Hyundai Ix-onic: For Light Snowfall On The Road To The Future
For the past few car shows, Hyundai has been displaying mock-ups of a future Tuscon light-SUV. Boring enough one might say, except that the concepts have been so swoopy/gorgeous that even my SUV-hating girlfriend gets wanna-have pangs for what she calls the J-Lomobile. Here in Geneva, Hyundai is showing what they now call the ix-onic, a lower-case technical whiz kid. It has a 1.6L turbo gasoline engine, 170 hp, but emmissions of only 149 g CO2, a DSG transmission and all kinds of other technical gobbledygookery. We can expect it for 2010 with few changes to the highly atractive concept except for the usual smaller wheels and lower chrome content. But what about the name? A Hyundai spokeman said all future 4WD models will use the ix-nomenclature, as in “ix-1”, “ix-2”, etc. That’s a relief—I was almost expecting something along the line of an upcoming Hyundai ix-otic, Hyundai er-otic and Hyundai ex-tatic (the latter being a sports car, of course). Tu-tonic plays with words, I know . . . .
More by Martin Schwoerer
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Oh, no! Not Hyundai, too! Good God, it's discouraging to see yet another car company (and one which makes good product that I generally even like) getting ready to use damned letters and numbers as "model types". It's just an awful lack of imagination to not actually name cars. All you car guys & gals / B&B - I ask you.... does anybody even remember which the hell Lincolns are what, or Acura? I am a dedicated car guy and I could not care less about trying to remember which letters go with which car. Exception: BMW, which has consistently used numerical nomenclature since building real cars in the 1930's (as opposed to Austin-based microcar Dixie thingies). But there is at least some German logic and decades of consistency there... Please, if anyone from Hyundai of America is reading this... when this gorgeous vehicle comes to our shores, please please please just call it the Tucson. Why on earth would you throw away a well recognized and appreciated name? Brand recognition is finally getting to be "good" for Hyundai, and so is "model line" recognition. I have a colleague at work who raves about her Tucson (she humorously and intentionally mis-pronounces it as her "tuc-son" - maybe it's just a northern sense of humor, I dunno)... Yes she does know the proper pronunciation. She's on her 2nd or 3rd one...
Sorry Hyundai, find your own damn two letters to rub together, BMW already uses "ix" on awd cars.
I too prefer "real" names for cars, but you've got to admit that this thing just doesn't look like a "Tucson" or any other dusty southwestern town. It looks more like a Hyundai Krypton, Vulcan or possibly Rigel Seven, which upon reflection makes "ix-3" not so bad after all.