2003 Hyundai Tiburon Gt Coupe 2-door 2.7l on 2040-cars

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Hyundai developed an airbag for panoramic sunroofs

We've reached a point where you can be in a car crash from just about any angle, and find yourself with a face full of airbag. But there's yet one more airbag frontier that Hyundai and its parts supplier company Hyundai Mobis are pioneering: the sunroof airbag. More specifically, the companies have developed an airbag to protect occupants in cars equipped with panoramic sunroofs. Hyundai explains in a press release that there was concern passengers' heads and limbs could end up going through the big glass opening in a rollover, leading to serious injury. The resulting airbag design aims to prevent that by deploying when a rollover is detected to contain occupants' bodies. It inflates from the back of the sunroof toward the front in 0.08 seconds and will go off regardless of whether the sunroof is open or closed. Hyundai, which together with Kia and Genesis had six of the 15 recent IIHS Top Safety Pick+ vehicles, claims the airbag reduced life-threatening injuries to minor ones during testing. It also noted that the company has 11 patents on the technology. No mention of when these airbags would appear in production vehicles was made. We would imagine that whenever Hyundai starts offering the feature, it will show up first on high-end vehicles such as Genesis luxury cars. Related Video:

Hyundai, Kia want to improve fuel economy by 25 percent

Hyundai and sister company Kia are giving themselves a little bit of time to make up a lot of ground in the fight for better fuel economy. We wonder if a recent multi-million fine might have something to do with this public target. The connected South Korean companies are vowing to increase their fleetwide fuel economy by 25 percent by 2020, Reuters reports. This will be done by further advancing their powertrains, looking at other ways to reduce weight, upgrading diesel engines and improving transmissions. That will all take money, but Kia and Hyundai will have $300 million less to invest thanks to a recent fine of more than $300 million from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Justice and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) for incorrect fuel economy numbers on around 1.2 million vehicles from the 2011-2013 model years. The civil penalties – $100 million of the total – are the largest in EPA history. In late 2012, Hyundai and Kia admitted to overstating the fuel economy of a number of models and said they'd change the official MPG figures and compensate owners. Hyundai spokesman Chris Hosford confirmed to AutoblogGreen that the company set the dramatic fuel-economy improvement targets. In the US, where Hyundai and Kia are operated as separate entities, Hyundai "remains committed to meeting the CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) requirements that have been set out by the US government," Hosford said The EPA recently released a report on fuel-economy and put Hyundai fourth in overall fleetwide fuel economy in the US among vehicle makers for the 2014 model year. The top three were Mazda, Honda and Subaru.

Facelifted Hyundai Veloster to get new 7-speed DCT, Flex Steer

No matter how you look at it, the Hyundai Veloster is an odd duck. With the vehicle's weird door configuration and styling that kind of looks like a modernized Honda CRX, the model is certainly unlike anything else on the road today. Since spotting one testing earlier this year (pictured above), we know that a refreshed version is on the way eventually, but that car keeps a lot of its secrets hidden under camouflage. New rumors from The Korean Car Blog suggest that the Veloster might receive a few mechanical changes to go along with the updated skin.
Among the biggest rumored tweaks is that the turbocharged model is receiving a seven-speed, dual-clutch gearbox as a replacement for its current, conventional six-speed auto. Another potential change for the naturally aspirated version is Hyundai's Flex Steer system that offers selectable weighting for the electric power steering.
Styling obviously isn't being left alone for the update. The mule testing earlier this year appears to show a new grille and altered bumpers underneath its concealment. The latest rumors suggest that's exactly the case with the possibility of a front end closer in design to the current Genesis, along with HID headlights and a modified hood design to remove the faux heat extractors.