Does this make you more interested in Hyundai?
With few exceptions, to put it rather bluntly, Hyundaiis a running joke among North American car enthusiasts. If that statement fills you with rage, you’re either not an enthusiast or you’re in a tiny minority. Many times in the past the Korean automaker, along with sister brand Kia, has tried cracking into the gearhead community and each time the effort has fallen flat. But the N Vision 74 Concept might be the beginning of a turning.
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Then again it might not. Not everyone is going to love the throwback looks of the concept car, which hearkens back to the Hyundai Pony Coupe Concept that debuted at the 1974 Turin Motor Show. If you’ve never heard of or seen that old concept, you might be laughing and rolling your eyes right now. For the Hyundai faithful it’s a bit of a unicorn, so to have a modern concept pay tribute to it is a big deal.
Even if you didn’t know about the inspiration for the N Vision 74, you might still find the design intriguing. It has a boxier, more chiseled look than most cars these days. Even the Toyota Corolla is looking rather angry lately as designs one could easily associate with Ginsu knives have taken over. Sure, aerodynamic efficiency is important, but everything looking the same is getting really old.
Undoubtedly, Hyundai has built the N Vision 74 for two main reasons. The first is to test the waters and see if consumers might be interested in a production vehicle that looks similar. This is done all the time in the industry. And when the concept never results in a production model, that usually means public reception was either cold or too mixed to encourage executives to greenlight anything.
The other reason, which is perhaps even more important, is this concept lets Hyundai feature is relatively unknown heritage for Nort American consumers. That’s a huge challenge the brand has versus say BMW or Mercedes-Benz. But the fact is every brand has to start somewhere. The only question is will enthusiasts in this part of the world be interested in giving Hyundai a chance with something like the N Vision 74?
Images via Hyundai
