2006 Hyundai Tiburon Se Coupe 2-door 2.7l on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Goes Both Ways: Free-trade pact sees South Korean brands losing share at home

France has been vocal, but not alone, in noting the rise of the South Korean automakers in Europe. The signing of a free-trade pact in 2011 between South Korea and the EU, along with the especially value-conscious buyers in a crisis-stricken Europe, has seen market share increases measuring in the double digits for Hyundai and Kia - analysts expect 14-percent growth for the two in 2012.
A report in Bloomberg has found that there's pain at the other end, too: The pact more than halved import tariffs on European cars headed to South Korea to 3.2 percent, and prices are now close enough to domestic offerings for more South Koreans to pay the premium for foreign luxury nameplates and the cachet they confer. Products sold by the five domestic automakers hogged 92 percent of the market last year, and sales have dropped 5.2 percent this year whereas import sales have risen by 24 percent. This will mark the first year that imports claimed ten percent of the market; compare that to 2002, when domestic market share in the world's 11th largest auto market was 99 percent.
The Germans are at the head of the arrow, counting for 65 percent of imported car sales, but every foreign maker has seen double-digit gains. Analysts think foreign makes could ultimately grab 15 percent of the market.

Here it is, Hyundai's headlining Super Bowl commercial

Hyundai has ponied up for five commercials to play in, around and after the Super Bowl on Sunday, and it's slowly been releasing them one by one this week to attract as much attention as possible to these expensive ads. You've stuck with us through the first four, and we've got one last ad from Hyundai, its headliner, to show you.
Called Epic PlayDate, the ad's big hook is alt-rock band The Flaming Lips, who not only appear in the ad, but also wrote a new track called Sun Blows Up Today just for the spot. The track is available on iTunes as a single today, and will be a bonus track on their new album called Terror, which comes out in April.
The commercial is meant to sell something, and that something is the new three-row Santa Fe crossover. It follows a day in the life of a family with kids who do all sorts of crazy things, and we're told by Hyundai that the activities in which they partake pay homage to "signature band references" of The Flaming Lips.

Hyundai to build test facility at N"urburgring

It looks as if Hyundai is set to build a test facility at the famous Nürburgring. Carscoop reports the Korean automaker has commenced construction on a 10,000-square-foot test center with access to the lengthy German track. Hyundai says the $7.3 million facility will help the company focus on improving the ride and handling of its vehicles through extensive research and development.
Sounds like a plan to us. While we've seen Hyundai vehicles improve on many fronts over the past few years, the company continues to struggle with suspension refinement compared to its Japanese, German and domestic rivals.
Automakers routinely flock to the Nürburgring for testing and development thanks to the track's unusual attributes. With a variety of surfaces, banking, turns, elevation and even weather, the circuit offers engineers the ability to put a vehicle through its paces in a wider range of conditions than most facilities.