BusinessWeek has an interesting interview with Hyundai executive vice-president Kim Young Il. He discusses Hyundai’s future design direction, as well as subsidiary Kia’s future. “Our design direction for Hyundai is the river stone: a very smooth, solid, and refined surface,” he said. “The direction of Kia is a brick: solid and aggressive, with a feeling of strength.” See the rest of the interview for more discussion. To see exactly what these design directions look like, check out the Hyundai HCD-9 Talus Concept and the Kia Soul Concept.
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02/24, 2:24 PM
posted by:
DaEMoN
“The direction of Kia is a brick”
I do hope they don’t drive like one, aswell.
02/24, 6:01 PM
posted by:
Dallas
how the hell is a brick aggressive? A brick is the last thing I associate with aggressive…
Will Hyundai and Kia ever be real car companies, or just automotive jokes?
02/24, 9:47 PM
posted by:
manny
throwing a brick at something… say, a kia… now THATS agressive.
02/26, 12:11 PM
posted by:
Garris
“Our design direction for Hyundai is the river stone: a very smooth, solid, and refined surface,” he said. “The direction of Kia is a brick: solid and aggressive, with a feeling of strength.”
I sense some GM-think creeping into Hyundai’s efforts to differentiate its brands.
02/26, 9:23 PM
posted by:
Steve
I associate a brick with strength and strudiness. Naturally the statement about Kia being a brick is ridiculous. How could Hyundais with smaller, weaker engines be associated with a brick?
02/27, 1:09 AM
posted by:
Penyiar
This Hyundai forgets that a river stone remains low to the ground. You can’t have a slippery body AND a high ground clearance too! They neutralize each other; render the other useless.
Meanwhile the Kia Brick slopes at the back while the rest of the body tries to remain upright! No, this belongs in the Ugliest Cars Hall of Fame.
BTW, doesn’t this Hyundai look “70s Datsun”?