2014 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid Limited on 2040-cars

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Hyundai teases updated Equus before Big Apple debut

The digital ink has yet to dry on some of our Geneva Motor Show coverage, and we're already shifting gears getting ready for the New York Auto Show. To help get us in the New York state of mind, Hyundai has released this shadowy image hinting at the refreshed 2014 Equus that it will be unveiling at the end of the month at NYC's Javits Center.
While we can't make out any major changes in this single image, Hyundai promises at least 30 updates to its flagship sedan including improvements to styling, cabin materials and ride and handling as well as advancements in advanced safety features and "driver technology displays." If we had to guess, the latter sounds like it might be something along the lines of a digital, reconfigurable gauge cluster. The only major difference we can actually see in this image are the new multi-spoke wheels, but we're sure Hyundai will be dropping some more hints before the official introduction on March 27.

Hyundai, Buick dealer apologize in wake of Chinese baby social media incident

A very strange story out of China today, as Hyundai and a Chinese Buick dealer were forced to face allegations of using allusions to an infamous child murder on a social media site as a way of promoting the safety features of their respective vehicles.
The original sad tale goes something like this: On March 4, a man reported to police that he had left his infant child in a running Toyota RAV4 while he ran into a supermarket briefly. When he came back out, the vehicle and the child were gone. Later in the week a suspect turned himself in to the police; confessing to them that he had stolen a sport-utility vehicle, strangled the infant that was in it, and then buried the child in the snow.
As you might imagine, the gristly incident was covered massively in the Chinese media. (There was huge public outcry as well, as evidenced by the vigil scene, above.) "Changchun baby abduction" was very quickly amongst the highest ranking search teams of the China's Weibo social media site - an equivalent of Twitter in the English-speaking world.

Hyundai Azera large sedan officially dead in America

Hyundai has released its 2018 model year information, and it appears the Azera won't be making the cut for the new year. The large sedan has been cut from the American lineup, though overseas markets will still have access to the car. In fact, those markets will enjoy a fully redesigned model with muscular lines and an upright fascia. Hyundai's reasoning for dropping the Azera model is that other Hyundai models, as well as the current crop of Genesis cars, are becoming more widely appealing. So, basically, the narrow range of consumers that demanded a larger, more "luxurious" vehicle than the Sonata, but weren't willing to make the small jump to a Genesis, is too small to keep the model around. There are a couple of other noteworthy changes in the 2018 Hyundai lineup. The new Accent sedan is still on its way to dealerships, but the Accent hatchback is gone. Since the company hasn't shown an Accent hatch yet, we're not completely surprised by its omission. What is odd is that there's no hint in Hyundai's wording at it being introduced at a later date. Despite that, there's still the possibility Hyundai will simply introduce a hatchback version later, as it did with the Elantra and Elantra GT. And perhaps, in the vein of that i30-based Elantra GT, the Accent hatch could be based on the i20 this time. Speaking of hatchbacks, the Veloster won't have a 2018 model year. Instead, the 2017 model year has been extended through 2018. We of course know that the Veloster isn't going away permanently, since we've seen spy photos of new versions. So we suspect that this long model year indicates that we'll see the new Veloster by the end of this year, or possibly the start of 2018, with a launch a few months after for the 2019 model year. Related Video: