The mid-Nineties Ford Laser sped around the large roundabout, the young woman not hanging around but certainly not going fast enough to attract attention. Behind her, heeled over on the wailing, smoking front left-hand tyre was the Grandeur. Fighting a losing battle to keep in touch with the oblivious P-plater, the big Hyundai pleaded again and again for more steering input. People turned to stare as the Grandeur driver gritted his teeth and sighted over the canted dashboard at the disappearing Laser tail-lights, the steering wheel kicking and bucking in his hands.
Roundabout finally negotiated, the Hyundai turned down a side street, soon meeting the first of a series of moderate-sized speed humps. Over the hump at less than the signposted advisory speed and the totally undamped suspension bottomed-out, a teeth-clenching g-r-u-n-c-h being torn from the car as the tow hook beneath the front bumper scraped on the road.
HMAS Grandeur, report to pilot at harbour entrance, please...
A different time, a different place.
The ambient temp gauge said mid-thirties but inside the Hyundai, the world was a comfortable place. Climate control quietly blowing away, superb CD pumping hard, creamy-smooth V6 purring as the road passed backwards at 110 km/h. Every so often the undulations in the scenery meant that a touch more cruise control throttle was required to despatch a hill; each time the LED display on the dash showed an otherwise imperceptible slurred change from fifth back to fourth.
Passing slower cars required the cancellation of cruise with one of the wheel-mounted buttons, quick acceleration to 140 or so during the passing manoeuvre, then the resumption of the pre-selected 110 cruise. Each time that the resume button was punched at the higher speed, the gearbox slurred back to fourth, the automatically dialled-up engine braking quickly bringing the speed back down to 110. Then a change back to fifth in the auto box, and progress continued.
Unobtrusive, effective, refined, capable.
The Grandeur is in many ways so competent and pleasant - yet so totally appalling in its suspension behaviour - that we don't know whether to laud its positives, or concentrate on its incompetent, unbelievably bad, spring and damper settings. And let's be quite clear: we're not talking about throwing the 1600kg car around a racetrack, or flicking the sequential five speed back and fourth as we fang down a twisty road, balls to the wall, nostrils dilated and breathing quickened. No, we're talking about driving over shopping centre carpark speedhumps at a walking pace, of negotiating broken and choppy bitumen, or cornering at normal - nay, pedestrian - speeds. The twin airbags will help you in the event of an accident, but they won't help save the life of a four year old boy chasing a ball out in front of you, not when the Grandeur understeers straight over the top of him....
And does this oh-so-soft suspension give a good ride? Well, not really. Over short sharp bumps the ride can in fact be definitely jiggly - the sort where women complain that their breasts bounce. That might be fun to watch, but I'm told that it's not very comfortable for the owner... Over some surfaces the ride is okay, but generally over anything other than boulevard smooth bitumen, the bumps need to have just the right amplitude and/or frequency if they're to not upset the Grandeur's composure.
Basically, the suspension needs a major rethink - but we doubt that it's a deficiency in the system's fundamental design. The Grandeur uses double wishbones at the front and a multi-link system at the rear. As with many other aspects of the driveline and body design (check those side mirrors and the shape of the frameless doors), the big Hyundai looks very Magna-ish - apparently there is some sharing of Mitsubishi's technology. Front and rear sway bars are fitted, and gas-filled dampers are also (allegedly) used. So it's certainly not the basics - just their tune.
We're told that the big Hyundai has revised suspension settings for the Australian market; the mind boggles at the thought of how the domestic model must handle. The contrast in handling with the Magna is extreme; surely if Hyundai don't have sufficient suspension engineering expertise (or more likely, the criteria that the suspension engineers had to fulfil was poorly chosen), they could have handballed the Grandeur's suspension tuning to one of the many automotive engineering and consulting companies?
The frustrating thing is that in almost all other respects the Grandeur is a highly competent vehicle, especially considering its (relative) bargain price. As tested, the up-spec XG model tips the financial scales at A$39,990. The package includes electric windows, mirrors and the driver's seat; twin airbags; Australian Howe leather; excellent single CD radio (that, interestingly, uses 2-ohm speakers); a cruise control system which interfaces beautifully with the electronic throttle; 15 inch alloys; Michelins - it's quite a comprehensive package.
And one whose interior is well thought out, too. There are two memories for the driver's seat (they also set the mirrors), a pivoting sunglasses compartment in the roof, rear coat hooks that normally sit flush but spring down when pressed, and excellent ergonomics with clear instruments and controls. You can even set the driver's seat to retreat when you withdraw the ignition key, making exits and entrances easier. The split rear seat folds down to reveal a huge boot - bigger than the Falcon - and there is competent room in all directions in the cabin. The climate control system is simple and very effective; it incorporates an auto recirculation button that switches off the outside air supply when it becomes overly polluted - as when you're following a smoky car. As we said, intelligent design.
