For a good 10 years or so, Giorgetto Giugiaro had basically one move: angles. But dammit, it worked every single time, so can you blame him?
These days we know Hyundai’s in a bit of a renaissance, as is its corporate cousin Kia, in part because it’s poached so many great European car designers and performance-focused engineers. But it’s worth remembering that’s happened before as well.
The 1974 Hyundai Pony Coupe Concept basically put Hyundai on the map as a global car company (albeit a tiny one that would take several more decades to ramp up its quality and become what it is today) and the company went to hungry up-and-comer Giugiaro to make it a memorable coming out party. This thing has been on my mind lately for some reason, but Jason also wrote a deeper dive into it last summer.
“I designed the Hyundai Pony when I was still a young designer at the start of my career,” Giugiaro later said. “I was tasked with creating a technically valid concept car targeting the middle class. I felt very proud that I was in charge of creating a production vehicle for a country that was about to face a fiercely competitive market.”
Also, Hyundai is set to recreate this concept for the modern era with the help of Giugiaro, now an industry legend and highly respected veteran, and his son, Fabrizio. As Hagerty reported in 2022, apparently the Giugiaros and Hyundai design boss Luc Donckerwolke have been talking about doing this for years, and we should see it later this spring.
It’s nice when automakers honor their history in a meaningful way, and this angular bad boy deserves its day in the sun. Will this new project be a way to hype a production-intent N Vision 74? One can certainly hope.
-
The Refreshing Korean-Market 2024 Hyundai Avante Is Basically The Next Hyundai Elantra
-
The Base Hyundai Ioniq 6 Probably Isn’t The One You Want
-
Watch Top Gear Test Both The Wacky Korea-Only Hyundai Staria Lounge Camper And The Slippery Hyundai Ioniq 6
-
Hyundai’s VP Of N Wants To Put The Wild N Vision 74 Into Production
If Hyundai released a scaled down Golf sized Ioniq5 (Ioniq3?) that would fit in my driveway, I would use my own damn money to put one in my driveway. That Ioniq5 is handsome and seems to be well thought out, it’s just too damn big.
Now we know where Elon got the idea for the CyberTruck.
Nice looking design… But I still remember the Hyundai Pony as it sold in Canada from 1984 to 1987.
It sold well… at first.
And then as people discovered they were total CRAP, sales fell dramatically and it was discontinued after 1987.
Personally drove a friends. It had a strange suspension setup where the front suspension was soft and the rear was unexpectedly firm.
So going over a speed bump felt like “thump… CRASH”
Plus they were not reliable or durable. The shit that would break on these was A LOT things that wouldn’t break on other cars… such as windshield wipers dying and a bunch of other things.
It’s too bad Ford’s lawyers fell flat on their faces in two cases involving past names. In the early 2000s, Ford neglected to renew its trademarks to the names “GT40” and “Futura”. South African kit car builder Safir Spares (aka GT40 Spares) grabbed G and
Pep Boys snatched Futura for a brand of in-house tires, and both offered to license the names to Ford-for a steep price. Ford instead renamed its resurected supercar “GT” and called its new family sedan the “Five Hundred.”
The Giugiaro folded-paper designs really do hold up, don’t they? My favorite will always be the first-generation VW Scirocco, but this one is right up there.
I saw the Hyundai concept at CIAS, I would do terrible, disgusting heinous things to own one. It’s just as good in person.
How is it that in the year of our lord 2023 we still can’t buy a car that honest, simple and retrofuturistic for a decent price? Restomod DeLoreans costing >$100k don’t count.
I like the honesty of the Pony concept, sitting on (for that time) normal size wheels. Even with all its exuberance, you could still imagine seeing it on the road.
What has always impressed me about this design more than anything else is the attention to rational thought. Set aside the aesthetics for ten minutes. Yes, you too Adrian.
Every piece and part on this car is designed not simply to serve a purpose, but to do so cost-efficiently and in a state that is easily produced. Two of the most critical things for a new carmaker. Every panel is either easy to troubleshoot any die problems with, or easily sub-divisible.
