Hyundai has been beleaguered by its own success. Plagued with the image of being a maker of econo-cars like Santro and the Accent, the Korean giant has been struggling to present itself as a lifestyle brand, something that its rivals have achieved well. So what should Hyundai do to establish itself as a maker of luxury cars?
It met with some success with the launch of Sonata. The Sonata had snob value (styling cues from Mercedes and Jaguar at act here) going for it, but the current Sonata Embera loses that too! Hmmm, bad times then? Lets have a look at what the company has been offering us for the sake of "lifestyle" image. Sonata. Tucson. Elantra. Think... think hard. Er... no. None else.
So lets talk about the one car that might see a facelift soon - Elantra. Even in its current guise, it shines as a VFM. But then why did it not sell if was so good? Well, Because of many a factor. The styling was not to everyone's liking and you wouldn't have paid over 10lakh for such styling. Would you?
So Hyundai went about slashing the prices drastically and made the Elantra great value in the bargain. Even this has not really seen the car sell in good numbers. So opting for the only tool remaining, Hyundai is planning to launch an "all-new" Elantra in India soon.
The new one sure looks much better than the current model but as it has been, the grille remains much to be desired of. The large headlamps extend back in the hood and the smart looking fog lamps compliment the bumper. The waistline is pretty pronounced and there is a curve running across the side that looks pretty hot! The rear is attractive as well and looks like an 'inspired' effort. Hyundai sure gets inspired quite a lot (The inspiration being the Toyota Corolla this time?). The C pillar is what got me excited big time. It slopes down beautifully to merge with the waistline. The interiors too will be quite plush, we hear. And the photos (though of a LHD) certainly suggest that.
Hyundai has an option of a lot of motors to power the Elantra with. A 2.0L CRDi engine is most likely to take the fight to the Chevrolet Optra Magnum and the Skoda Octavia while a 1.8L petrol heart will tussle with the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla.
Hope Hyundai strikes it right this time round. Wish them luck!
More on Hyundai Elantra:
