Hyundai I45 2010 News

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has issued its latest round of recalls, with models from Hyundai, Jaguar, Kia and Volvo impacted by the recent safety notices.

The Korean brand is fast-tracking changes to the steering and front suspension of its good looking mid-sized newcomer to bring it up to the standard of Japanese rivals including the Mazda6, Honda Euro and Suzuki Kizashi. It has just completed a major back-to-back evaluation with its rivals and the outcome is an engineering update from Korea.  "We have asked for a change and it will be approved soon," says Edward Lee, managing director of Hyundai Australia. "The quick fix could be in three months. But the permanent fix, I'm not sure."  Carsguide helped trigger the changes, with Hyundai boss Edward Lee admitting feedback from journalists was crucial in evaluation of the i45. "HMC always listens to journalist opinion very carefully. We listen.  We try to improve.  After that criticism we are doing almost everything. We have to listen." Carsguide hit the car hard for its wonky front suspension and woeful steering response, which even Lee felt during the comparison drive.  "I am not an engineer... but I can tell the difference, a little bit. We what the difference is, but from the normal customer's point of view it is hard to differentiate." Lee says the comparative testing was crucial and the technical team in Australia has filed a detailed report to Korea.  "We discussed many times with our head office." He also admits Hyundai must establish a process to prevent such shortcomings hitting showrooms in future.  "We have an Australian engineering team and test drivers. But it's not enough. We will do something more. We need to invite Korean engineers here."

After leading the world on so many fronts - from quality to comfort and reliability - they have been hit badly by the global financial crisis.  Toyota and Honda and many of the others wound back dramatically at the onset of the GFC, not just on their production lines but also in their motorsport programs - F1 was the first casualty - and new-product development.We are now seeing the results in Australian showrooms, where the Corolla and Civic are now mid-pack in the small-car class and former pacesetters including the Mazda6, Honda Accord Euro and even the locally-made Camry are struggling against newer and better rivals.  They are fine for everyday transport, but not as impressive as they were just five years ago.Subaru has also cut costs and its latest styling work - particularly on the Liberty and Outback - reflects a desperate desire to win sales in the USA.  Contrast all of them against the Suzuki Kizashi, which comes from one of the few Japanese brands that held its nerve through the GFT. Suzuki has cut its production targets, and admits that extra Kizashi models are on the back-burner, but is going to do brilliantly well with the car.Toyota and Honda, in contrast, are relying on value-added deals to keep customers coming in Australia. They are recovering from the economic downturn but nowhere near as rapidly as some of their rivals  - particularly Hyundai.In Australia, many of our Japanese cars are now also actually built in Thailand. It's not a major drama, because the quality is much the same, but it shows how the battle to cut costs is influencing the Japanese makers. The Thai drive also shows that Japan Incorporated is now happy to produce bland transport modules instead of appealing cars, going for numbers first - in showrooms and on the balance sheet. It's a reasonable response to the GFC but is going to cause problems in coming years.Why? Because Australia is seeing so many classy European cars at more affordable prices - look at the Volkswagen Polo - and because Korean is coming up fast.  Hyundai is now doing a better job than Toyota at building Toyota-style cars, with adventurous styling, classy quality and great prices. It's latest, the i45 replacement for the dowdy Sonata, is really good on every front except its awful steering and lacklustre front suspension.The i45 is a Camry done better and, like the Kizashi, one of the stars of 2010. And it's not the end for Hyundai, which has all sorts of new models coming from the baby i20 to an overdue sporty car sometime in 2012.And that's whan the Japanese really could be in trouble. It's not because Hyundai has something new but because the Japanese wound their development programs back during the GFT and the results of that conservative risk management will not really be known until we see - or don't see - the work which should have been done over the past two years.Follow Paul Gover on Twitter!

CEO Edward Lee says diesel isn't on their agenda, despite the fact that the Sonata the i45 replaces had a two-litre diesel engine.  "At the moment, we don't have that plan but we have some different ideas," he says. In the US, it will be available with LPG and as a petrol-electric hybrid.  "The hybrid is just for the US, but if the market is ready we will consider it." He rejected a stronger V6 engine for the i45, declaring that the 2.4-litre petrol Theta II engine "performs like a V6".  Product planning manager Roland Rivero says diesel does not represent a high proportion of their car sales or throughout the medium-car segment. "Looking at the sales split for petrol versus diesel in Mondeo and Mazda6 it it struggling to grow," he says.  "It's not huge in this segment.  But if the market demands it, we will investigate an alternative fuel, but it might not be diesel."

