As recently as ten, maybe even five, years ago, Hyundai was a complete joke.
If you'd admitted to owning one in public, people would have laughed at you, laughed in your face. And rightly so, given that most of the cars built by South Korea's largest auto manufacturer were horrendously awful to behold, drive and be near.
Spool forward to 2013 and Hyundai has recently announced it is now the UK's tenth biggest car manufacturer by volume, outselling several key European and Japanese players such as Honda, Citroen, Fiat and Renault. In 2007, Hyundai sold just under 30,000 cars in Britain; last year that number was close to 75,000.
So what happened? Well firstly, Hyundai started building decent cars. Compare and contrast, if you will, the Hyundai Accent you could buy back in 2006 with its modern-day successor, the Hyundai i30.
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Secondly, of course, in the years since 2007, pretty much every country in the western world has realised that it doesn't have any money. Not only has this had a marked effect on the European car industry -- Renault and Peugeot, in particular, are really struggling -- but it also means that Europeans looking for a new car have been tempted away from Euro brands by the cheaper Korean opposition.
The big question is: will Hyundai's global expansion continue? On the one hand, it seems likely. The cars are only going to increase in quality, and as Hyundais become an increasingly common sight on UK roads the badge will become more accepted by traditional badge snobs. You only have to look at Skoda to see how quickly a mass-market manufacturer can shake off a dodgy image.
On the other hand, it seems unlikely that Hyundai will prove a realistic threat to the BMW/Mercedes/Audi-dominated premium car market. For starters, Hyundais still lag behind their German rivals when it comes to driving dynamics and, if nothing else, badge snobbery will prevent Mr Junior Executive from trading in his 3 Series for a car from the Far East in the immediate future.
Hyundai is also facing a major challenge over the next twelve months -- it has run out of cars to sell. Such is the demand for Hyundais in China, Russia and the USA, people are buying them quicker than Hyundai can build them.
Tony Whitehorn, President and CEO of Hyundai UK, has announced that 2013 will be a year of slower sales growth and consolidation for the firm, saying: "We have invested in product, now we will invest in the brand and the customer experience. We have the building blocks in place and now it's time to create an environment for healthy and sustainable growth in the future."
Whether the Korean firm's meteoric rise will continue into 2014 remains to be seen; however one thing is for certain -- no one is laughing at Hyundai drivers any more.
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