Hyundai's new Azera full-size sedan has a 293-horsepower engine, heated leather seats front and back, a standard navigation system with a rear camera, a full suite of safety gear, xenon headlights and LED rear lights. But make no mistake: Hyundai doesn't consider it a luxury car.
For all its features, the new Azera is a front-wheel drive that's larger than Hyundai's popular Elantra and Sonata sedans. That makes it unlike the big, luxurious Hyundai Genesis and Equus sedans that have startled the luxury market.
Azera is so proletarian, in fact, that Hyundai Motor America CEO John Krafcik, in a light-hearted moment after the Azera's introduction at the Los Angeles Auto Show yesterday, said could be a good choice for practical-minded investment bankers under seize by Occupy Wall Street protesters.
"It might be the perfect car for the 1% who don't want to be lambasted by the 99%," he joked.
Azera is powered by a more powerful Lambda II 3.3-liter fuel-injected V-6 engine with a six-speed automatic transmission transmission. Yet it will get combined fuel economy of 23 miles per gallon.
Krafcik says the car will compete against models like the Toyota Avalon, Chrysler 300 and Nissan Maxima. But he said that consumers in marketing surveys thought it might be a ready alternative to a Lexus, a pure luxury brand.
Remember, though. Azera is not a luxury car.
Source: usatoday.com
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