Hyundai to update steering

A statement issued yesterday by global CEO and president Steve S Yang acknowledged the problem and promised to address it.

"Hyundai has to date tried to optimise its product engineering to largely suit four market regions: Korea, North America, Europe and other markets," Yang's statement said.

"We are now working to expand this effort into more markets, and as part of this, we have been working with HMCA to tune our vehicles to meet Australian road conditions and the preferences of Australian drivers.

"While we believe our efforts have often been successful, for example i30, there is undoubtedly further room to improve, and we appreciate the feedback given to us by the Australian journalists."

Recent criticism has been most loudly levelled at the i45 sedan that launched in May last year to great expectations - which had steadily grown after a few years of rising quality in Hyundai's cars, most notable with the launch of the i30 that earned Carsguide Car of the Year in 2007 and was a finalist in 2009 with the 130CW.

However while the i45's fresh style and high quality fit-out was praised when it arrived, it was pilloried in these pages and others for poor handling and steering.

Hyundai sent in the engineers admirably swiftly, and a revised version arrived with springs 15 per cent stiffer in the front and six per cent in the rear to corral the pitch and roll, thicker stabiliser bars to limit the understeer and tweaked dampers to improve the ride/handling equation.

As a result, the criticism lessened - but did not evaporate. Carsguide testers still found the ride lacked control while the steering feel was vague and had kickback.

Yang's statement was made after Australian journalists in Korea voiced their concerns to a research engineer and were told that while improvements would be made, overall the cars were "fine".

"We are targeting more for the global market rather than just for one single market, so there may be differences in opinion," senior research engineer for testing, Chan Hee Na, said at the car giant's Namyang research and development centre.

"But recently based on the request from Hyundai Australia, they are working to tune the cars so they are better suited for the Australian market.

"Basically we divide the market into US, Europe, general and Korea - four big categories.

"Australia follows the European spec, the cars that go to Australia those are fine."

The i45 for Australia is built in the Asan plant in Korea and fitted with hydraulic steering, while the US one (still called the Sonata) is built in Alabama and has an electric steering system deemed to be superior to the hydraulic one.

Hyundai Australia spokesman Ben Hershman says that there is no indication from head office about whether it would consider putting the electric steering into the Asan production line, any decision would not take effect until the next generation in a few years' time.