Imitation Is The Sincerest Form Of Flattery

[cuius]

http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/hyundai-looks-challenge-toyota-prius-new-hybrid

[FROSTYBALLS]

Be interesting to see whether Hyundai have actually developed their own hybrid system, or whether like Mazda, they have bought it from Toyota

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Would you buy one? Me neither.

Honda hybrids flopped in the UK and Peugeot must have sold a grand total of about 17.

I think that whilst more people are accepting of the technology, they're only doing so from a manufacturer they trust. Toyota have a reputation for reliability and overall it is well earned. Peugeot? lol nice looking cars but not reliable and Hyundai? I wouldn't keep hens in one.

[FROSTYBALLS]

Think Hyundai have really improved since introducing their 'i' series. Most of their range for the European market is built in Europe - i10 and i20 in Turkey, i30 in the Czech Republic, etc. The new i20 being launched in a few weeks looks OK. Our 2012 i20 which was priced within the same price range as the Aygo, has been as reliable so far as either of my Auris, and the German design is better finished and better equipped than our previous Mazda 2 (although that was built by Ford in Spain).

[Uncle Buck]

Yup, would have to agree. Hyundai have made great strides in the last decade, no longer the bargain basement buckets they used to be. Just like Skoda, the quality has risen & so has the price.

[PeteB]

Would you buy one? Me neither.

Honda hybrids flopped in the UK and Peugeot must have sold a grand total of about 17...

I would consider both Honda and Hyundai - maybe not a Peugeot though.

Having driven the Honda Insight a bit, it largely felt similar to drive to the Gen 3 Prius in terms of how it responded to a given throttle depression. OK, it's a simpler system, but cheaper. It doesn't do pure EV (although it CAN move at low speed without using fuel, but the engine has to turn because it's a series hybrid).

The Honda's interior is, in my humble opinion, vastly better quality than the Prius. From the front seats, there's only one thing that really out me off - when you stop, the engine shuts down most of the time, just like THS. BUT, put it in "P" (because you're not planning to go anywhere), and the engine starts, and continues running indefinitely! If found this intensely annoying, because I like to use P when stopped in traffic for a minute or two.

It's the back seats than really spoil the fun. The Prius had good space for entry and exit at the rear, and decent headroom inside. The Honda is terrible in both respects.

If it had better rear accommodation (or I only needed a 2+2) and they fixed the engine run in P, I'd seriously consider one.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Yup, would have to agree. Hyundai have made great strides in the last decade, no longer the bargain basement buckets they used to be. Just like Skoda, the quality has risen & so has the price.

And therein lies the problem. A bargain basement Hyundai or Kia was worth a punt, but paying almost full dollar for an 'almost ran' car with ridiculous depreciation isn't one for me.

I do remember the Kia Rio when it came out. It was a horrid estate car but cost about £5,000 when the nearest competitor was about £13,000. It would have been worth a chance and run it into the ground. Now they're much better but not quite there but demand serious money. They're not even that brilliant even now. Rather have a second hand normal car than save £3,000 on a new Kia. But each to their own.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Would you buy one? Me neither.

If it had better rear accommodation (or I only needed a 2+2) and they fixed the engine run in P, I'd seriously consider one.

It was the Insight that got me into hybrids. I saw it online and thought Wow that looks great. Then I went to test drive it but the cramped and low rear seats ruined it for me as a taxi. The boots space was also a little restricted. I then went to look at the Prius which was only about £1,500 more expensive back then and ended up buying one. So much improved all round.

Unfortunately the Honda gets lumped onto the 'hybrid' bandwagon and priced at a premium, when really it is significantly substandard compared to a Toyota hybrid. If it was priced to match it's simplicity then they might sell but charging what they do I'm surprised they sold any at all.

The Toyota HSD is so much more superior in so many ways. The only benefit the Honda system has over Toyota is that the car will still start and run if the hybrid Battery is kaput.

[FROSTYBALLS]

Hyundai have had a hybrid on sale in the US since 2011 - the Hyundai Sonata Hybrid, which is related to the Hyundai i40 (Europe) and i45.

[Ten Ninety]

I was under the impression that Hyundai had improved greatly in recent years until I spent two weeks driving a brand new Tucson in California earlier this year. It was a pretty sharp looking car (it's the ix35 over here), well-specified with an attractive and well-built interior. However, that was where the good points ended. The engine was, quite simply, the worst I have ever experienced. It was so loud and harsh that I honestly thought it was a diesel when I first fired it up; the vibrations through the seat were that bad. It had no power and even less torque. It was impossible to drive smoothly with the most ridiculous hair-trigger throttle, jerky gearbox software and scarily mushy brakes. And the ride was abysmal; crashing and lurching around everywhere.

Now, I'm well aware that standards in the US are comically low when it comes to cars. However, the Hyundai managed to be worse than any of their domestic turdboxes I've driven over the years which really is saying something. It was obvious that all the development money had gone into the sharp exterior design and the 'perceived quality' of the interior; none of it had been spared for engineering. The European ix35 is built in a different factory from the Tucson I drove, but that to me would seem only to potentially impact build quality issues (which were not a problem) rather than fundamental engineering problems.

Whatever the case, in my eyes it does not bode well for their development of an effective hybrid system. And I will certainly not be buying a Hyundai in the foreseeable future.

[stompe]

All that said ^^^^ My guess is Hyundai will be the Biggest manufacturer of cars in the not so distant future.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Hmmm maybe, maybe not. Kia are part of the Hyundai group and advertise they have over 10,000 positive customer reviews that they're happy to show. I wonder if they're hoping people don't actually bother to read them!

I suggest you actually look these reviews up. There are a couple issues that rears its head on them over again; poor quality control (significantly so) and very poor fuel economy (cars advertised at 80 mpg only getting 35-40). Hyundai were slated in the US for issuing fantasy mpg ratings and I believe they were fined.

We should all treat official mpg results with a pinch of salt but getting less than half the official rating shows a problem. The Prius should get 72 mph and most people get between 50-65 mpg.

Hyundai and Kia are no longer cheap and not very cheerful, though we did say that about Toyota in the 1970's :)

[FROSTYBALLS]

Currently Hyundai are in 8th position as regards car production, behind Honda (7th), GM (6th), BMW (5th), Ford (4th), Daimler (3rd), VW (2nd), and Toyota (1st) - as at May 2014.