Ateco

The first boss of Hyundai cars was Turnbull, ex BL, but his job was to make sure BL's errors weren't repeated in the cars or manufacturing. It wasn't a BL project. He later did some work for Peugeot. There were British engineers, tooling and loans involved as well as French money. Unlike BL's output, Hyundai tested thoroughly.

The first Excels to arrive here were Korean imports, made more attractive by a Giugiaro redesign. Mechanicals were mostly Mitsubishi designs, Korean manufactured. Only the early first cars (1974) had British components. Today they are Korean designs.

The car I mentioned earlier did not rust. It wasn't mine. The owner heard about a door problem and I was asked to add a drain to it. I have no idea if it was needed.

One newer car with hopelessly inadequate door drainage is the Citroen DS3. One lesson PSA could have learned from the Excel was its super workshop manuals sold to the public

I knew a mechanic who used to buy old Excels needing repairs cheaply. He thrashed one for his own daily and sold the others for profit after fixing them. They were very easy and accessible to work on and dealer and after-market parts were easily obtained.
 
Russell Hall said:
They were a British Leyland project. Don't remember if it was a corporate effort or individual executives set the car making up.
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Here is Wikipedia on the subject ! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyundai_Motor_Company
An extract:
"Chung Ju-Yung founded the Hyundai Engineering and Construction Company in 1947. Hyundai Motor Company was later established in 1967, and the company's first model, the Cortina, was released in cooperation with Ford Motor Company in 1968.[11] When Hyundai wanted to develop their own car, they hired George Turnbull in February 1974, the former Managing Director of Austin Morris at British Leyland. He in turn hired five other top British car engineers. They were Kenneth Barnett body design, engineers John Simpson and Edward Chapman, John Crosthwaite ex-BRM as chassis engineer and Peter Slater as chief development engineer.[12][13][14][15] In 1975, the Pony, the first South Korean car, was released, with styling by Giorgio Giugiaro of ItalDesign and powertrain technology provided by Japan's Mitsubishi Motors. Exports began in the following year to Ecuador and soon thereafter to the Benelux countries. Hyundai entered the British market in 1982, selling 2993 cars in their first year there"
So should we send it to Renault as a goal to aspire to ?? :) :cool:
Jaahn
PS Why did they hire a person from British Leyland ??? Death wish ? :devilish: Hmm seasink posted while I was writing !
 
Not a death wish. Turnbull was aware of BL errors, but could not change the culture or the labour force. The owners of Hyundai intended to buy in talent, and get it right.
 
We were all quite fond of it in the end. It was a honest unpretentious thing. When my gran stopped driving my Mum took it over and it led a much ,much harder life on rough roads with hay bales in the boot and dogs etc. It still never missed a beat.

I think it eventually died from something dad did to it and he couldnt get it started. It had mega miles on it by then and was parked for future sorting and just never got fixed...
 
While they might not have been spectacular in design or in breakthrough technology, your Kia's and Hyundai's generally did what the vast majority of the motoring public wanted.
And they sold them at attractive "drive away prices".
And they haven't been lazy with continually improving their products, to the point of leading the way with long term warranty periods.
Still don't do a lot for me but who am I to judge.
PS Who wasn't particularly annoyed with all those Excel drivers with their rear fog light on.
 
jaahn said:
Here is Wikipedia on the subject ! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyundai_Motor_Company
An extract:
"Chung Ju-Yung founded the Hyundai Engineering and Construction Company in 1947. Hyundai Motor Company was later established in 1967, and the company's first model, the Cortina, was released in cooperation with Ford Motor Company in 1968.[11] When Hyundai wanted to develop their own car, they hired George Turnbull in February 1974, the former Managing Director of Austin Morris at British Leyland. He in turn hired five other top British car engineers. They were Kenneth Barnett body design, engineers John Simpson and Edward Chapman, John Crosthwaite ex-BRM as chassis engineer and Peter Slater as chief development engineer.[12][13][14][15] In 1975, the Pony, the first South Korean car, was released, with styling by Giorgio Giugiaro of ItalDesign and powertrain technology provided by Japan's Mitsubishi Motors. Exports began in the following year to Ecuador and soon thereafter to the Benelux countries. Hyundai entered the British market in 1982, selling 2993 cars in their first year there"
So should we send it to Renault as a goal to aspire to ?? :) :cool:
Jaahn
PS Why did they hire a person from British Leyland ??? Death wish ? :devilish: Hmm seasink posted while I was writing !
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I'd say BL had some very good engineers and some very bad management. From what I've read they were always starved of proper development funding, going back a long way (think A40 suspension, the lack of a decent engine for the Morris Minor, both long before the inadequately engineered Mini....). Hyundai knew exactly who they were hiring I'd say.
 
One story that goes around is that Chung Ju-yung saw the first prototype and wanted an extra inch of legroom in the back. So the engineering team stayed up all night, and lo, the next day, it was done.

