Hyundai Still a Separate Luxury Brand

Korean carmakers have made impressive progress in the last decade. From below-par products that were chosen by people who wanted a new car and couldn’t afford anything pricier, Hyundai and Kia models quickly become competitive in most segments. And we're not the only ones who say this; even VW's boss is wondering why his company's products can't match Hyundai’s quality in certain areas.
No matter how good a car is, though, preconceptions die hard. For certain people, the badge on the hood says a lot about not only the car, but themselves as well; no quality survey, iPad manual, road-test review or 10-speed auto transmission is not going to change that in the foreseeable future
If you can’t change the people, you can surely change the badge, though. Toyota, Nissan and Honda have gone down that road by launching premium divisions like Lexus, Infiniti and Acura. This has worked more than well, at least in the U.S.
And this is the dilemma Hyundai is facing right now, according to a report from Autonews. If some buyers choose to ignore its upmarket offerings like the Genesis or the Equus because they sport a round “H” badge instead of an “L”, a three-pointed star or a white and blue roundel, why not launch a new brand?
Dave Zuchowski, executive vice president of sales for Hyundai Motor America, acknowledges the issue: “There’s a conversation going on within the company that says, ‘Does having the Hyundai badge on the premium vehicles sell more units, or does it restrict us from selling more?’.”
The question becomes difficult to answer because Hyundai sales are on the rise anyway: in the first year of production, Hyundai sold 3,193 units of its US$60,000 Equus sedan. That’s 893 more than the company expected.
On the other hand, Zuckowski admits that even though Genesis sedan and Coupe sales have increased by 13 percent in 2011, many buyers have chosen to replace the Hyundai logo with the optional Genesis winged badge.
If it gets the green light, the new division will include rear-wheel drive saloons and coupes and adopt the Genesis brand name and an alphanumeric naming system for its models.
Contrary to Lexus and Infiniti, there would be no different dealership network and the new sub-brand would be sold through Hyundai’s existing network.
While Zuchowski noted that the company hasn’t made a final decision yet, if it gets the go ahead, the launch could coincide with the new Genesis and Equus sedans, which are expected next year as 2014 models.
Mind you, creating a luxury sub-brand is not necessarily a recipe for success. In 1992, Mazda planned to launch the Amati luxury division in response to Acura, Lexus and Infiniti. The plan never took off, and the Xedos name that was applied to the European Mazda 6 in 1992 didn’t make any difference, so it was ditched five years later.
And, of course, we all know what happened, at a more upscale level, to a certain German premium manufacturer when it decided to challenge Bentley and Rolls-Royce…

New Stratos Project Dead

The automotive history is full of people who tried to make their dreams come true but failed, some due to their limited ability or resources, some because of bad timing and others because the big fish swimming in their pond were, well, too big to handle. Automotive industry entrepreneur, collector and historic car driver Michael Stoschek has just joined their ranks after attempting to build a 21st century version of one of rallying’s iconic cars: the Lancia Stratos.
Earlier this week, Stoschek announced that he will not be able to fulfill the 50 orders he had already received: “The reason lies in the attitude of Ferrari CEO Amedeo Felisa, who opposes the production of other vehicles by companies that work with Ferrari," he wrote on his website.
His “mistake” was that he chose to use Pininfarina for the design of the chassis and bodywork, and a Ferrari 360 or F430 as a donor car for the powertrain of the New Stratos.
Although Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo himself drove it and made very positive remarks about the car, Maranello had a change of heart and announced that it would not allow Pininfarina or any other of its suppliers to be connected with the New Stratos project.
Stoschek said that, despite having the chassis and bodywork data in CAD, the search for another company to take over from Pininfarina and continue the project failed since “many of the details are only in the minds of some highly skilled people employed by Pininfarina”.
Nevertheless, he said that the New Stratos will not be confined in a garage but will instead be presented at various public events – and he added that he is already building a black Lancia Stratos Stradale, "so that the many similarities between the old and the new Stratos are more obvious".

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Dodge Bids Farewell to Caliber Crossover and Nitro SUV

The end of 2011 brings about the death of two much-criticized Dodge models, the Caliber crossover and the Nitro SUV, both of which were conceived and developed during the time Mercedes-Benz's parent company Daimler reigned over the Chrysler Group. The last examples of the Caliber and Nitro models rolled off Chrysler's Belvidere, Illinois and Toledo North assembly plants respectively this month.
Introduced in 2006, the Caliber was designed to replace the Neon in the same fashion that Nissan tried to win the European C-segment (think VW Golf) with the Qashqai crossover, but without the same success.
The Caliber left a lot to be desired, especially in the powertrain/drivetrain department and its rent-a-car like interior.
Monthly sales of the compact five-door model peaked in May 2008 with 12,856 units, dropping to a pitiful 412 units in November 2009, with Dodge delivering 1,202 Calibers last month.
The Caliber's replacement will be introduce in a couple of weeks at the 2012 Detroit Motor Show with the new 2013 Dodge Dart, which is a compact-sized sedan model based on the platform architecture of the Alfa Romeo Giulietta.
The Nitro SUV made its debut in 2006 as a more masculine and sportier Dodge derivative of the second generation Jeep Liberty with which it shared its platform but not the latter's more hardcore all-wheel drive hardware. It too suffered from a cheap interior while it's on-road dynamics were poor.
The best sales month of the Nitro was in March 2007 with 7,532 deliveries, while the worst was in July 2009 with 1,115 units, with Dodge selling 1,661 units in November 2012.
In a recent interview, Fiat-Chrysler Group CEO, Sergio Marchionne, said that "This car should never have been built” referring to the Nitro.
Story References: Automotive News

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