i45 compels change of 'process'

Geneva International Motor Show

Any company growing its sales base as fast as Hyundai must keep a weather eye out for changes of fortune in the marketplace.

The Korean importer faced a potential backlash following the launch of the new i45 mid-size car last year. Applauded for its packaging, quality and style, the i45 was nonetheless roundly criticised by local journalists for some dynamic shortcomings on Australian roads.

Hyundai reacted rapidly to the observations of the local press and contacted the factory about a fix for the car's suspension and steering. Credit to Hyundai Australia, the recalibrated cars began hitting the roads here within a matter of months.

But what went wrong in the first place -- and has it been fixed since? The Carsales Network met Oliver Mann, Hyundai Australia's Director of Marketing and asked him for an update. To start, we queried whether the good press Kia has been receiving lately -- also tailoring their cars' suspension and steering for the local market -- had forced a rethink on Hyundai's part?

"We're delighted they're following us," Mann slyly answered. After laughter from the journalists had died down, he continued on a more serious note.

"We've actually been doing local suspension tuning since the introduction of i30, back in 2007. What I will say is [that] we've changed the process that we used to follow and which had worked successfully for us -- with i30 and afterwards..."

Mann sees little difference between the development process adopted by Hyundai and Kia to customise underpinnings for the local market.

"Likewise, we use third-party local suppliers with our tuning; it's more that the process has changed. Our process used to start off in Korea and be signed off in Australia. Now, our process actually starts in Australia and continues in Australia until we're happy that our benchmarks have been achieved."

But Kia relies on a local team of engineers to evaluate their products' suspension tuning and steering setup. Engineers from Kia's consultants, GTS, explain to Kia's Korean engineers what they need -- in engineering terms -- and the factory complies with that. In the case of the Optima, for instance, the factory was told how much negative camber, how much castor, what spring rates and what dampers to use.

In contrast, Hyundai has had some success with a consultant driving the car with the default settings and then informing the factory that the car needs more steering feedback, less body roll -- and such like. Hyundai's approach doesn't always produce the results that Kia's more structured method appears to produce. So Hyundai's change of process will be welcomed -- as long as it can consistently do the trick in future.

Mann doesn't leave the discussion there though. He harbours some doubt as to whether the original criticism of the i45 was entirely fair, given its target demographic doesn't necessarily include acknowledged driving enthusiasts.

"There is some discussion -- even within the media community -- as to whether i45 was a miss or a hit, quite honestly," he said.

"There were journalists who went on the drive program who thought the car was very capable and they were very happy with it -- and wondered why we reacted so quickly when a vocal minority [spoke up] on the day.

"To be fair, the car was not engineered -- and hasn't been engineered at any point -- to be a sports sedan. The car has always been engineered for comfort; it was benchmarked against Camry with that exact purpose in mind. It has probably now moved across the spectrum a little bit -- in terms of somewhere between 'sporty' and 'comfortable', as a result of that review that was prompted by some journalists on the day."

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