundai as a mainstream player in Australia.

And then came the venerable Getz city car - a vehicle you saw by the dozen on city streets and university car parks in its heyday, and it also played a pivotal part in rental car fleets across the country. On more than one occasion I got a Getz as my holiday rental car, and it was a fine little thing.

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One cannot forget – no matter how hard one tries – the i20, an Indian-built budget base model car that really wasn’t one of the brand’s finest moments.

It was succeeded by the Accent - a bigger car than all of its rivals at the time, yet it still managed to have a smaller price tag than most.

After the Accent finished its tenure in 2019, there was a yawning gap at the bottom of Hyundai’s range. No longer was there a sub-$20k car in the model line-up.

And today, as this story is published, the cheapest Hyundai you can buy is the base model Venue manual, from $21,240 plus on-road costs. So you’re really looking at $24,290 drive-away (correct promotional pricing at time of writing), and that’s for the stick-shift manual. The automatic adds another two grand to the price. 

Not only are customers paying more to have a Hyundai in their driveway; the company is also paying the price of losing that crucial entry level market segment in the light car or city car space. 

A common theme in the world of cars is that if you can get a customer in a cheap first car and they have a good experience, they’ll come back and buy bigger, more expensive cars and stay a part of your “brand family”.

You can argue all you want about whether there is actually a feasible market for some $20,000 cars these days – especially considering the safety expectations that new car customers now have, but these cars have been the building blocks upon which the brand laid its foundation locally. Whether it was a decision to abandon this vital part of the market, or if the brand had its hand forced by circumstances, it means those new customers (read: potential Hyundai lifers!) who do still want a brand-new car for $20,000 or less have to shop elsewhere.  

The all-conquering MG 3 compact hatchback might be a very old car that looks a lot newer than it is, and it might also lack all of those clever safety systems that new car customers theoretically expect, but the reality is the brand can’t get enough of them. It is priced from $18,490 drive-away.

Hyundai Excel.

1 / 5

Hyundai Getz.

2 / 5

Hyundai i20.

3 / 5

Hyundai Accent.

4 / 5

Hyundai Venue.

5 / 5

The MG 3 has become the biggest selling car in its class, and handily outsells anything else that you might cross-shop against it. In the first six months of 2022, the MG 3 sold 8587 units, enough for it to secure 37 per cent market share, and almost double the sales of the next-best performer, the Suzuki Baleno (4597 sales) - and that car has just been axed, too!

Other rivals include the technically more impressive and considerably more technologically advanced Kia Picanto, currently priced from $18,490 drive-away. Early on, it was a lot cheaper than that. 

The smallest Kia model still is a super duper bargain in today’s cash-strapped new car market, but its tiny little hatchback body might not be suitable for absolutely every customer out there. As mentioned earlier, part of the reason the Accent was so successful was because of its size. Likewise, the MG 3 offers a bit more metal for your money than the Kia. And heck, before Mazda and Toyota jacked up the prices of the 2 and Yaris respectively, those models were pitching at the budget car customer, too.  

So what can Hyundai do to appease traditional cheap car customers?

One could argue that it could price the Venue small SUV at a more realistic position – but if customers are willing to pay more than $26,000 for an auto version of that car, good on Hyundai for getting it.

The best potential addition to Hyundai Australia’s model liner is one that you probably haven’t heard of, but it’s one that I think could prove to be the perfect fit.

It’s called the Hyundai Casper, and it’s a compact, edgy-looking small hatchback/crossover that almost directly rivals vehicles like the Picanto and the Suzuki Ignis.

Look, I’m no product planner – just a keen-eyed observer with a good feel for what the market needs and wants – and I feel that this is the car the market needs and wants.

It is tremendously good value in its home market of South Korea – starting at the equivalent of about AU$15,000 – and it also has some of those requisite items the customers now expect when it comes to safety equipment.

I’m not saying that it would be a five star ANCAP performer, but honestly I’m questioning the relevance of that organisation anyway...

It has things like autonomous emergency braking, lane keeping assistance, parking sensors and reversing camera, and airbags for the front and back rows. Do you really need more if you’re spending less than $20K?

It’s also freaking cute. This is one of the most thought-provoking pieces of new car design that I have seen in my entire career – more than a dozen years in this game now – and it’s so intriguing that I’ve already told the people at Hyundai that I want one if it ends up coming.

Now, the people at Hyundai have told me that it isn’t likely to come. But that doesn’t mean that it won’t.

To me it seems like an obvious contender to help Hyundai continue to build on its previous success in this market, and certainly help with the brand to return to its roots As a car company that offers cheap and cheerful options for customers, not just really good cars. Here’s hoping that the Casper could be both.