Hyundai Grandeur..a luxury sedan have been called ′dream car′

[Kim, Song-Yi] To celebrate Hyundai Grandeur’s 30th birthday, Let’s check out the history of Hyundai’s Grandeur. It is really 30 years old as the first Grandeur was introduced in 1986.

At that time, In Korea, the luxurious vehicle was Saehan’s Royale Series, which is assembly production of German Opel’s Rekord.

I, as anuniversity student, still can’t forget the catchline “Now, Grandeur opens new age of luxury sedan” in the Grandeur’s ad. Royale series which had been called as a ‘car for members of the National Assembly(congressman)’ monopolized luxury sedan market, and Grandeur came out to fight against it.

Grandeur before 30 years, was the most luxury vehicle among Korean made cars, and now Genesis’s EQ900 took the position. Today’s Grandeur is a luxury sedan for those middle-aged customers achieved some success. Of course 5th generation Grandeur has its 30-year of long history.

‘Grandeur’ which means grandeur, fits well with its image ‘luxury car’. Now, the name has been considered as a byword for luxury sedan.

In fact, it is believed that a good car cannot be defined merely by technology. Even the car gets a high tech, there are still a lot of factors which make a society accept.

Although so far domestic carmakers have made the same sized car with Grandeur or imported some vehicles that has better performance, but they have not been able to win Grandeur. From this, Grandeur may be considered like Toyota’s Crown.

Crown is one of the representative luxury vehicles in Japan. Although there are Lexus, or Century which has bigger size, Crown seems to be considered differently in Japan.

One ironic thing is that the 1st Grandeur was developed by Hyundai and Mitsubishi who wants to challenge against Toyota’s Crown.

But Mitsubishi could not last it, and Hyundai’s Grandeur has been advanced as ‘Korean Crown’ through its history. It is true that Toyota’s Crown is still a representative luxury vehicle in Japan, and some Korean had imported it too.

The 2nd generation Grandeur came out in 1992, gave a imposing and gently impression. Grandeur at that time was a Chauffeur driven car. Its design also shows well the fact with the long hood and trunk proportion.

The 3rd generation Grandeur in 1998, ‘XG’ became a luxury sedan driven by its owner. Also, it was the first vehicle among Korean made cars which has no door sash in order to give sporty image.

Especially, the back of Grandeur XG design is avant garde. Like this, less conservative image made Grandeur become more popular among middle-aged customers, and somewhat awkward, it got a title ‘Popular luxury sedan’.

Grandeur XG is still popular in Korea, and its design has a tenacious hold on life.

In 2005, TG Grandeur was released with door sash to give traditional sedan image. Bulky proportion with 17-inch wheels and volumes shows its challenge of introducing sporty luxury sedan.

And 5G Grandeur HG was introduced under Hyundai’s own design philosophy. It gives dynamic impression.

Grandeur and Crown both are known as practical luxury sedan, they are slightly different as Crown purses balance in terms of the design, while Grandeur shows some aggressive look.

However, this may not the thing that Korean customers want. ‘Soft and easy’ may be our traditional emotion, but people do not give attention to it.

Grandeur’s history started with being the most luxurious vehicle, should now start its new history with ‘dream car’ that people desire.

A car is bought based on needs, but customers eventually choose what they want to buy, and this desire leads to development.

If what Hyundai wants is to win customer’s heart, it may need to develop a car that people desire, not a car that should be bought for a need no matter it is a sports car or a sedan. If Hyundai treats a car and its customer more carefully, not just shows some cost reduction(?) effort, it may be able to gain one most important factors of a desired vehicle.