silversprucesc3

Just a quick observation....


Two couples were over for dinner this weekend.
1) purchased 07 Altima
2) purchased 07 Azera

The guests had all my cars blocked in so:

I drove the Altima for a 10 minute ride to the wine store.

I drove the Azera to pick up the kids from B-Ball about a 20 minute ride.


My point: The Azera was hands down a more solid and quality product. It even had the "tiptronic"? man/auto shift mode. Solid doors and fit and finish. Dash was well appointed although the turn signals lighting seemed a lil cheap..
The Nisssan just felt cheap... Nice DD but had a thin feel to it. Obviously a sportier suspension.



I would truly consider the Hyundai as a DD and a wifey type vehicle. The Azera felt more solid than a Camry I test drove...
Hyundai gets a from me....

PhilipMSPT

iTrader: (5)

Hyundai did a great job with the Azera.

It's no Lexus, but for its value, you definately get a lot of bells and whistles that American (and some Japanese) automakers can only dream of providing that that price.

Would I ever buy one? No.
Would I be happy if I got one? Sure!

-J-P-L-

The Azera is a class above the Altima. Think Sonata verses Altima and I'm sure the Sonata would easily hold it's own.

LexFather

I agree, Azera is more Avalon class....I find the styling is actually very very good, they figured out some great luxurious proportions and angles with the car. It does show though how the Koreans are on par of better than some Japanese cars.

Lexmex

Hyundai is creeping up on a lot of the low-end areas and attempting to overtake most established brands in terms of quality.

We have a few Hyundai products down here (unfortunatley badged as a Dodge, since they are the importer and for some tax reasons) and I always speak highly of them. Have not found anyone disappointed.

GS3Tek

iTrader: (8)

Yeah, not fair.
Or if you had the maxima (is GL still the top?) vs. the azera, then let's see. I'll still take the maxima, first car was an 87 maxima

-J-P-L-

Really? I never heard this before.
How does a Korean make with no relation to DaimlerChrysler get badged as a Dodge??? I don't get it.

Do Honda's have blue ovals slapped on them down there?? lol

Weird.

Lexmex

This is a good question. When Toyota Motor first opened its doors here in 2002, it actually had to use some export credits from the company Denso and Aisin Mexico to import the the first vehicles into Mexico.

It would have cost Hyundai a lot of $$$ if it set up its own operations. Often, companies will have another group be the distributor to see if a product really pans out, apart from market research studies.

Honda is here and it is its own mark and even Acura is here.

However, no Lexus.

I found this to be a good representation of vehicles here in Mexico, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cars_in_Mexico

LexFather

Well a member of SELOC brought a 2007 Maxima loaner to our meet Friday and I sat inside and touched all the plastics and the Hyundai SONATA kills it. The Azera blows the Maxima interior away. And the Maxima interior was revamped for 2007.
You feel like you are in an econo car costing $10,000.

rai

as was said, they are different class of cars. The Hyundai weighs 400 to 600 lbs more than the Nissan.

The Altima starts just under $18K and goes to over $28K

The Hyundai price range from $24K to $27K

I don't know what engine the Altima had, it may have been a 4-Cylinder and thus would no doubt feel a lot different.

However more important thing is if the Altima doesn't feel solid (doors, interior etc..) that is a big issue after all even $18K is a bit of money and $28K should get you a nice car I don't care who makes it.

silversprucesc3

Good responses...

I did realize that the Azera in a market sense was designed to go up against the Maxima however, for $24500 it was only $1850 more than what the other couple paid for their Altima. $ for $ I was just commenting how the Azera was soooo much more car. Also, the fit and finish of the Maxima is not much better than the Altima...lol

Mike is correct in that alot of the lines on the Azera flow very well for a Hyundai. As a family car its not a bad vehicle.

rai

Thats a good point if the Altima costs just $2K less as tested.

Almost reminds me of the Fit/Accord debate, I drove the Fit which they are not discounting and they're ~$14K-$16K but for ~$19K I could step all the way up to the Accord SE (after discounts). I know they are differnet class cars, but price for price the Accord is a lot nicer.

Edit: I just did a comparo (to see what top price of the Altima and Azera were; and surprize the Altima 3.5 SL can top $31K which is actually more money than the Azera.)

I found the same thing when I rented a Doge minivan while on vacation. The Doge minivan was all around inferior to the Sienna and Oddy (IMO) and yet they are not that much cheaper. Makes me wonder who is buying the Dodge, my neighbor for instance bought a Dodge, he never even looked at the Honda/Toyota vans b/c he said they were all the same and also said the Dodge is a best seller it must be as good as the Honda/Toyota (what kind of logic is that?).

LexusChris

iTrader: (1)

I'm surprised the interior felt cheap on the 07 Altima, it looks improved compared to the previous generation.A major no-no for me about the new Nissans. The Azera is nice car but so is a Camry XLE.

-J-P-L-

Unfortunately, a lot of people use that logic.

A large percentage of the population knows crap about cars and as a result the worse cars end up selling.

People commonly buy what's the most popular or best selling and companies play into this by advertising that fact.

The ad may say, "Ford F- Series, the best selling truck for 25 straight years".
That's one of the biggest sales pitches they can make. People reason that it must be the best even though it may not be.