보배드림

From Pony to Genesis
포니에서 제네시스 까지

How Hyundai got hip
현대는 쌈빡해졌다.

Peter Cheney
피터 체니 기자

Published on Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010 6:24PM EST
2010.1.19

Steve Kelleher used to dread the cocktail party moment when people asked him what he did for a living.
스티브 캘러(현대차 캐나다 법인 사장)는 칵테일 파티를 갈때마다, 사람들이 자신들이 직업이 뭔지 물어볼까봐 걱정했었다.

“I'm a Hyundai cars executive,” he'd reply. He might as well have mounted a bull's-eye on his forehead.
"나는 현대차 중역이오" 그는 대답한다. 그는 동시에 부끄러움을 느꼈다.

“I was the butt of every joke,” says Kelleher, now president and CEO of Hyundai Canada. “It was open season.'
"나는 조크 대상이었다. 그런 시절이 있었다."

But forget all that. Today, Kelleher's company is producing cars that have silenced the critics. Good reviews and high scores in the prized J.D. Power reliability ratings are now the order of the day.
그러나 오늘날 켈러의 회사는 좋은 평가와 좋은 품질 평가를 받는게 대세가 됬다.

Last year, Hyundai sold more than 103,000 cars in Canada, an increase of 28 per cent. And as the icing on the cake, the company's Genesis sedan was chosen as 2009 North American Car of the Year.
작년에 현대차는 캐나다 시장에서 28퍼센트나 판매량이 증가했다. 제네시스 세단은 북미 올해의 차를 수상했다.

“The champagne came out that day,” Kelleher says.
켈러는 말하길 "샴페인이 터졌다"

For those who watched the early days of Hyundai, a Car of the Year award seemed about as likely as a Miss America win for Snooki from the reality show Jersey Shore .
현대의 지난날을 아는 사람들은, 현대가 올해의차를 수상한 것은 마치 평범한 여자가 미스 아메리카상을 받은 것과 같게 느낄거다.

“These were ugly little cars,” says one former Hyundai owner. “You bought them because they were cheap.”
전 현대차 소유자가 말하길 "예전에는 추한 작은 자동차들이었다. 당신은 그것이 싸기 때문에 샀었다"

No one knows that better than Kelleher, a car-industry veteran who has helped orchestrate Hyundai's rise from joke to respected player. He arrived at Hyundai in 1986 after a career at Ford, a Detroit powerhouse that made the South Korean upstart's North American operation look like a small-town farm implement dealership.
현대는 예전에 조크였다.

Although some doubted his sanity, Kelleher saw Hyundai as a company with tremendous potential, with nowhere to go but up. Established giants like Ford and GM, meanwhile, inched toward a yet-unseen downfall, with massive legacy costs and an addiction to their traditional tactic of selling poorly engineered cars with profit-padding option sheets that could run to a dozen pages.
켈러는 현대가 포드하고 GM같은 야망을 가지고 있는 것을 봤다.

“When you're that big and successful, some hubris can set in,” he says.
켈러가 말하길 "당신이 성공하고 커졌을때 자만심이 자라게 된다"

Hyundai's specialty was low-cost vehicles. The first car they brought to Canada was the Pony, which arrived in 1984 with a sticker price of $5,795 ? about the same as a snowmobile. Although it was crude in comparison to competitors like the Honda Civic, the Pony's low price made it a hit. The company expected to sell about 5,000 a year ? within a year, it had sold over 50,000, the most successful launch by a foreign manufacturer in Canadian history.
현대는 싼 차였다. 1984년 첫해의 캐나다 판매량은 성공적이었다,

Entering the North American car market can be compared with storming a heavily defended beach, and numerous foreigner manufacturers have been repelled in the past ? Renault, Fiat and Lada are among those who were all forced to retreat. Hyundai faced the same problems they did: entrenched opponents, language barriers, differing tastes and a long supply chain ? in this case, from South Korea.
현대는 곧 어려움에 직면했다.

Kelleher and his fellow Hyundai executives have studied the wax and wane of competitors such as Toyota and Chrysler. Each exemplifies a car-industry maxim. Chrysler shows what can happen when a storied brand loses its mojo. Toyota shows how manufacturing savvy and smart engineering can allow a former underdog to dominate an industry.
켈러와 그의 동료들은 토요타와 크라이슬러를 연구했다.

At the moment, Hyundai is in a position eerily similar to the one occupied by Toyota in the early 1980s, when it began to make the transition from purveyor of cheap transportation to industrial icon. Like Toyota in the 1980s, Hyundai has an improved product, and a market racked by recesion.
현재 현대는 토요타의 1980년대 초기와 비슷한 포지션에 있다. 그들의 품질을 향상됬고, 시장은 침체해 있다.