The 3 litre DOHC V6 (141kW at 6000 rpm) is a smooth and willing engine - and concentrating the attention of the 260Nm is the superb five-speed auto. Utilising a Sportsmatic function (just like the Magna's, except no Magna has five ratios in an auto box), you can either select Drive and let the trans smoothly strut its stuff, or you can flick it left to another plane and pull backwards for downchanges or tip it forward to move up a gear. The system works very well, although if you're travelling at a speed where a downchange would cause overly great engine braking (but not over-revving), it'll ignore your command.
An intelligent trans in that it picks the ratio on the basis of more than just speed and throttle position inputs, the Hyundai Integrated Vehicle Electronic Control (HIVEC) will downchange to provide engine braking when needed, and will hold gears rather than changing up when it senses that you're driving hard. And it's very, very good at it. In fact, with a lock-up clutch on both fourth and fifth gears (and maybe third as well - it's hard to identify all that's going on!), the trans at times appears to have seven ratios at its disposal. For example, when cruising at speed in fifth, the extra throttle required to climb a hill will firstly cause fifth's lock-up clutch to disenage and then, if the torque converter's multiplication isn't sufficient, a downchange to fourth will occur. And when you're over the hill, fourth will be kept for a long time - perhaps thirty or forty seconds - before HIVEC figures that, no, you're not about to need that grunt again, and the trans changes back to fifth. It's light years ahead of some prestige Europeans that we've recently driven...
About the only way that HIVEC can be given a real headache is to be vicious in on/off throttle transitions in city traffic. When provoked in this way, changes can occur with a jerk and the transmission can sometimes be caught in the wrong gear. But - unlike the handling traits - if the Grandeur is being driven normally, this characteristic will never be a cause for concern.
The steering - controlled by an uncharacteristically cheap-looking wheel - is direct and generally well-weighted. However, it strongly self-centres, a trait that is exacerbated during acceleration. In fact when exiting a corner under power, there is a requirement to keep a firm hand on the wheel, lest it start to slide back through your grasp! This is a relatively minor point - far worse is the kickback fed back through the wheel when cornering hard on a bumpy road. This is violent enough to be easily seen by passengers, the wheel juddering as the bumps are met.
And if you are cornering hard and strong braking is needed, we hope that you been a good citizen on this earth. Even in a straight line, the emergency braking performance is poor; the severe weight transference causing the ABS to lock the wheels for prolonged periods and the stopping distances to be unexpectedly long. And braking hard while you're cornering? To be honest, we weren't brave enough to try. Our very strong feeling is that it would all get very ugly - fast.
So we're back to the vehicle dynamics again. And that's just what it was like on the road over our week with the Grandeur. In normal use it's a sweet, refined, responsive and luxurious car. You could easily forget about the nasties and just admire the nice. But then, when picking up a takeaway from the local shopping centre, you bottom-out on a speed-hump - one that you've negotiated in other cars perhaps a hundred times without problems. Or, you meet some wave-like corrugations created in bitumen heated by the sun and forged by the passage of trucks. And the Grandeur rocks and rolls, bobbing up and down like one of those old-fashioned nodding dogs that you used to see on the rear parcel shelves of Valiants....
Surely it wouldn't be hard to re-tune the suspension, to make the Grandeur a car that can in fact live up to Hyundai's "Test our mettle" advertising challenge? It's 80 or 90 per cent there - but that last ten percent is so important to primary safety that to understate it in a test such as this would be to do you all a disservice.
Fix the suspension fast Mr Hyundai, and you'll have a winner... one that we'd be pleased to sample again - that is, if you're still talking to us!
www.hyundai.com.au
Next page - The Grandeur negotiating a speed hump!
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The Speed Bump!
Here's what the Grandeur is like over a speed hump... at a far slower speed that would be used in any other car we can think of.
It's a normal suburban road speed hump - the sort that you find in many streets and carparks.
Here we go! Front wheels on top of the hump and the nose has shot high into the air as the suspension has rebounded from full bump to full rebound.
The wheels drop away over the other side of the hump and the body starts to accelerate in the same direction... down!
Bang! The tow hook beneath the car scrapes on the ground as the suspension bottoms out... but the ride's not over yet.
The speed hump is gone, but the movements' still happening! Here, the nose has again shot high into the air as the undamped suspension has kept on oscillating... And the speed? Just 25 km/h... only 5 km/h over the (normally very conservative) signpost recommendation speed. In a car with good suspension control, it's possible to drive over these humps at 40 km/h without any signs of suspension distress...
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