FOURTEEN years is a very long time for any automobile to serve within the Australian market. Hyundai’s outgoing people-mover, the boxy, industrial van-based iMax, has been a stalwart of the class since 2007, outlasting a number of rivals together with the Subaru Exiga, Fiat Freemont, Dodge Journey and Kia Rondo.
In some ways, surviving 14 years in a market with overwhelming choice for SUVs takes some doing. SUVs outsell people-movers domestically by a ratio of five-to-one, in Australia the iMax’s peak market share of twenty-two per cent (in 2014) declining steadily in opposition to the strong-selling Kia Carnival, a mannequin that now accounts for greater than half of all people-mover gross sales right here.
But it surely’s the newly launched alternative to the iMax which will simply flip these numbers on their head.
This week, Hyundai launched its eight-seat Staria people-mover into the Australian market, the sub-$60,000 mannequin vying instantly in opposition to the Kia Carnival (from $43,190), Honda Odyssey ($39,140), Volkswagen Multivan ($58,990), and LDV G10 ($31,490).
Primarily based on the underpinnings of the seven-seat Santa Fe SUV, the Hyundai Staria is bodily bigger than all present rivals. It presents the selection of petrol and turbo-diesel energy, the provision of entrance and all-wheel drive, and three mannequin grades ranging in value from $48,500 to $66,500 (earlier than on-road prices).
It’s a value level that locations the Staria within the thick of it so far as its competitors goes – whether or not that’s instantly from different people-movers, or not directly from comparably-sized SUVs – and its segment-straddling enchantment makes the brand new Hyundai Staria fairly engaging.
