In Inception, there is a car chase scene. This does not spoil anything at all. But the most interesting thing about the chase scene as a whole is that the protagonist vehicle is none other than a Hyundai Genesis. Yeah, a Hyundai. A Hyundai. It’s not really news, the growth of the once-little Korean car maker, but it’s moments like this that really make me realize of just how big they’ve grown, and that they’re playing in the big leagues now.
In my bigger car-nerd days, I was one of many who saw Hyundai as nothing but a budget-car maker, and that nothing they really made could be taken seriously. At the time, my claims, at least to me were validated by how crappy the Tiburon looked. Underneath the hood was nothing that unique either, and was considered to be kind of under-powered, in general. The Accent and Elantra were not much better, but the maker as a whole had to have been turning a profit on sheer value, and the 10-year, 100,000 mile warranty that they boasted.
In short, Hyundai was kind of the automotive industry’s joke. A wanna-be Honda, and not a serious threat to the likes of Toyota, Ford, or GM. The biggest insult to an under-performing sport car was to be used in the following metaphor:
What does (name of under-achieving sports car) and the Hyundai Tiburon have in common? They’re both classified as sports cars.
The next generation of Hyundais began to raise my eyebrows. Maybe it was a combination of other n00b car makers, like Kia and Daewoo hitting the markets with cheaper cars, that simply filled the needs for cars, to take the heat Hyundai once received, but also the fact that Hyundai was improving upon its own cars, to where they looked a little better, and performed a little better as well. The funny thing is that Kia is actually owned by Hyundai, almost as if Hyundai kind of inadvertently created its own patsy to relieve themselves of the criticism, while they planned and plotted and executed their own plan. The Tiburon was finally made to look actually kind of decent for once, but I think one of the biggest turning points for the company was the development of the V6 engine that powered the six-cylinder Tiburon, as well as their first foray into the SUV department, with the new Santa Fe. It was adequate in the latter, but as far as sports cars go, a 181-horsepower V6 is still a little under-powered.
Which kind of brings us closer to today – after a decade of sticking to their guns, and most importantly, a highly-aggressive marketing saturation that pretty much ensured Hyundai to get their logo seen in gigantic events from the Olympics, World Cup(s), Super Bowl(s), NBA Finals(es), commercials, billboards, among many other marketing channels, Hyundai is more than just another name amongst the car makers. They’re elite, and they’re making their mark on the industry as a whole.
They’re not as monetarily cheap as they used to be in the past, but they’re still competitive with their competition from Japan in terms of classes and costs. But beyond the dollar signs, Hyundai is likely the eventual winner. Take for example the Hyundai Elantra, compared to the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry; Hyundai’s V6 model is around the same price as the I-4 models of Honda and Toyota. From the get-go there is plenty of reason to go with Hyundai, not to mention the sheer volume of features, made standard with Hyundai, that are not with the others. The only thing that the Japanese rivals have that Hyundai doesn’t have is the longevity, and their names; in time, those will eventually change too, unless both evolve with the times. I had nothing but Samsung phones for the last decade, but when they started slacking, and eventually giving up, I had zero qualms moving onto my HTC.
The most fascinating thing about Hyundai’s rise is that yes, they remain in competition with the Japanese car makers, but they’ve also looked beyond as well, setting their sights on the European, luxury car market. They might not have the reputations of BMW and Mercedes-Benz, but they’re doing a good job of going Paul Heyman on them – hiding their shortcomings, and accentuating the shit out of their strengths. Namely cost. And it’s really quite brilliant how it’s working out too. Hyundai is currently making some pretty luxurious, high-performing vehicles, like the Genesis, and boasting how it costs almost half to a third of what a comparable BMW costs. Personally, I have to say it’s working; I certainly see more Hyundais on the road, namely the Genesis, and for every Genesis on the road, that’s one less douchebag in a BMW that I don’t have to bitch about.
In short, Hyundai has spent the better part of the last decade and a half, pretty much doing nothing but pushing all the right buttons, and making all the right moves. And now Leonardo DiCaprio is doing the Rockwell Files move in a Hyundai Genesis with Ellen Page sitting next to him. In movie that likely millions are going to see a Hyundai logo, but I imagine that they’re used to that by now.
