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Hyundai is determined to be a major player in the world’s automotive scene. Indeed, though the South Korean company won't come straight out and say it, it appears to us that nothing else but the number one sales position will satisfy the people there. A decade or so back we can remember Hyundai saying its ambition was to get into the top ten. Eyebrows were raised at that seemingly over-the-top expectation – now Hyundai is in fifth position...
The Korean giant sees styling as a major factor in drawing attention to itself, so has established styling studios on several continents, including a style centre in California. The studios competed with one another to design the all-new Hyundai i45, but the way-out Californian design was the winner. We have just spent a couple of hours travelling in a car with the chief designer, a personable young American by the name of Andre Hudson, who came to Australia to launch the car.
Hudson’s brave design is full of curves and lines that are at the far edge of current automotive thinking. In particular, take a look at the front of the car and what he describes as being the face of a bird of prey. The headlights are the aggressive eyes and everything around them builds on the look and feel they provide. There's plenty of old-style chrome plating in the i45, something that seems sure to draw the attention of the baby boomers. And the young trendies will like the use of piano-black on the inside of the topline variants.
In profile the new-for-2010 Hyundai i45 carries the sort of low-slung swooping cabin introduced by Mercedes in its CLS-Class four-door coupe. But the Korean design isn't as extreme as the German one because its car is a sedan and has to have good headroom in the back seat. My tall frame, I'm six-feet and tall in the upper half of the body, did fit into the rear seat, but I was marginal in clearance when sitting in the topline model, the i45 Premium, because of its standard sunroof.
Legroom is lavish and it's possible for four adults to travel in comfort, and five without too much of a squeeze. Indeed, though the i45 is probably going to be seen as a medium sized car in Australia, the American’s class it as a large car. Those considering a Camry, Aurion, even a Commodore, or Falcon, should try the new Hyundai for size.
Power is provided by a modern direct-injection petrol engine displacing 2.4 litres. Its peak outputs are 148 kW of power and 250 Nm of torque. The latter being more than the hard-to-attain 100 Nm per litre for which all engine designers strive. A six-speed manual gearbox is offered in some i45 models, but the six-speed automatic transmission is far more likely to be the choice of buyers in this class. The auto has a sequential manual override function, giving drivers extra control when they feel they need it.
During the test drive program organised out of Brisbane during the press launch of the new Hyundai i45 we were impressed by the refined feel of the car. The suspension copes well with Australian road conditions, including some surfaces that weren’t as good as they should have been. The steering and suspension characteristics are better than average for an Asian car, but not really in the same class as the best of the Europeans in this size class.
The engine is a beauty, being willing to rev and providing quite a nice note at the same time. Fuel consumption seems lower than average for an engine/transmission in this market segment. But we will have to conduct a full road test in our home region before coming to definite conclusions in this increasingly important area.
Hyundai i45 sort of replaces the moderately successful Hyundai Sonata in the Australian market. But is slightly more upmarket than Sonata and seems sure to attract a lot more buyer interest. Principally because of its leading-edge styling, but the greater overall refinement will certainly play its part as well.
Value for money is high, with the recommended retail price beginning at a pretty modest $29,490.
MODELS AND PRICING
The full range, with prices (excluding dealer and government charges) is:
i45 Active 2.4-litre petrol: $29,490 (manual), $30,990 (automatic)
i45 Elite 2.4-litre petrol: $34,490 (automatic)
i45 Premium 2.4-litre petrol: $37,990 (automatic) |
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