(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

Hyundai?s popular Elantra gets some mid-cycle updates for the upcoming model year. This is something car companies do, but I also think that Hyundai, when it comes to cars, is a bit more than a car company. Sure, sure, there?s lots of goodies to go over here, and I will, but I also think we have another data point – something else to consider when it comes to Hyundai’s cars:
They are actually in the fashion business.
The Sweet Spot
Look, there?s always a lot of ?follow the leader? in car history. Tail fins, trim styles, grill designs, cab-forward architecture, you come up with the idea, and if it?s a good one, or a popular one, next thing you know, you see it on more than your cars. My belief, and this is something that?s been cooking inside my skull for a long while now, is that Hyundai has hit the sweet spot. A spot somewhere in between car manufacturing and almost disposable consumer goods. I?m not going to say that Hyundai is incapable of designing original looking cars – just look at the concepts they roll out at auto shows every so often. What I am saying is they are more interested in manufacturing cars that do three things: hit a price point, hit a feature set, and hit a fashion point.

Copy Cats
Hyundais have a tendency to look like copies of someone else?s cars. Currently, they sort of look like some version of an Audi S7 4-door hatchback type thing. Nothing wrong with that. Especially if w...