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This Hyundai commercial may be the weirdest of Super Bowl 50

It happens every year at the Super Bowl. For every headline-making, Twitter-breaking commercial, there's an ad like this one, simply titled "Better," from Hyundai. An ad that's so odd, people will focus not on its message, but the overarching weirdness of the spot. The ad in question follows the life of a man born with an exposed V8 engine where his heart should be (it's actually a little high, but we're nitpicking). Yes, it's as strange as it sounds. According to Hyundai, the man "strives to make the world a better place," but the only time we see anything approaching that is when he opens a jammed umbrella for a woman. For most of the ad, it's hard to tell you're even seeing a car commercial. It's not until the end, where the man is shown working in a Hyundai design studio alongside people with similar anatomical features, that the ad begins to make sense. Perhaps part of our disappointment with Hyundai's latest Super Bowl spot is that the NFL's official automotive sponsor has done so well otherwise. The brand has become a fixture during the big game over the years, and will likely see some success in 2016 with spots featuring both Ryan Reynolds and Kevin Hart. Those successes aside, though, we'll be surprised if there's a great response to this particular Super Bowl 50 commercial from Hyundai.

Hyundai fined $17.35 million for late Genesis recall

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has slapped Hyundai with a $17.35 million fine for delaying a recall on the 2009 to 2012 Hyundai Genesis sedan back in 2013. The recall grew from the original figure of 27,500 units to 43,500 sedans in November of last year, and focused on brake fluid that wouldn't prevent corrosion of the hydraulic control unit.
"Hyundai remains committed to making safety our top priority, and is dedicated to ensuring immediate action in response to potential safety concerns including the prompt reporting of safety defects," David Zuchowski, Hyundai's president and CEO, said in a statement.
Hyundai originally issued a technical service bulletin warning dealers to replace brake fluid. This was expanded to a full recall following NHTSA's involvement.

EPA says it will more closely monitor fuel economy claims from automakers

The unintended acceleration brouhaha at Toyota led to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration tightening the vise on recall procedures. Likewise, the fuel economy kerfuffle that blew up with Hyundai and Kia's admission of overstated fuel mileage claims could lead to the Environmental Protection Agency policing automaker assertions by performing more audits.
At least, that's what a senior engineer with the government agency said while in Michigan giving a talk, according to a report in Automotive News. What that actually means, however, is still in question. Just ten to 15 percent of new vehicles - something like 150 to 200 cars per year - are rested by the EPA to verify automaker numbers. The EPA's own tests include a "fudge factor" to adjust lab mileage for real-world mileage, and the agency still relies on automakers to submit data for tests that it doesn't have the facilities to perform. How much more auditing can the EPA really expect to do, or perhaps a more relevant question would be how much more accurate could the EPA's audits become?
The price of gasoline, the psychological importance of 40 miles per gallon to a frugal car buyer, an automaker wanting to further justify the price premium of a hybrid, all of these things contribute to fuel economy numbers that insist on creeping upward. Perhaps the senior engineer encapsulated the whole situation best when he said, "Everybody wants a label that tells you exactly what you're going to get, but obviously that's not possible. A good general rule of thumb is that real-world fuel economy is about 20 percent lower than the lab numbers." If the lesson isn't exactly 'buyer beware,' it's at least 'buyer be wary.'