My first addition to the #@^& List will be Hyundai whose violation is outlined in the following article:
Hyundai: The Laziest Car Company in the World.
By: Chris McCarthy
By: Chris McCarthy
Recently, Korean company Hyundai motors has been getting rave reviews on their entire lineup of cars from their sporty Genesis to the towering Tuscan SUV, but it seems that while everyone has been wowed by the performance and aesthetics they don’t seem to notice that these vehicles look strangely familiar. Hyundai has shamelessly copied class leading vehicles from dozens of manufacturers and then repackaged them as Hyundai products.
Let’s start with the most obvious, the four door Hyundai Genesis.
The four door Hyundai Genesis was released in 2008. According to Hyundai, the Genesis was meant to compete with BMW M5 in all areas except price. However, it seems that the individuals in the design department took that statement a bit too literally. The resulting car, while striking, represents one of the greatest affronts to automotive design. The designers essentially lifted the nose and hood from an E Class Mercedes, attached the doors and side panels of a BMW 5 series, and then slapped on the trunk from a Bentley Continental. Oh, and while they were at it, they copied Bentley’s badge. I cannot begin to tell you the number of times I have been driving down the road and said, “Hey look there’s a Bent!…oh it’s just a Hyundai.”
While creating this kind of confusion is probably great for marketing and makes the prospect of buying a Genesis more appealing, what does it say about Hyundai and the consumer in general? I liken the 2008 Genesis to a fake Rolex. It looks almost as good and probably works almost as well, but to buy a knockoff just tells the world “Look at me! I think I’m a big shot, although I did just get fired from my job at 7-11, due to incompetence, and I still live with my parents even though I’m 35.” The irony of all of this is that Hyundai originally created the new Genesis to try and attract younger buyers. Unfortunately, almost all of the four door Geneses’ that I have seen were driven by people forty or older. Seriously, if you are 40 years old, a Hyundai Genesis, no matter what it looks like, not even one that looks like a Ferrari, is going to make you look like a high roller. Buy yourself a used BMW, Mercedes, or Porsche instead. People will at least take you seriously.
As for Hyundai, I can’t believe that there hasn’t been an absolute uproar over their designs. The other design copies aren’t as blatant as they are with the Genesis, but are obvious nonetheless. Take the new Hyundai Sonata for instance. It’s a classic case of let’s make a car just like car X but change it just enough that no one will notice. In order to create the Sonata, it looks like Hyundai designers took an M series Infiniti and shoved it through a funnel. What pops out at the other end is a warped looking Infiniti that Hyundai simply rebadges and then puts on sale.
How about SUVs?
Here’s your recipe: One Toyota Rav4, Remove the trunk mounted spare tire, nip tail lights and tuck the D pillar a bit and you have the new Hyundai Santa Fe! You might be thinking, “Well SUVs are all large boxy things, so that’s not fair to Hyundai.” Well actually, that’s not exactly true. Take a look on Toyota, Infiniti, Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, Ford, and all the others. Their cars, while similar in terms of function, look quite different from one another. I mean no one is going to confuse a Ford Flex with a Chevy Tahoe or a Suburban. By the same token no one has ever said “Hey, nice BMW X5” when pointing to a Land Rover Discovery or a Porsche Cayenne. While all of these companies compete fiercely with one another, they take care to make sure that their products are different enough because they understand that customers don’t all want to be driving the same looking vehicle.
Think about the last time you were at a car show or saw a beautiful new car drive by. Did you think to yourself, “Just because it looks different doesn’t make it any good.” Or did you say, “Wow that car is amazing I wonder what it’s like to drive!” My guess is that 99.999% of you reading this picked the latter one. That is exactly the reaction car companies and designers, regardless of industry, want you to have. It’s that WOW factor that shows what is really going on behind the doors of the company. Hyundai, in an effort to play with the big boys, has forgotten this rule. Granted, its vehicles are extremely well priced and are much better value for money then a lot of other makes out there; but it doesn’t change the fact that Hyundai is not breaking into uncharted territory technically or visually. My assumption is that in order to keep costs down they have forgone taking the visual route letting others do the work for them.
In essence, Hyundai has simply decided to copy of its automotive peers in the hopes that we, the teachers, the people who grade them with our cash and checkbooks, are not paying attention. Well, Hyundai, this is me throwing an editorial eraser at you, you’ve been caught, so please put your head down and keep your eyes on your own damn paper.
