Category: Hyundai

I drove Ford’s New Maverick in late September in Nashville, Tennessee. Ford describes Maverick as “Unibody SuperCrew Pickup”. This means it has four doors and a spacious interior capable of carrying 5-adults. The cargo bed is a short 4.5 foot affair, but Ford has designed the bed with great flexibility.

The new Maverick is the latest vehicle to be spun off of Ford’s excellent and flexible C2 unit body platform. Others on the platform include the Ford Escape, Lincoln Corsair, Ford Bronco Sport and now the Ford Maverick. This platform gives Ford “go-fast” product development capability and also helps with cost efficiencies.

People will call the Maverick a small pickup, but it is not. It rides on a 119-inch wheelbase and has an overall length of almost 200-inches. A typical mid-size car has a 110-112-inch wheelbase and overall length of between 180 and 185-inches.  The Maverick is about a foot shorter than Ford’s Ranger mid-size [...]

The 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz is a Sports Adventure Vehicle establishing a new niche for Hyundai in the USA. Distinctively styled with a four-door cabin and short pickup bed, the Santa Cruz will appeal to a wide range of people wanting head turning looks, good utility and ease of use.

AutoPacific attended the press preview for the 2022 Hyundai Tucson in Tucson, Arizona in April 2021. The 4th generation Tuscon proves to be ust the right size. It is easy to drive, quiet, smooth riding and distinctively styled. Hyundai continues its string of well-done new models giving it one of the strongest vehicle line-ups in the market today.

The all new 2021 Hyundai Elantra is an excellent example of a car maker still making great cars. With many automakers now concentrating on crossover SUVs (XSUVs), Hyundai continues to design and develop outstanding cars. While Hyundai's XSUVs are very competitive too, Hyundai understands the car business remains very important.

The 2020 Nissan Versa moves Nissan's lowest priced car upwards. It is larger - longer, wider, but lower. Styling is much more mature showing that even the lowest priced car in a lineup can look good.

Cadillac enters the 7-passenger premium brand crossover SUV market with the 2020 Cadillac XT6. With a distinctive Cadillac front end, but otherwise conventional styling, XT6 will not offend anyone. The interior package is generous and comfortable. Finally, Cadillac gets a 7-passenger SUV with a fold-flat 3rd row seat. That is a big, big deal.

The Hyundai Santa Fe (@hyundaisantafe) was the first Korean brand vehicle to win AutoPacific’s Vehicle Satisfaction Award. That was in 2001. There have been four generations of the Hyundai Santa Fe selling 1.6 million units in the USA. All have been successively better than its predecessor. The 5th Generation Hyundai Santa Fe, the 2019 model, has just been released and all Hyundai dealers should have them in their showrooms by the end of August 2018.

2019 Santa Fe – a REAL SUV 

Hyundai Motor America product planners rightly concluded that the previous generation had gotten too soft and sporty. The stylists of that fourth generation sacrificed utility for style making the windshield faster and making [...]

The results of AutoPacific's 22nd annual Vehicle Satisfaction Awards (VSAs) identify the most satisfying vehicles in the market. An industry benchmark for measuring how satisfied an owner is with his/her new vehicle, VSAs are based on survey responses from over 58,000 owners of new 2017 and 2018 cars and light trucks.

The all new 2018 Hyundai Kona small crossover SUV (XSUV) has just been shown to the press in an event held, wait for it, on the Kona Coast of The Big Island of Hawaii.  There were 23 or 24 Konas on hand for the journalists to drive around the island.  So, this was a pretty big event for Hyundai Motor America (HMA).

In AutoPacific’s 2017 Small XSUV Consultancy, 38 XSUVs with a wheelbase of 110-inches or less are included.  There were enough data to do complete analyses on that many individual vehicles.  There are an additional seven all new small XSUVs on sale now but too new to have been included in the AutoPacific database.  That makes 45 entries in the small XSUV category.  Now comes the 2018 Hyundai Kona wading into the fray.