Hyundai's premium luxury flagship

Fresh from years of aping the finest that Mercedes and Toyota engineers could produce over a series of seriously lackluster models, Hyundai  has finally come of age, and into its own.

The Korean carmaker still boasts some of the leftovers from its Mercedes-insprired style that resulted in  bug lights on its Sonata positioned on either side of its front grille - sit behind the wheel of the new Azera, and you'll see the old Mercedes instrument console, right down to the font.  Spooky, but not entirely surprising.

Pictured on the Palos Verdes peninsula

Good news is that Hyundai has now stepped out of more illustrious marques' shadows with a rather noticeable turnaround in fortunes.  It's now the world's sixth largest automobile maker, for example, with sales up more than 400% over the last ten years.

Much could be to do with Hyundai's long-term offering of the best warranty out there, a ten-year or 100,000 mile monster powertain warranty that manages at once to attract prospective buyers through its outstanding value and also offer a nicely subliminal nod to the brand's reliability and durability.  Hyundai, after all, trails just Lexus and Porsche in terms of customer satisfaction.

Hyundai has now converted that into some serious traction for a revamped lineup that includes a good-looking and massively fun coupe, a couple of highly-rated compact SUVs and, now, its Azera flagship, which has upscale luxurious sedans firmly in its sights.

Now competing with Toyota's Avalon may seem foolhardy, nay virtually impossible, as seen in the Avalon review that appeared in these pages earlier this year. I declared my love for that car, I seem to remember, in a pique of admiration. Narrowly, I resisted serenading it from the rooftops.

Hyunda, though,  has made a pretty good job of showing its range some love of its own,  and the end result more than stands up to its more established rival.

Most noticeable is the Azera's pick-up, courtesy of its 3.8-liter V6 engine with variable intake system, which guns this sturdy, almost 3,700 pound car to a mile a minute in just 6.1 seconds, which shaves a good half-second off its Japanese rival, no slowcoach itself. The Azera's 265 horses under the hood also allow great pickup from startup and while overtaking.

Toward some great driving roads

Also where Hyundai now excels, while we're on the subject of high speeds, is its class-leading safety.  The Azera comes with, count 'em, eight airbags: dual, front and rear-seat mounted alongside side-iimpact and roof-mounted side-curtain airbags, and front active head restraints. Matched with its electronic stability controls and ABS, and you can see why NCAAP loves it.  It also bleeps the second you start it up without putting on a seatbelt. Bleep. Bleep. Bleeeep (for more on goggle-headed NCAAP aliens/scientists, see our previous reviews).

Interior is refined and comes with an almost astonishing amount of equipment - all of which functions very well - for its sub-$30,000 price tag.  As standard you get: heated power leather seats in the front, 60/40 split-fold leather seats in the back, AC, wood trim,  spare allow rim, natty floor mats and some nice night-time electro-luminescent outline to that Merc speedo. Also included are the four 17-inch rims on the outside and four-wheel disc-brakes. Very impressive indeed.

Options on top, which brought the price up to  $29,335, included sun roof and power foot pedals, alongside a six-disc Infinity changer, driver's seat-positioned memory  and rain-sensing wipers, whose use will be seriously negated out here in LA. Still, useful in the mid-west, I would venture.  Hyundai offers three trim levels: test car was the Limited Edition, offered beside the basic GLS and LX variants.

One gripe, though:  notice how thick its front seats are - they must be a about five inches from where you sit to where the back passenger puts their knees. Now compare that to any new BMW, whose engineers have fully grasped the fact that, like in an airplane, thinner seats add up to more legroom.  Nice idea. Maybe we'll see that on the next Azera.

Though in a vehicle of this size, or 192.7 inches of aluminum shell, legroom shouldn't be much of a problem. Nor should carrying four sets of golf clubs or a family's luggage for a week-long holiday, which this car will make very enjoyable indeed.

Great equipment levels for the price

Leather seats front and back

The Azera performs perfectly adequately in terms of ride and handling, giving a refined ride that stands up to more illustrious marques at almost two-thirds the price. There's none of the roll associated with earlier Hyundais, nor rasping engine noise or trace of any of the other criticisms levelled in the past, usually with justification. Gas, unfortunately, isn't great at 19 and 28 town and highway respectively, but is good for its class.

Outside, the Hyundai could never be said to be a stylish, sculpted car. A nice touch is the almost melding of the shell to the rear fenders, holding the line of the car from tip to tail. Otherwise it's pretty bland, but, hey, did that stop Toyota from selling in bucketloads?

So you can show some serious love to an Azera.  You may not be shouting it from the rooftops, but hey, as it's done with many of its prominent styling features before, Hyundai may just steal your heart.

Styling is not bold, but not boring

17-inch rims come as standard on the Limited trim