That sums it up for me too. Hyundai was a bad joke, up there with Lada and the Yugo. In fact I would say probably the worst brand name in cars I could think of.
I'm glad they improved, but I would never buy a car with that nameplate. You never get a second chance to make a first impression.
That said, the Equus car of theirs looks very nice...roomy, powerful V8, nice features. Looks as good as the Lexus LS600, which is the king of Asian imports, for a lot less money.
Hyundai needs to have a luxury division using a different name. Toyota, Honda, Nissan all did this (Lexus, Acura, Infiniti) for a reason. Luxury car buyers want a nameplate that is luxurious and indicates the car is a quality, expensive product. Even GM and Ford did this way back in the horseless carriage days with Cadillac and Lincoln. German makers Mercedes and BMW don't have to get a luxury name as over here all their products are considered luxury products. When Mercedes introduced the Smart Car the dealers were like "Whatever you do don't call that a Mercedes or it will kill us". In Europe Mercedes is seen more as a manufacturer of varied price ranges and products. They make work vans, large trucks, buses, taxi cabs, police cars, and all kinds of cars. A bit like GM in the US in that they are in many areas. So the luxury Mercedes S550 is talked about as "the S-Class" not "Mercedes". In Paris when I was there people would say things like "he arrived in a Class S" when discussing high-end Mercedes products.
So if Hyundai opened seperate dealerships selling the Equus under the nameplate "Tao" or something, they would sell a lot more of them in North America. Hyundai just equates with 'cheap crap' to my generation and we don't want that nameplate on a car we drive. The fact that it is a good car now is all the more reason to change the name.
