2014 Hyundai Elantra on 2040-cars

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Hyundai, Los Angeles Times and Consumer Reports in fuel economy skirmish?

On Wednesday, Consumer Reports issued a story taking umbrage with the auto industry's move toward smaller, turbocharged engines, noting its own testing revealed that many such powerplants fail to deliver their promised fuel economy numbers. The story covered a variety of domestic and foreign automakers, with Ford and Chevrolet featuring prominently in the discussion. Hyundai was also mentioned for its Sonata Turbo, but the Korean automaker's family sedan came within one observed mile per gallon of its EPA ratings in CR's test, and its normally aspirated 2.4-liter counterpart actually beat its combined EPA ratings, 27 mpg to 26.
Good news for Hyundai, right? The automaker was so pleased with its report card that it sent out a small statement to a handful of news outlets including Autoblog, reading in part:
"We at Hyundai believe that Consumer Reports real-world average fuel economy testing results and EPA combined fuel economy results should correlate, and in fact do correlate nicely for some brands. Among all brands, Hyundai does particularly well in this correlation, with no high-volume brand having a better correlation between EPA combined and Consumer Reports real-world fuel economy."

2014 Hyundai Accent gets updated styling, added convenience features

Integrated blind-spot mirrors are hardly a luxury item, but they're one of the simplest yet most welcome equipment developments we've seen in some time, and we're glad to see them beginning to spread throughout the industry's offerings. The 2014 Hyundai Accent is the latest car to get them, along with a host of other new features.
Chief among the changes to Hyundai's entry-level offering are new projector headlamps that combine LED accents with a welcome-light function, along with an available B&M Racing sport shifter on the five-door SE hatchback. Other small-but-useful standard-equipment updates include triple-flash turn signals and sliding sun visors, while uplevel SE models are treated to a tilt/telescope steering wheel, updated audio system with improved ergonomics and voice recognition, auto-up driver's side window and the aforementioned upgraded projector headlamps.
Mechanically speaking, the Accent appears unchanged, with the sole engine offering consisting of Hyundai's well-regarded 1.6-liter Gamma four-cylinder delivering 138 horsepower and 123 pound-feet of torque to go along with its fuel economy ratings of 27 miles per gallon city and 38 highway.

Honda, Hyundai and Kia get best word-of-mouth recommendations in US

Forget advertising, incentives and, yes, even our excellently crafted vehicle reviews, sometimes the best way for automakers to sell cars is still good ol' fashioned word of mouth. In an attempt to measure this "word of mouth" power, The Boston Consulting Group, a management consulting firm, has created a new study called the Brand Advocacy Index (BAI). The index takes a look at how various industries perform from person to person. Those industries include automotive, smartphones, grocery, mobile telecommunications and banking.
The study polled more than 32,000 individuals across Europe and in the US to come up with the top 55 brands in these various industries. On the automotive side of things, the top brands in the US were Honda, Hyundai and Kia, all tied at 63 percent. On a global scale, Volkswagen and Toyota scored the highest with a 65-percent BAI rating (both in France). The average BAI for auto industry players tallied 50 percent.
As for companies in other industries, Apple's iPhone was the index's top-rated smartphone, Trader Joe's was the highest recommended grocery store, Virgin was sat atop the mobile telecom industry and USAA was the top retail bank. Scroll down for the full press release on the new study.