Dec 10: Wow, what a difference a few years make!

The good ol' Hyundai Pony. Hey, I can hear the laughter from here. I don't think any one who had any association with this car, had anything but negative things to say about it. Well, except maybe my dear departed mother-in-law. Her white, top of the line model broke down and had to be towed twice on the way to Florida and she still loved that car. Cried when its life ended after ten years of grief. Funny, but she never felt the same way about her next car, a Honda Civic.

Yes, those early Hyundai's were garbage, but the company persevered and raised the bar, as they moved into another market segment with the Stellar (which definitely wasn't)........

You hardly ever see a Pony and I was going to say that, you never see a Stellar, but parked beside me at the gym the other day was a red Stellar. The back end seemed to be sagging, like maybe the frame was rusted through and the car was going to split in half. But there it was, about a twenty five year old Stellar, in all its rusty glory. Do you realize that, it now qualifies to attend an old car show? Maybe we'll see a low mileage example at the upcoming collector car auctions? Yeah, right. Give your head a shake, BT.

But as we all know, times change, companies change and products improve. Unless you've been living in a cave with no mail service or access to the news, you must know that Hyundai has really stepped up, first improving their quality from poor to very, very good. Then came the styling revolution, which placed them at the forefront of their categories.

The next step? Raise their sights even higher. First it was the Genesis entry level luxury model, which was introduced in 2009, then the expensive Equus luxury liner. Well, now Hyundai has taken the Genesis nameplate and put it as the name of their entire luxury range, much like Acura is to Honda, Lexus is to Toyota and Infiniti is to Nissan. Separate showrooms? Most likely, but too early to tell.

But the new product is the big news..........

What was under this cover, would be Hyundai's first model in their real assault on the luxury market. Once the cover was removed earlier this week, this is the car that emerged.......

Replacing the Equus, this is the 2017 G90 for North America or the EQ900 for the home market. No, I don't think much of their names either, but they fall into line with what most of the other luxury brands call their cars. Apparently people remember letters and numbers easier than a real name (sure could have fooled me). You can see the new corporate front end, along with a pretty darn good copy of the Mercedes S Class back end, with maybe a hint of Bentley. Not bad company to mimic.

And that interior........

Not sure what version this is to be found in, but what a stunner. Could be anything from one of the uber luxury brands and I don't mean a taxi.

Hyundai didn't put their name on the first Genesis and I don't think the Equus has been much of a force in the market place, but with a probable separate dealership, Genesis should scrub clean of the Hyundai name and start to do some business (I think it's called "optics" or "perception").

What might be next in their line up? How about this lovely coupe, seen at Pebble Beach, that was making the rounds of special events and auto shows recently?

Looks awfully good to me. So, how will the Genesis luxury brand do? As usual time will tell, but I'd put my money on Hyundai's ability to succeed with yet another challenge. What do you think?

Until next time.......