Fifteen years ago, the notion of having a Hyundai luxury car was unheard of. At the time, Korean cars were regulated to the cheap, fast food stuff: cheap, tasteless and utterly disposable. It didn’t matter that their sub-compact cars were actually reliable: as long as the price reached a certain barrier, buyers simply looked further east—to Japan. But as product cycles came and went, Hyundai slowly bridged the perceptions gap and soon became a ‘serious’ car brand. At first, the halo effect was limited to the Starex, and then, it soon spread to the Getz, Tucson and Santa Fe. If you sense that there’s a pattern going on here, you’re absolutely right. Besides their tremendous success with commercial and sport utility vehicles, Hyundai has yet to crack the mainstream passenger car market (the sub-compact class aside).
A model rundown reveals the casualties: Accent, Coupe, Elantra, Matrix and Sonata. Despite being extremely competitive in their respective market segment (the Accent and Sonata come to mind), buyers haven’t really caught the Korean bug and instead settled for something, again, from Japan. With such a track record, it takes more than guts to launch and sell the P 1.758-million Azera—it takes cajones. But, it’s here, in its full and unadulterated 4,895-mm glory, ready and willing to coax buyers away from the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry. Well, at least in theory. In reality, the Azera seemingly benchmarked the Camry and came out as a bad clone of one.
If you thought no other car in the market today could make you snooze faster than Toyota’s land yacht, think again. The Azera, on all fronts, takes the cake. From the outside, the look is luxury car generic, and though you’ll argue with ‘understated elegance’ design speak, the lack of interesting cues belays that description. From all angles, there are sweeps and curves on the Azera’s skin, but none will make your pulse quicken. It exudes an aura of a diplomat’s limo (sans hood-mounted flags), making this car look digestible to just about anyone, the Dear Leader included. If you do manage to stay awake after five minutes of staring, maybe you’ll notice the severe case of chrome overload or maybe the twin oval tail pipes or maybe the five-spoke 17-inch wheels.
Despite the spiffy alloys or the sporting potential of the twin tail pipes, the Azera goes back to being a barge when it comes to its on-road performance. Despite looking like a rear-wheel drive car, the Azera is actually a front-driver with an independent double wishbone upfront and multi-links at the back. The set-up is reminiscent of a Mercedes-Benz E-Class, but in Hyundai’s case, the driving dynamics fall flat. The ride does feel kingly, which is good if you spend most of the time in the back seat. It absorbs just about anything Metro Manila could throw at it, including overnight potholes and the cat eyes on Julia Vargas Avenue. But turn the steering wheel, and it feels anesthetically numb. It’s like moving the Mars Rover from Mission Control—you know the car’s moving but you just can’t gauge anything.
As numb and boring the Azera is in heavy traffic situations, it does feel momentarily alive when you come across a long enough straight road. This is down to the highly potent 235 horsepower 3.3-liter V6 under the hood. Though the peak power is decidedly less than those found in the 3.5-liter V6s in the Honda and Toyota, the Hyundai does have a broader way of delivering the power. It gives the power in a very quiet and muted manner, but the way the speedometer rises is confirmation enough of the Azera’s high-speed cruising potential. Mated to this smooth engine is an equally smooth five-speed automatic that is unobtrusive and slick. There’s a manual shift override, but don’t spoil the smooth experience by trying it. Leaving the transmission as is, and you’ll swear that the Koreans have caught up with the Japanese, even if it’s just when going through a straight-line.
Once you reach a traffic light though, your heartbeat flat lines again thanks to a quick touchy-feel around the Azera’s cabin. If there’s such a thing as ‘Korean generic’, then the Azera suffers from it. It feels like an enlarged Sonata with the same beige-on-beige treatment. Perhaps the only ones that give the Azera a proper identity are the expansive wood trim that encapsulates the occupants and the textured aluminum accents near the shifter area. Feature-for-feature, the Azera is a heavyweight with just about everything built around convenience. There are motors everywhere from the front seats to the steering wheel and even to the folding side mirrors and the moon roof. Sadly, it’s hard to get a grip with the Azera’s driving position even after about a week’s worth of driving. Each movement of the seat or steering always brings a new problem be it the brake pedal or accelerator being too far or the steering wheel too near. This is magnified by the car’s poor front and rear visibility as well as the oddly magnified driver’s side view mirror that gives new meaning to the term, ‘blind spot’.
Sophisticated the Azera most certainly is not, but it makes you feel like a geriatric too. And that’s not just because of the color scheme or the wood trim. Even the standard audio system, with all those buttons, doesn’t have a simple auxiliary input jack or MP3 capability from its 6-disc in-dash changer. That said, if you still prefer to slot in round, silvery things to play music, the 8-speaker Infinity system is top-notch with good clarity and power.
With such competitive rivals such as the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord, and perhaps to a degree, the Chrysler 300C, Hyundai’s decision to market the Azera locally doesn’t make much sense. Though it’s the cheapest V6-powered luxo-barge your peso can buy, it simply can’t compete competitively. You can argue that the Azera comes loaded with tons of features and will still provide a good ride (if you’re chauffeured), but all the others can do that with even less quirks than the Azera. And that’s something worth the extra P 300,000 for.
By Ulysses Ang | Photos by Jason K. Ang
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