Funny part about all this is a friend of mine wont stop trying to get me to go test drive one. He insists its a better choice as he will 'impress' people with how much luxury he can get for so much less money, all the while being more subtle. It takes every ounce of strength in me to not laugh in his face.

 

I can only say that I was more than impressed with the overall Equus package than I thought possible. It is a fine effort by a fairly young company. That said, I love my S350 Bluetec. It would be hard for me to consider any car without the option for a diesel engine.

 

This is without a doubt the most ridiculous thing you've yet posted. You know damn well Hyundai was copying Mercedes way back when everyone was, not the other way around. This is a pure TROLL comment.

M

 

No doubt for the price its a bargain. If you are a bargain shopper and want luxury but don't care about anything else then a Equus or VW Phaeton is your car.

 

This is of course too. NOBODY copies like the Korean car manufacturers, it was originally Japanese manufacturers who they copied, then they moved on to the Germans (and hired the Germans designers to authenticate it). Hyundai went after Benzes design themes and now Kia are ripping BMW off very closely with their "K9" or whatever the hell they decided to call it. Problem is, nowadays between M-B and Hyundai it has gotten very jumbled. There's no denying that Hyundai originally copied them, but it seems like both are moving in similar directions (clearly one is more premium and the other more budget) while along the way, things M-B are doing appear "Hyundai-ish" rather than the other way around. One example: The W222 seat controls amongst other things seem like things Hyundai would have done during one of their attempts to copy M-B and put their own "spin" on it.

I agree here. The Equus is damn straight ugly to me too.

Definitely agreed and you don't have to tell me about the culture of Asian corporate companies in aesthetically copying U.S or European companies (you see this in the Car and Smartphone/Mobile/Tech business), believe me I know and it always bugs me. Problem is that it seems like at some point they start doing similar things. For example, Hyundai copied Mercedes, but instead of doing M-B's angular theme of the most recent generation (before going quickly back to round/"organic") they did very curvy and "organic", "nature inspired" designs. Then, M-B start doing the same thing AFTER Hyundai, which makes it appear that M-B followed Hyundai's lead, which of course fundamentally doesn't make sense as Hyundai took their ideas from M-B to begin with.

IMO, M-B used to be copied more than anyone, however lately nobody copies them, everybody copied BMW and now are moving to Audi lately, and during this time M-B designs start at least "looking like" they're taking cues from others rather than the other way around.

 

The Phaeton had an incredible amount of engineering and brand identity. It failed because VW decided to make it look like a giant Passat. It was just not very exciting in any way. The hinges to the trunk were a whole different story. Seriously sexy stuff!

The Equus is part of a lineup where every car looks like it is a copy of some german brand. The interior looks like a hodgepodge of a bunch of other cars that make up the segment. Hyundai has come a long way. Their cars are significantly more attractive now and it has forced some of the Japanese brands to do better.

I for one would take a well equipper E,5,A6,Passat over a Equss. Just like I would lower my budget before digging through the racks at the Neiman Marcus outlet.

 

It failed because it was a 60-90K VW. The VW dealer network has no clue how to sell or service such a car. The look of the car probably didn't help, but that wasn't the main reason. People were stunned to see a 60K pricetag on a VW, when in a lot of cases an Audi is across the hall or down the street.

M

 

+1 It will be interesting to see how Hyundai and KIA navigate these same waters, especially in the US. It is hard to imagine such high stickers on Hyundai, KIA, and VW. But, we live in a day and age of Honda products hitting the 50K range. Who'd-a-thunk-it?

 

Toyota too! Look at the Avalon fully loaded close to like $50,000

 

Local VW dealer in Albany refused to work on them. Most of the time my local Indi shop would take them in and have them in the bays for days! Very complex for a VW my mechanics say.

 

Exactly. More importantly, US pricing for the Phaeton was already heavily discounted compared to Europe. I remember the W12 started at over 100k Euro in 2003.

Btw. the are still building the Phaeton today. Identical to the 2003, just with DLRL's...

 

I don't think that's true. If you build an Equus on the Hyundai website, there are no options to be added on the "ultimate" model which is priced at ~$69K. The highest price you can configure is $68,920. The USAA price for a 2014 Equus ultimate through their car buying service is $64,610. A 2013 is $59,470. You would still have to add tax, title and fees, but you wouldn't get anywhere close to $80K

 

Cars.com under the new car section had a couple of them in the mid $70's.

 

Interesting. Must be one of these...

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_FoXyvaPSnV...es+Equus+2.JPG

 

My boy has the EQUUS it's a nice car & get some looks on it's own, but pull up to some where at the same time as an S class, E class or BMW 7 series & he EQUUS is just another wanna be pretender.

 

No they were not modified in anyway other then what was ordered on them from the factory.