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Hyundai built an awesome Santa Fe to cross the Antarctic

Remember those amazing Arctic Trucks Toyota Hiluxes Top Gear used to go to the North Pole? Well Hyundai created a Santa Fe in a similar way for a trip across Antarctica. To do so required some significant alterations, all of which turned the Santa Fe Sport into a wicked off-roader. For added ground clearance, Hyundai fitted portal gears to the ends of the axles, a la Mercedes-Benz G550 4x42. Big tires also help with ground clearance, and the 38-inch examples used on the Santa Fe Sport are in fact enormous. They can even be deflated down to just 2 psi for maximum traction. And since the trip would be both long and cold, a huge 60.75-gallon fuel tank and an engine heater were installed. To sweeten the Antarctic trip, Hyundai brought along the great-grandson of Sir Ernest Shackleton. For those unfamiliar, the elder Shackleton made an attempt to cross the Antarctic in 1916. Unfortunately, as the video explains, his ship became trapped in the ice during the journey. Shackleton and the crew abandoned their goal of crossing Antarctica, and instead worked to survive, which they did. So for the centennial of Shackleton's attempt, Hyundai invited the great-grandson along to finish the trip. Hyundai also carved the names of Sir Shackleton's crew into the Santa Fe Sport's sheet metal to symbolically bring them along, too. You can see it all in the video above, along with more details on the trip at this website. Related Video:

Hyundai to launch European performance sub-brand

Hyundai has quickly emerged from the sidelines as one of the biggest players in the industry, outselling rivals left, right and center. Still, a dedicated performance division is still something that separates it from the big boys. Now, according to the latest reports, that's just what it's getting.
After setting up its own Nürburgring test center and gearing up to launch its assault on the World Rally Championship, the next step in the ramping up of Hyundai's performance credentials - in Europe, especially - will reportedly be to set up its own performance division along the lines of what Nissan has done with Nismo.
The first product in Hyundai's new European performance portfolio is expected to be a version of the next i20 hatchback that's set to launch in 2015. That in turn will be used as the basis for the company's next WRC challenger, to replace the upcoming model, pictured above undergoing testing. After that it's anyone's guess, but performance versions of the Veloster, Genesis Coupe and Elantra could be in the cards.

Hyundai, Genesis, Subaru warn their dealers about markups

Six weeks ago, word got out that Ford's VP of sales for the U.S. and Canada wrote one of those "It has come to our attention..." e-mails to the automaker's dealer body. The VP's problem was dealers trying to get reservation deposits for the Ford F-150 Lightning well above the official $100 fee. The tomfoolery resulted in interactions "with customers in a manner that is negatively impacting customer satisfaction and damaging to the Ford Motor Company brand and Dealer Body reputation." Two weeks later, GM told its dealers to cut out the reservation gaming and the markups on the 2023 Chevrolet Corvette Z06, banditry that's been going on for two years. Two weeks ago, Ford was back at it, this time about markups on the Bronco. Last week, Asian automakers swept into the melee, with Hyundai and Genesis, Subaru, and Infiniti writing letters to their dealers to deliver some variant of, "Stop pissing off the customers." Automotive News reported an SVP at Hyundai Motor America and the COO at Genesis Motor North America sent letters to their dealers expressing disappointment at "certain pricing practices which, if left unchecked, will have a negative impact on the health of our brand." One of the practices mentioned was dealer markups, another was the bait-and-switch, with dealers advertising one price then charging a higher price once the customer showed up at the lot. The letters acknowledged that dealers are separate companies to the automakers and have the right to set their own prices. The automakers cannot interfere with that; their leverage is distributing allocations and perks such as advertising support and financial incentives. So, like a movie boss letting the protagonist go on a technicality, the brands wrote, "we cannot stand idly by watching the actions of the aforementioned dealers undo all the efforts we collectively have put into making these brands what they are today." Jalopnik got tipped to a letter Subaru of America CEO Thomas Doll sent to that brand's dealers. Doll's polite yet insistent tone was the result of a letter a loyal Subaru owner sent to the automaker's VP of Customer Advocacy. In the market for a third brand-new Forester, the owner said they encountered a "tax" labeled a "Low Inventory Surcharge" of as much as $6,000, putting the Forester out of reach.