The 2009 Hyundai Genesis has been named North American Car of the Year.
The luxurious Hyundai Genesis has been named North American Car of the Year by a panel of 50 experts at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show. This is the first time a South Korean automaker has won the prestigious award. The Hyundai Genesis is also a finalist for Motor Trend’s Car of the Year honors in 2009.
Hyundai built the five passenger sedan to compete against the upscale Lexus, Infiniti, and BMW luxury sedans.
Hyundai used to be a joke. The Hyundai Excel in the 1990’s was the lowest car in the marketplace totem pole. The company made cheap cars only bought by people who could not afford other cars. Now, Hyundai has arguably built the best car in America.
Furthermore, in a brilliant marketing move, Hyundai recently introduced a policy that allows a customer to return any car purchased in 2009 if the customer loses his/her job in the year. That’s right. If you buy a Hyundai in 2009 and then you get laid off, you can return the Hyundai to the dealer and get a refund.
Meanwhile, GM, Ford, and Chrysler are begging the government for money, because they are out of ideas and have factories full of cars that absolutely no one wants.
What is Barack Obama’s plan to deal with America being outcompeted by South Korea? To get South Korea to buy more American cars. Here’s what Obama had to say during the third Presidential Debate regarding the trade agreement between the U.S. and South Korea:
“And when it comes to South Korea, we’ve got a trade agreement up right now, they are sending hundreds of thousands of South Korean cars into the United States. That’s all good. We can only get 4,000 to 5,000 into South Korea. That is not free trade. We’ve got to have a president who is going to be advocating on behalf of American businesses and American workers and make no apology for that.”
Newsflash, Mr. Obama. South Koreans view American cars as inferior in just about every respect to their domestic cars, and, frankly, I don’t blame them. Not only that, American cars are more expensive than Korean cars. The reason South Koreans buy so few American cars is not because of tariffs/quotas/regulations. When America makes a better or cheaper car than Hyundai, the Koreans might start to pay attention.
President Obama, instead of bailing out the soon-to-be-finished Big Three, we’d all be better off if you used that money to lower business taxes and/or encourage investment in companies like Tesla that are rethinking the car industry, instead of desperately trying to find a way out of extinction.
Innovation, customer satisfaction, and fine workmanship. That’s how you make money in the long run. It’s sad when a company from Korea, a nation that learned capitalism from the United States, has to teach American businesses that lesson.
January 11th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
[Comment reflected in post]
January 11th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
South Korea’s Samsung manufactures the finest lcd screens and cell phones frankly, crisp images and reliability. So there is no reason they can’t figure out how to make excellant cars as well. They have a steep fast learning curve. America, for profit reasons, chose to unload its manufacturing base over the past 50 years along with the skilled employees and engineering talant that went along with that. Now we have a service industry economy that just lacks those “build it” skills and interest. More people would rather go to law than engineering school. We have stripped away and tossed out much of our skill and creative building base. Neither political party has addressed this. Do you know that the EU Cern labs offer summer jobs for qualified college students at the LHC to bring in young people early to the evolving physics and engineering fields. We have nothing like that.
January 11th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
I was envying one of these from a distance the other day thinking it was a Benz or a Jag.
When I pulled up behind it at the light I had a fit. I couldnt believe it was a Hyundai.
they certainly have come a long way from being one of the ugliest cars around.
Whats really rubbing salt in the wound is that it was shown in Detroit.
Maybe this will be a wake up call to American auto makers that our cars dont have to be the inbred red headed stepchildren of the industry.
January 11th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
” Do you know that the EU Cern labs offer summer jobs for qualified college students at the LHC to bring in young people early to the evolving physics and engineering fields. We have nothing like that.”
ummmm … yes we do. the usa government hires many students during the summer in many fields, including fermilab which is similar to the lhc
January 11th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
my father is a theoretical physicist btw
January 12th, 2009 at 12:12 am
it would be wonderful to get that out about fermi labs. The Cern site has a very nice section on student internship positions, and a fantastic opportunity. Do you mean a mathematical physicist versus an experimentql physicist? If someone’s father drives the ice cream truck and sells ice cream bars like wonderful good humor bars, does that mean his kids will know how to manufacture almond bars in the basement like it runs in the family?
January 12th, 2009 at 12:26 am
oh by the way, the Large Hadron Collider is the most advanced particle experimental program going and may well elute the Higg’s Boson. Its colliding massive protons. Fermi has nothing like that. The computing power of the LHC alone is unprecedented. The scale of electrical and mechanical engineering involved is just amazing. Fermi was once competitive but since the bushy’s and clintons killed the texas superconducting supercollider after diffing the ring we have fallen so far behind, we simply gave some funding to CERN to build it in europe. In return we get to participate in some experiments. But its not the same.
January 12th, 2009 at 6:44 am
Its gonna make a big black hole and swallow us all Brian !!!
January 12th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Brian,
I think your particles would love to have a brain to collide with.
As for the post, Hyundai has become the Toyota of the 21st century. They make a good vehicle with a great warranty.
I have this question for all the greenies. How does an electric car provide any new engery? Can I hook my house up to it? Or will it power my street lights? Will we have electric freight trans? And what about the 18 wheelers. Will they have to stop every 4 hours and recharge for 18? How much will that add to the cost of my recycled carpet and other recycled crap I don’t want? And who wants to get on an electric airplane? “Attention passengers, we forgot to recharge Before take off and so we will either glide the last 100 miles to the airport or crash. Thank you for flying Greenway Air. Greenway Air means clean air for all and is safe for birds. We get you there eventually dead or live.”
An electric 767 would have to taxi all the way. That is called a BUS.
The gas and diesel engine will never go away. Sorry to tell you that. But there is no Big Battery controlling the electric car lobby.
Look, America needs to be drilling for oil here and now. Most thinking people want a car or truck with some power and room. We don’t want tiny clown cars.
January 12th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
“Telepods” are the answer.
There will still be gas cars, no doubt.
Inevitably we will run out of fossil fuels one day or the supply will be so little demands wont be met.
Alternative energy for transportaion is guaranteed soon one day.
And I want the change to come about under the premise that we are running out of fossil fuels.
Dont pull a Jimmy Carter on me and say were gonna be out of oil in a couple years and the earth will die.
And I also dont want to be bullsh*ted into buying some substandard vehicle thats not going to be viable as we go down the process of elimination figuring out which kind of engine is the most practicle according to the energy supply.
I dont want to drop 50,000 on an electric car only to find out 3 years later that hydrogen is the new wave, buy a hydrogen model only to find out 3 years later that fusion is the next wave and then later it will be the “flux capacitor” or the Flintstones model.
Its like what we went through with VCRs, beta max, Laser discs, mini cassetes, dvds,MP3s, IPODs.
I waited to buy my DVD player because I knew they were going to come down. So, instead of paying 800 bucks like my neighbor cuz he had to have it, be the first, I ended up paying 60 bucks for one just as good as his but will last longer cuz they got all the bigs out.
And I dont want to be BS’d into doin it for the earth just so they can get rid of models that wont stack up to the next years production.
January 12th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
You and I are Earth Haters. Shame on us.
January 12th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
I pi$$ on the earth every chance I get.
February 21st, 2009 at 3:36 am
wrong about Koreans in S.Korea not buying American cars because they are inferior.
I am living in korea and the reason they would buy an American car is because of its unique. Korea is littered with cars that are made in Korea and not many imports.
I’d say its a good move by Obama.