08 Hyundai Accent Sedan Auto Gls, Cloth, Power Windows & Locks, We Finance! on 2040-cars

Auto blog

2019 Hyundai Nexo Quick Spin Review | A better hydrogen fuel cell crossover

PYEONGCHANG, S. Korea — When we travelled to South Korea to test out the new Hyundai Santa Fe, we also got a chance behind the wheel of the new hydrogen-powered Nexo fuel-cell SUV. Hyundai unveiled the Nexo at CES in January as a replacement for the Tucson Fuel Cell, which logged miles and gathered data in 18 countries over the course of its generation. The Nexo is an improvement: It's more efficient, packed with smarter driver assistance technologies and, in our opinion, is more attractive. With a clean an uncluttered exterior, it has a familiar crossover profile, but the front end, is a little more unique with a large grille and uber-thin lighting tucked high under the front of the hood. The rear end offers a lot of blank sheet metal, which looks fetching in white. Aerodynamic vents behind the rear quarter windows open up at the back of the car beneath a sporty-looking spoiler. But it's the clean, sustainable future that its hydrogen fuel may provide that's most important. Which is not to diminish the benefits battery electric cars offer in the interim — and likely for the foreseeable future — but renewable electricity is intermittent. So how does one store massive amounts of clean electricity for long periods to use when it's not readily available? Hydrogen electrolysis – using an electric current to decompose regular water into oxygen and hydrogen. The beautiful thing about the abundant element is that it can be converted back to electricity, either on a grid-scale, or in the fuel cell of a passenger vehicle. (The less beautiful thing is how to store hydrogen safely, but that's another story.) Our first stint inside the vehicle took place in the back seat, where we had plenty of legroom and clean surroundings. The interior was white and grey with matte silver metallic trim. The plastics in the Nexo aren't particularly soft, but somehow Hyundai makes them look premium with fine grains and patterns — one of the tricks Hyundai uses to make its affordable cars feel like higher-end automobiles. We were comfortable back there, especially with rear seat heaters to ward of the winter chill in the Korean mountains as we drove past the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. When it came our turn to get behind the wheel, we felt right at home in the comfortable driver's seat. The steering wheel was attractive in its two-tone leather, and smooth to the touch.

Hyundai Kona crossover factory grinds to a halt ahead of U.S. launch

SEOUL — Hyundai workers in South Korea have stopped building the Kona sport utility vehicle this week ahead of its U.S. launch at the L.A. Auto Show — a protest against what the automaker's labor union says are plans to trim assembly-line headcount. The union, which is also in annual talks with management over pay, warned that a wider strike was possible. Hyundai has been in discussions with its labor union since October on production plans for the Kona, a key model that it hopes will reverse a U.S. sales slump. The union contends that the automaker wants to introduce more automation and outsource more assembly of key sections to part makers — plans that it is vehemently opposed to. Hyundai management argues that the union is making "irrelevant demands" such as requests for extra windows in the factory as part of the production discussions. The automaker's decision to start production of the Kona on a new assembly line was made without consultation with the union and was unacceptable, union leader Ha Boo-young said in a statement, adding that a wider strike was possible "should there be another provocation by management." The move comes ahead of a planned unveiling of the U.S.-production version of the Kona at the Los Angeles Auto Show on Wednesday, with U.S. sales slated to begin early next year. The Kona is currently sold in South Korea, where it has proven to be a popular model, as well as Europe. The two days loss of production so far this week is equivalent to 1,230 vehicles, Hyundai said. Hyundai Motor President Yoon Kap-han said it was regrettable that the labor union was disrupting production for a high-demand model at a time when most of its plants were "suffering from the worst sales slowdown." Hyundai Motor's global sales fell 6 percent from January to September compared with the same period a year earlier, as a limited number of SUV models hurt sales in the U.S. market and a diplomatic row between Seoul and Beijing hurt sales in China. Reporting by Hyunjoo JinRelated Video: Featured Gallery 2018 Hyundai Kona: LA 2017 View 13 Photos Related Gallery 2018 Hyundai Kona View 20 Photos Image Credit: Live photos copyright 2017 Drew Phillips / Autoblog.com Plants/Manufacturing LA Auto Show Hyundai Crossover SUV 2017 LA Auto Show autoworkers

How a Texas Hyundai dealer became the Chevy SSR king

The SSR isn't one of the most appreciated vehicles in Chevy's long history. With a style amalgamating the look of a vintage hotrod, convertible and a pickup, it's really serving a niche market right from the start. However, a Hyundai dealer in Texas has turned selling the cult models into a booming business and has become the de facto king of the quirky truck. According to Automotive News, Paul Peebles runs North Freeway Hyundai in Spring, TX, but he's better known in the Chevy SSR community the premiere seller of the weird model through his used car network. The odd venture started in 2010 when Peebles wanted to boost his pre-owned business and bought several sporty vehicles. Among them were five SSRs, and he threw a cookout for owners to get the word out. Things just ballooned from there. Since then, Peebles' used car dealer has had a hand in 447 SSR transactions, and some of those are the same truck coming back to sell again. With just over 24,000 of them out there, that works about to two percent of the model's production moving through just one business. The dealership also sponsors an SSR owners' forum online. Being a major broker for a niche model also means that Peebles often gets rare examples of the SSR, including some of the Indianapolis 500 pace car versions, according to Automotive News. We even saw a bizarre one last year when the business put this shark-inspired truck on eBay Motors. The whole thing also works out well for Peebles' Hyundai business. Specializing in SSRs brings other performance models in as trade-ins, and they can draw folks to the lot to check out the collection. Then, maybe visitors can take a look at a Sonata, too.