Hyundai’s 2024 CEO Investor Day delivered a mic drop: The N Vision 74 performance car will enter production by 2030. Boom. The car the internet wants is going into production, and if you spoke up about wishing to see it in showrooms, give yourself a pat on the back. I’m not saying you exclusively made this happen, but your cheer likely helped. However, once Hyundai builds the N Vision 74, it’ll face its most difficult challenge yet — will Hyundai dealers be able to sell a supercar?
Let’s say that the N Vision 74 goes into production using the same hydrogen hybrid powertrain as the concept. It’ll be complex and expensive, offer a truly unique performance experience, and attract a customer that otherwise might never set foot in a Hyundai showroom. The sort of people who’ve previously been compelled by fast Corvettes, Porsche 911s, and even Audi R8s.
In theory, the N Vision 74 should be the sort of car that sells itself on desire alone. It’s just such a want-one shape, that you’d think selling units means a dealer just needs to honor MSRP, present a contract, and job done, right? If you’re already chuckling, you know what I’m on about. See, Hyundai’s American dealer network doesn’t have the greatest reputation on the face of the planet, and Hyundai will be trusting it to do a pretty important job.
Let’s start with markups. Earlier this year, Autoblog reported on a $20,000 markup placed on a Hyundai Ioniq 5 N being sold at a franchise dealer in California, and it’s not the only case. A quick surf online has found one Hyundai dealer in Ohio with an Ioniq 5 N marked up $14,995 over MSRP, another Hyundai dealership in California has an Ioniq 5 N marked up $15,000 over MSRP, and another Hyundai dealer in Arizona has an Ioniq 5 N marked up $5,649 over MSRP, and the list goes on. If a broad selection of dealerships can’t be trusted to sell a more affordable, more mass-market car at MSRP, would you trust them to honor MSRP on a high-end car like the N Vision 74?
Alright, let’s assume people are okay with paying markups to get the hottest new Hyundai. Suspension of disbelief, but fine. The pummelling continues on the back end, with Hyundai’s dealer service experience ranked 16th out of 18 mainstream brands in JD Power’s 2024 dealership customer service index survey, with just Volkswagen and Ram preventing them from coming in dead last. That’s not a great place to be, especially when trying to court high-end clients. Remember, Lexus built a great deal of its reputation on outstanding customer service, and continues to reap the benefits.
Dealerships often give the first impression of a manufacturer, even if they’re just middlemen. Some dealers do a fantastic job of making that first impression, but others have a long way to go. As it stands, Hyundai’s American dealer network has a long way to go before it seems ready to sell what can be considered a supercar. Let’s hope progress is made by the time the N Vision 74 launches, because even if the shape of the car might sell itself, some dealers might do their best to dissuade potential customers.
(Photo credits: Thomas Hundal, Hyundai)
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I’m sure the dealers that don’t have one would hate it, but they really should just sell these at dedicated Genesis shops. I know Hyundai sells the Palisades now and it’s an expensive, hotly in demand vehicle, but I tried shopping for an Ioniq 6 when they were offering that crazy lease and every dealer around me reminded me of the ridiculously shady Hyundai/Kia dealers of the 2000s. Somethings just never change.
This is a very cool car, but I really hope they make it pure EV without the hydrogen.
Hydrogen stations in North America? Several in California, 5 in British Columbia, and one in Quebec. And that’s it.
A hydrogen powered car outside of California is just stupid. Add to that the waning enthusiasm for retro 80s, plus the dealers, and you’ve got a recipe for failure.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out to be a 4-door electric crossover “coupe.”
That would make no sense at all – it will most likely end up being pretty much identical the concept. Hyundai made a huge deal out of the fact that it shares enough parts with other models that production will be feasible, plus they are only making a few of them. Why would they spend a ton of money engineering a copy of a Santa Fe for low production?
I wonder if they could do it on the Ioniq 5 platform? That’s already a very sharply styled car with an electric drivetrain and seems to be quite popular here (Belgium). A 4-door coupe version with a more raked rear and an “Ioniq N74” nameplate for about 60,000 euros would be an excellent addition to the range and could go down very well.