It's fussy, with plenty of chrome and some complicated panel creases that test the high build quality standard of the South Korean manufacturer.  However, Hyundai's North American design manager Andre Hudson, is proud that a lot of his out-there styling cues have carried through to the production vehicle.  "Our speed of development at Hyundai means the original idea stays very true and doesn't get watered down," he says. He points to two main features which made it from the drawing board to the showroom - the chrome strip down three-quarters of the side of the car and the C pillar "porthole" window.  "The chrome strip under the window sills goes all the way to the headlights across three separate panels. Getting them lined up is a testing process," he says. The C pillar window is one of his favourites.  "I'm so proud that the glass carried through to production despite the extra cost. It gives more sense of space." Hudson spent seven years with GM in Detroit and the UK before moving to Hyundai five years ago.  "That has given me a border approach to designing cars and understanding the European market," he says. Hyundai has studios in South Korea, southern California China, India, Germany and Japan.  "In the US this is considered a large car," he says. "I was 30 when I started on this project and designing a medium-sized family vehicle is not something you dream of doing at that age.  "However, I can now see it being a family car for me for the future." The car continues Hyundai's theme of 'fluidic sculpture'. "It's time to make an emotional connection with our customers and pull at people's hearts a little," he says, referring to the car's "natural organic quality" and "athletic and taut" lines. "There is a movement of line on this vehicle. It looks like it's in motion when it's standing still," he says.  He also describes the front grille as looking like a bird of prey. While the exterior was designed in the US, Hudson's studios collaborated with South Korea on the colours, introducing a metallic red to Hyundai's line-up for the first time and an adventurous "espresso brown" which looks almost black except in direct sunlight.

Three newcomers a week is way beyond the normal rate, even in a car world where 100-plus newcomers - everything from a facelift tweak to a full body change - hit showrooms each year.  Things were a bit quiet through March and April, but when the calendar flicked across to May the ships started landing with fresh new metal to tantalise anyone with a taste for something new in the driveway.Everyone in the car business knows fresh metal is the best way to lure buyers into showrooms and, with demand running at near-record levels, the conversion rate right now is massive.Hyundai is doing huge business and this week it has the successor to the Sonata - now with a trendoid i45 badge on the boot to try and break the dowdy Sonata pattern - with the tiny Euro-focus i20 in June.  We are also getting a first serious look at the Toyota Rukus, the first move in a plan to win Gen-Y buyers to the world's biggest brand, and Skoda has the station wagon stretch on its latest Superb.  Did I mention we're also having a first fang in the Porsche 911 GT3 RS at Phillip Island this week?The real problem with so much new stuff is finding the space inside a weekly Carsguide. In today's edition we still have to clear the impressive new Suzuki Kizashi and the classy BMW 5 Series before we can move on to the next round.  The other good news is that the cars we are seeing are all potential contenders for the Carsguide Car of the Year award.The Volkswagen Polo has already set the bar but the Kizashi will make the finals and so should the 5 Series. Later in the year we know Holden will have a VE Series II with star potential, Benz is about to uncork its Gullwing SLS, and the Jaguar XJ will arrive to take the British brand in a new direction.And that 911 RS? Not a COTY contender, but only because it is far too narrow focussed with a scorecard that reads 100 per cent for thrills and pace but closer to zero for value and people carrying potential.Follow Paul Gover on Twitter!

The decision to run with the alpha-numeric nomenclator is a victory for commercial commonsense and will allow Hyundai to leverage off the huge buyer goodwill already created by the award-winning i30 small car."There has been a great deal of discussion with Hyundai head office over how we would market the YF (Hyundai's internal designation of the new model) in Australia and while we don't see this as any sort of victory we are very pleased with the outcome," Hyundai Australia's director of marketing, Oliver Mann, says."I can't speak for other markets around the world but I would expect that the i45 name will at least flow to New Zealand."  With the i45 nameplate settled the Sonata replacement will join i20, i30, ix35, iMax and iLoad as the latest member of the new-generation Hyundai family."I see the i-cars as the definition of the new Hyundai models, particularly the i45 which shares the fluidic sculpture design language with the ix35," Mann says.  Hyundai hopes to have the i45 in showrooms by June, just weeks after the arrival of the i20 light car."It may well work out that the two cars arrive almost together," Mann says. "It is about production and availability. We are very confident of having the i20 here by May but the timing on the i45 is less certain although we would certainly hope to have it here by the middle of this year."Launched in the US at the end of last year as the Sonata, the car has been enjoying rave reviews and creating huge demand.  The coupe-like sedan was first unveiled for the Korean market in September and then put on show in LA. It is an attractive four-door with high-end European looks that came out of Hyundai's California design studio.In contrast to most of its competitors the i45 launched in the US and Korea as an all four-cylinder engine range with the most likely choice for Australia the new 2.4-litre Theta II direct-injection unit boasting 150kW, 245Nm and fuel economy of around seven litres per 100km.Drive will be through a pair of new six-speed gearboxes. To date there is no word on the double-clutch automatic that Hyundai has been developing and highlighted in a concept at the Geneva motor show last year.By the end of next year there is also expected to be available in the model line-up a two-litre direct-injection turbocharged diesel and a Hybrid Blue Drive -- a conventional parallel hybrid system but using the latest in lithium-ion battery technology from the company's association with LG.Hyundai Australia is remaining tight-lipped on the possibility of a second stream of the Sonata replacements joining the i45, possibly early next year.  A parallel development program has been running for the European market with a sportswagon-style model which is expected to be badged an i40 when it launches there towards the end of this year.That i40 badge for the different yet similar model could explain why the Australian YF has been given the i45 naming rather than the i40 which was originally expected.  "I really don't know anything about that," Mann says. "We are just happy at the moment to have the i45 confirmed."UPDATE: Read our first drive review of the i45 here.