The BBC covered Turnbull's time:
 
philipjh said:
While they might not have been spectacular in design or in breakthrough technology, your Kia's and Hyundai's generally did what the vast majority of the motoring public wanted.
And they sold them at attractive "drive away prices".
And they haven't been lazy with continually improving their products, to the point of leading the way with long term warranty periods.
Still don't do a lot for me but who am I to judge.
PS Who wasn't particularly annoyed with all those Excel drivers with their rear fog light on.
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"What the vast majority of the motoring public wanted...." That's the point of selling cars profitably I'd suggest. One thing they want is good reliability and predictable service costs and the other is really good after-sales service. Seems Hyundai hit those spots well...... I don't think the motoring public even exists that much - it's people who want reliable transport and have no choice but to have cars, like it or not, interested or not. Better not start a rant......
 
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Well, as promised, I'm reporting on Ateco's constructive response. I emailed a few days ago and have had a rapid response from Glen Sealey, whose email says he is Renault Australia's General Manager at Ateco. They are reviewing the RHD options and he welcomed comments. I was impressed with the speed and tone of the responses.
 
Can't get better than that. When I sent Poelmann a copy of my book with a friendly letter she simply ignored it. Which apart from showing her to be a very rude individual indicated a corporate arrogance which was rewarded by Australian buyers turning away.
 
JohnW said:
Well, as promised, I'm reporting on Ateco's constructive response. I emailed a few days ago and have had a rapid response from Glen Sealey, whose email says he is Renault Australia's General Manager at Ateco. They are reviewing the RHD options and he welcomed comments. I was impressed with the speed and tone of the responses.
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Twizy!!!!!
 
Shades of the Peugeot Quadrillette that came here in 1920. Passenger sat offset or behind the driver. Was a cyclecar, no diff. What makes the Twizy a quadracycle?
 
JohnW said:
Well, as promised, I'm reporting on Ateco's constructive response. I emailed a few days ago and have had a rapid response from Glen Sealey, whose email says he is Renault Australia's General Manager at Ateco. They are reviewing the RHD options and he welcomed comments. I was impressed with the speed and tone of the responses.
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That is a fantastic response compared to what I was expecting. Thanks for sharing
 
Kim Luck said:
Err, it has four wheels?
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Yes but why a cyclecar? 1920's, Peugeot sold small one and two seater cars in Australia, an alternative to a horse or a bicycle. Economical personal transport, in some ways a good city car for modern needs. Had some modest sales but by 1928 the market changed to larger family cars for not much more money. Australians wanted a Chevrolet.
There are grown up four wheel motor bikes like the Gator and the Polaris that are registered in Victoria.
 
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Interesting, some people love their cars even when they are not perfect, but it is nice to see accommodation of what the market wants to buy and to produce that product from the ground up with an eye to what the consumer wants in finish comfort and price and remarkably have pride in the standard of the product. Of course any company can only do that as long as they maintain sales of the product and yes make a profit. Not something we could do in this country at this time. My daughter for a time had a Hyundai as a company car and I was surprised that she enjoyed driving it so much even though it was basically sold as cheap and perhaps regarded as nasty by our fastidious buyers at that point in time.

The genesis and planning was interesting to see in that utube video. Now I wonder what Renault has in store for this consumer market or elsewhere for that matter. And of course robot machines don't worry about low temperature in production facilities, even if those that set them in motion do.

But then consumers can overlook details that don't directly impinge on them, though as a consumer I object to being told to accept something I don't see any need for at my end of the transaction. That seems to be the sticking point at least for me, in "my own choice" of a future purchase..

Ken
 
Kenfuego said:
Interesting, some people love their cars even when they are not perfect, but it is nice to see accommodation of what the market wants to buy and to produce that product from the ground up with an eye to what the consumer wants in finish comfort and price and remarkably have pride in the standard of the product. Of course any company can only do that as long as they maintain sales of the product and yes make a profit. Not something we could do in this country at this time. My daughter for a time had a Hyundai as a company car and I was surprised that she enjoyed driving it so much even though it was basically sold as cheap and perhaps regarded as nasty by our fastidious buyers at that point in time.

The genesis and planning was interesting to see in that utube video. Now I wonder what Renault has in store for this consumer market or elsewhere for that matter. And of course robot machines don't worry about low temperature in production facilities, even if those that set them in motion do.

But then consumers can overlook details that don't directly impinge on them, though as a consumer I object to being told to accept something I don't see any need for at my end of the transaction. That seems to be the sticking point at least for me, in "my own choice" of a future purchase..

Ken
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Happily, "future purchase" is long into the future. I can't find a Scenic equivalent at any price.
 
There have been attempts to produce very small personal cars before. The cyclecar era up to the early 1920's produced some innovative machines but the market was for the family car. After the war there were the French micro minis like the Rovin but were killed off by the Renault 4CV, a larger car for not much more money.
I remember in 1962 a Ballarat car dealer, O'Briens Motors, imported a shipment of the very small Subarus common in Japan. Well made, had favorable road tests, an ideal city car but they gathered dust in the Bakery Hill showroom until it was redeveloped.
It looks like a modern attempt at the personal car will be made with models like the Twizzy. Hidalgo would like a Paris populated with such vehicles but to be successful traffic streams of very heavy and very light vehicles need separation.
 
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