I hope dealers make thousands over MSRP on as many N Vision 74s they can sell, because I don’t think they will sell many. It looks like a 1987 Chrysler Conquest, is set to be powered with a fuel no one wants and won’t be available until 10 years after the original concept car was revealed.
By comparison, GM showed its Caprice based Impala SS concept, basically a lowered cop car with a big engine in 1992 and by 1994 they were rolling off the assembly line and selling like hotcakes. That car, which at least one car magazine said “This is the Car that GM Must Build” hit buyers in the feels with images of hot rods, NASCAR stock cars and drag racers, yet was practical enough to haul a family around. I’m not getting that vibe with the N Vision 74. The Chrysler Conquest just never hit me in the feels. But who knows, maybe the Hyundai will sell like hotcakes too.
Hyundai is building a lot of nice cars these days. Maybe too nice if its dealers can afford to treat their customers poorly and still make bank. I can’t speak to their dealer experience. But if this is the car the Internet wants, then the Internet wanted it yesterday, not in 2030. It’s unlikely the Hyundai dealer experience will influence sales of these cars six years down the road. If I’m wrong and it’s a hot seller, the N Vision 74 Utopian Turtletop will be marked up and if it’s not, it won’t. Hyundai dealers may change slightly, but Adam Smith and “enlightened self interest” \ “greed is good” never does.
Happened across a not-too-old Youtube video from Collector Car Feed where they all dug the N74, but confidently predicted it’d never ever be an actual, buyable car. I’m sure they’ll be pleased to learn they were wrong, though dealer markups will make it unobtainable for all but a lucky few.
It’s a Hyundai dealer. The same category of dealer that said they required a credit pull, proof of funds, and a signed purchase agreement to let me test drive Genesis Coupe when they were new.
It will be a regular high powered electric or at most, turbo 4 or 6 hybrid by the time its in production.
Good. I’d love to see a 4-cylinder supercar in the modern age, even with an electric motor adding power. That would be ridiculously fun.
Of course they’ll screw it.
I mean why sell 100 with a $5k markup when you can sell 1 with a $50k markup?! Amirite?!
100 at $5k markup equals $500,000.00. Handling extra transactions evidently will have extra costs. A dealer gets the maximum profit at the intersection of a declining curve in a graph of sales when increasing markup and the one representing income for such sales. Having a brief experience in a car dealership (Chevrolet-Mazda) I’m 100% sure the big brain sales manager will go for your exemplification.
Right. I feel like the idea that one might make more profit by charging less money (thereby increasing demand) is a pretty foreign concept to most dealers.
I wonder if it will still have the pull in 5 years… I like the 80’s retro future thing, but it feels a bit like a fad that is fading. In any event, whether it’s a success or not will depend on what it ends up being and what it ends up costing.
Excellent point. After all, as has been discussed in various spaces, the retro fad of the early 2000s didn’t have quite the staying power automakers may have expected. Some of the fast fade could be laid at the feet of the Chrysler PT Cruiser, the Plymouth/Chrysler Prowler, and Chevrolet’s HHR and (especially) SSR, whose designs incorporated their looks at the expense of serious maintenance and durability issues.
That said, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 seems to have started with a fairly effective set of engineering decisions that supported the “hot hatchback” styling, and Hyundai wisely didn’t let additional touches get in the way. The N Vision 74 is more of a specialty product, but my hope is that the form factor once again supports the underpinnings rather than causing compromises.
Other products will likely prove wildly uneven, just as with nearly every past trend.
As to the article’s main topic: Even if customers who had a good experience at their car dealers were more vocal, I suspect the bad experiences would still trend. And markup seems to have only gotten worse.
As long as it is the same proportions of the concept and styling doesn’t go too crazy but also too conservative I don’t see this losing much desirability because they are starting with a great design.
What will get old, though, is slapping “digital” retro design cues on design refreshes for other cars that were otherwise regular cars.
Assuming the real one is as well-received as the concept, I think it will go down as notable because it’s the first halo product from Hyundai. There hasn’t really been a truly desirable sporty EV yet that captivates the market. This has a nonzero chance of becoming it.