For example, the front arches and spoiler. There’s a very clear cut line. So rather than produce that complex wavy shape as one die, they can simply make it two pieces and use easier to work with injection molding for the complex portion. At least in theory. The hood is just a flat sheet with a cutout.
Which brings us to point two of why this design has always impressed the shit out of me.
This design was penned in ’72 or ’73, and Hyundai simply introduced it in 1974. And it is an accurate statement to say it was literally 10 years ahead of it’s time. If not for the round headlights, anyone you showed this too would guess it’s from the 1980’s. Injection molded ABS for large complex parts in production cars didn’t actually really exist until the early 1980’s. (“Federal bumpers” were generally just large chunks of rubber cast like tires.) But that complex wheel arch and spoiler definitely could have been done in the early 70’s as separate stampings or cast rubber.
And that of course, is why the Vision N 74 looks so insanely futuristic to this very day. At least in my opinion. Because neither of them was a far-flung, never going to see production, pie in the sky design.
Both were always ‘ready to manufacture’, designed to fit just barely within the manufacturer’s capabilities and enable them to adjust as their production capability improved.
Too bad the production model Pony got that ridiculous short wheelbase for a 5 door hatchback. Looks almost like a Morris Marina.
Funny thing, they hired a bunch of British Leyland engineers to work on it. Engineers who worked on the Marina…
In my view, the Pony 2 was closer to the concept design. I had a brown/gold 85 in Canada and loved the thing despite it’s total lack of interior creature comforts (no cupholders?!)
I don’t see how someone can praise this design while simultaneously calling the Cybertruck hideous. (cue up the “it’s the same picture” meme here)
As Adrian might say, the devil’s in the details.
Similarities=/=similar.
I am getting Back to the Future vibes from this child of a DeLorean and Nissan Pulsar
“That except bigger and a pickup truck,” said no one ever.
Oh, right….. Sorry, I guess.
The concept model appears to be the love child of a Renault Fuego and a DeLorean.
This is not a bad thing, btw.
With a bit of Lotus Esprit thrown in.
At first glance it reminded me of Melon’s Cybertr(f)uck and I had to turn away.
I thought Hyundai should have resurrected the Pony name for what became the Santa Cruz (hate that name). Ponies are tough little working horses (ask a Welsh miner) and they can be fun little trail mounts to get you off the beaten track. The advertising possibilities are endless.
That would’ve been the perfect foil to the Maverick (as cattle).
Pony’s not a bad name, but Hyundai/Kia seem to be into Spanish-derived city names from the American West: Sedona, Santa Fe, Tucson, Telluride. So Santa Cruz fits in there. On, the other hand, I’m surprised the Venue and Seltos didn’t get named the Fresno and the Alamosa or something like that.
Except sometimes they just make up stuff like Stinger or Veloster … and sometimes they go alphanumeric like EV6 or IONIQ5…
So really, who knows what Hyundai/Kia is doing in the naming department? ????
Stinger is a made up word?? News to me. That’s been a word my entire life
There’s a very specific reason.
If Hyundai were to try introducing a car as the ‘Hyundai Pony,’ they would instantaneously be buried under Ford lawyers. All of the Ford lawyers. At once.
Ford has been using ‘pony’ as a sub-model with trademark and copyright since the 1960’s. The Mustang Pony, Mustang Nite Pony, Escort Pony, Pinto Pony, and so on, and so on. And Hyundai would lose in court, because Ford can demonstrate continuous use and enforcement in the US going back to 1964.
Dammnit, rootwyrm, with your logic and copyright law.
It’s too bad Ford’s lawyers fell flat on their faces in two cases involving past names. In the early 2000s, Ford neglected to renew its trademarks to the names “GT40” and “Futura”. South African kit car builder Safir Spares (aka GT40 Spares) grabbed G and
Pep Boys snatched Futura for a brand of in-house tires, and both offered to license the names to Ford-for a steep price. Ford instead renamed its resurected supercar “GT” and called its new family sedan the “Five Hundred.”
Yes, but there’s a significant difference there.
Ford had a trademark. Ford continued to renew the trademark. Then Ford didn’t renew the trademark, and didn’t contest the new trademark. If they had contested, Safir and Pep Boys would have had to find new names, more than likely. But since Ford let it expire and wasn’t actively using the names for anything, an examiner would say “oh well, they renewed but then they quit renewing, they haven’t raised any objections, so they’re not planning to use it again and it can be assigned.”
… derp, and I forgot to call out that the sedan was never going to be the Futura. Especially since that’s also a copyrighted font. (No, seriously.)
The sedan was always intended to be the 500, to call back to the Custom 500, Fairlane 500, and Galaxie 500’s.
Yeah, Futura is a dumb name anyways. The moment the car is released, it is not futuristic.
Gibson created a guitar named the Futura in the late 1950s.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibson_Futura
I don’t think that holds water given that there as a “Hyundai Pony” on sale in Canada, Europe and other places for years.
Canada and the US have completely different copyright and trademark systems, and what applies in one doesn’t necessarily apply in the other. You have to apply for – and maintain – copyrights and trademarks in every nation individually.
This is also why the band Bush had to call themselves Bush X initially because they needed to reach a deal with the other band Bush before they could release music without the X. I believe this is also the reason that The Avengers is known as Avengers Assemble in the UK, and why Zootopia is sometimes known as Zootropolis – a Danish zoo had already registered Zootopia in Europe.
I moved from the US to Canada around 2003 and the whole Bush vs BushX confused the hell out of me.
I’ve no doubt Ford would be litigious, but I’ve looked at all 965 of Ford’s registered trademarks and pending trademark applications currently on file with the US Patent and Trademark Office and “pony” wasn’t on the list, so not certain how successful it would be in securing rights to the name (ignoring the fact that Ford could outspend most competitors in a lawsuit and tie up the courts with motions for decades).
They absolutely would win, because they don’t need a trademark. They only need a copyright. Which doesn’t necessarily require being registered. If you search TESS, you won’t find “Nite Pony” registered either.
And copyright in the US is so permanently broken it’s not funny. Remember, copyrights are territorial – meaning not worldwide. And the copyright on Nite Pony doesn’t expire until (checks notes) 105 years after they stop enforcing it. Which means the Escort Pony copyright would expire in the year 2100AD.
And of course, the court system for such is also broken beyond repair. In a copyright matter, there is no question Ford would win in the US. They have previous and continuing use, and would basically win any ‘brand confusion’ and ‘brand dilution’ arguments if Hyundai used it for a car by default.
Which is to say, Hyundai has in fact trademarked Hyundai Pony. They did it last year. But it is strictly NOT for cars. There is no way USPTO would grant them a trademark for use on a car, because Ford would come along and raise hell.
The filing is here:
https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=97356639&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch
Yeah , I saw both the Hyundai listings in TESS, too. Just curious as to why Ford seems to have trademarked everything except “pony,” but not that.
I think you’re forgetting that the Pony was a terrible car that gave Hyundai a reputation which took years to shake. This is also why the Excel will never come back.
Sorry to the Pony enthusiasts out there.
You are not wrong, but at the same time they were infinitely charming little cars. The
pony was never around in the USA, but here in the land of maple syrup, poutine and politeness, we not only had them, but they were the best selling car in Canada for 1985. They even held a full 10% share of all new cars in the country the same year. Nobody bought them because they thought they would be super reliable, but they were practical and stylish enough to become important cars in one of the largest and most challenging climates in the world for cars. Honestly that’s got to count for something. I had a good friend that had one in high school in the late 90’s and not only did it stand out in an ocean of Cavaliers and Civics, it also provided lots of opportunity to build wrenching skill on a budget because the parts were at least half the price of dirt, maybe less.
Stop, I can only get so erect.
Dammit Krieger!
It’s Y-Y-ZED!
“…and if it does, we will rob banks until we can afford one.”
We should coordinate who’s hitting which banks now so we don’t double up. That would just look unprofessional.
And while you guys are robbing the banks, someone else is stealing your Hyundai with a USB cable.
It is why we have insurance LOL.