2030 is so-Volkswagian Buzzerian that people will stop paying attention once we find that latest news de-contenting the original concept. Nice looking car, lotsa Lancia details in this one. A shame they did not consider a hybrid-v8 version to be their halo supercar.
Damn stealerships
Hyundai/Kias dealer network is it’s second biggest liability after its reliability.
You’d think it was 1989 and all they had to sell were Excels
I wanted to see an Ioniq 5 and 6 in person, and test drive whichever seemed like the best fit. The sales person seemed to have no idea of any of the specs of the cars, or what the options were. After that, it took like forty five minutes just to see the inside of a surprisingly dirty Ioniq 6 (none in the showroom at the moment) and another thirty of just standing in the sun waiting before I gave up on them “finding the keys” for the Ioniq 5 I wanted to test drive.
I mean, I like low-pressure sales people, but this person was a vacuum. Could answer no questions, and would just disappear whenever I blinked. My wife got annoyed at sweating in the sun waiting and we decided we’d find another dealer.
I need to up my insult game
Well that sounds like it sucked.
So – Like any other non-premium brand car salesman, huh?
Yeah, just look at what happened to the Stinger. The dealer near me had a 20k markup. I had a friend go in and look at one and the dealer was a total clown on top of the massive markup. He went and bought a G37 IPL. He said “I shouldn’t have to beg them to take my money”.
You can just say “dealers” screw these launches up for consumers. I don’t think there is a dealer network that doesn’t take advantage of popular vehicles for more profit. Yes, there are individual dealers who choose not to, but certainly no across the board policy that they cannot do it.
In the past year, Toyota dealers have been marking up everything from the GR Corolla to the Sienna and the Corolla hybrid.
I’m sure there are still Chrysler/Dodge dealers who think their leftover “Swinger” edition Challenger or 300C special edition demands a tribute to their profit line. Never mind what they’ve done in the past with these cars.
Ford dealers were marking up Broncos until not too long ago. Pretty sure they still mark up Raptor F-150s.
I bet you can’t buy a Corvette Z06 for MSRP unless you buy a Corvette from the dealer like every year.
Honda marked up and may still mark up Civic Type-Rs and Si’s.
So lets just say “dealers”, instead of calling out Hyundai like they are an exceptionally bad actor. They all do it because they can and apparently suckers pay it.
Obviously the brands don’t care. They can’t be experiencing reputational harm otherwise they would crack down on this, so I throw them in as part of the problem too.
They do care. But the franchise dealer group lobby is huge and massively funded. So the OEMs are trapped inside of franchise laws that prevent them from even taking steps to protect their own brands in many situations, like preventing markup. It is literally illegal for them to do so.
I’d argue they don’t. They really can play the same
bribelobbying game as the dealerships, but they choose not to.Is it strictly American predicament? In my experience, here in Europe it’s the other way round. There is an official price book with MSRPs, but often dealerships would try to get you by “finding a good deal”, and that deal is actually 10-15% below the official price. February this year we were leasing (not buying but still) a new Qashqai for my wife (yeah, I know, but she liked it), and the deal was very decent. And no secret additional fees and whatnots. Maybe it’s because our market is more regulated and pro-consumer.
American dealerships certainly sell less popular models for discounts compared to MSRP. Until COVID, it was usually the expectation that you’d get at least a modest discount off the sticker price. The exception being the few marked up cars that came around. I remember the Honda S2000 being marked up when it was new.
I think the issue is that some of these markups are so egregious. They take a car that a manufacturer designed to be affordable and make it not affordable.
And yes, I’d firmly support the idea that European car dealers have a much shorter leash.
From what I understand – in Europe and Asia, for most brands, car manufacturers own their own distribution channels.
With a few notable exceptions, such as Yanase in Japan – You’re not dealing with a 3rd party when you buy there.
“Honda marked up and may still mark up Civic Type-Rs and Si’s.”
Unlike the 1980s when every Honda sold in the US had a markup?
Seriously.
You could not get your hands on a new Honda for MSRP in those years.