“People are focused on value,” Kelleher says. “And that's our specialty.”
켈러가 말하길, "사람들은 value(돈 대비 가치)에 집중하고 있다. 그것은 우리의 특기야"

With rising sales, Hyundai wants to make the next step in its evolution, producing cars that will enhance its image, and entice drivers to pay more. “Last year, we turned the corner,” Kelleher says. “We went from rational to**irational.”
판매 증가와 더불어 현대는 다음 단계의 진화를 원하고 있다.  이미지 향상과 값싼 차를 벗어나는 것. 켈러가 말하길, "작년에 우리는 반환점을 돌았다. 우리는 합리적인 제품에서 열망하는 제품으로 가고 있다"

The company's new Genesis sedan is a key weapon in this new battle. A two-week test drive showed how far Hyundai has come in its quest to be seen as a legitimate contender to luxury brands like Lexus and Mercedes. The Genesis's V-8 engine was silky smooth, and the leather interior had the expensive cocoon feel that well-heeled buyers love. There was the requisite GPS system and Bluetooth hands-free system, and the doors shut with an expensive, solid feel.
Its attention-getting qualities also seemed to be well tuned ? more than once, I noticed people staring at me as I cruised in the Genesis, something that usually happens only when I'm in a proven head-turner like a Porsche or M-series BMW.
제네시스 세단이 핵심 병기이다. 제네시스 세단은 여러모로 뛰어난 차다.

But the surest sign that Hyundai has crossed a threshold was my teenage son's reactoin. When I told him my next test vehicle was a Hyundai, he gave me the kind of look you get when you tell a child that the family has fallen on hard times, and will be moving into a Scarborough motel. But the Genesis surprised him ? he checked the badge to make sure it was really a Hyundai. After the first few days, he wanted me to buy it.
내가 현대 제네시스를 리뷰한다고 하니까, 내 10대 아들이 별로인 것 같이 행동하다가, 제네시스를 보자 놀라 버렸다. 내 아들은 뱃지를 보며 현대가 맞냐고 놀라는 눈치였다. 며칠 경험후에, 내 아들은 내가 제네시스를 사길 원했다.

I was surprised myself. How did Hyundai suddenly get stylish? I spoke with Thomas Burkle, chief designer at Hyundai's European design bureau, who spoke eloquently about the “form language” of Hyundai's new vehicles. “Our concept is fluidic sculpture. Wavy, non-geometric shapes.
내 자신도 놀랐다. 어떻게 현대가 갑자기 스타일리쉬 해질 수 있었는가? 나는 토마스 뷔르클레(현대 유럽 디자인 센터의 수석 디자이너)에게 물었다. 그가 말하길, "우리의 디자인 언어 '흐르는 조형' 은 물결 모양으로 정해진 형태가 없다."

Burkle, who used to work for BMW, believes that Hyundais are becoming cars that people hunger for. “The value has always been there,” he says. “Now we are working on the emotional part. People buy cars with their hearts even more than they buy with their wallets.”
전직 BMW 에서 일했던 뷔르클레는, "Value(값 대비 가치)는 언제나 현대에게 있던 것입니다" "우리는 이제 감정적인 부분으로 접근하고 있습니다. 단순히 가격이 아니라, 그들의 마음속에서부터 이 차를 사길 원하게끔 말이죠"

I don't think there was anyone like Burkle at Hyundai when I first encountered the brand back in the mid-1980s. If the Pony had a form language, I couldn't see it. It reminded me of a Lada or a Trabant. A flimsy plastic choke knob stuck out of the dash. The Pony perched awkwardly above its skinny tires, like a kneecapped horse, and the paint looked as though it had been applied with a prison floor mop. Against my advice, one of my friends bought one, lured by the super-low price ? about a year later, it burst into flames on Highway 401 and burned down to its tires.
Most Ponys were actually fairly reliable, and some are still on the road today. And the ugly little car served its purpose. It made money for the company, and helped evolve its corporate and engineering culture ? like an early, tail-dragging primate, the Pony was part of the evolution of the Hyundai species, which is now fully upright (with opposable thumbs and a full warranty.)
옛날 1980년대 생각이 난다. 포니는 디자인 언어를 찾을 수 없었다. 그 차는 품질도 나빴다.

“The Pony was a first step,” Burkle said. “We're a long way from that now.”
뷔르클레는 말하길, "포니는 첫번째 단계 였습니다. 우리는 그로부터 현재에 이르렀습니다"

Some wonder if Hyundai can make the transition into the upscale market. Will buyers accept an upscale Hyundai when the company has been perceived as the automotive version of Wal-Mart for so long? “If I'm going to spend serious money on a car, it has to be German,” one tire-kicker opined after giving the Genesis a once-over at a gas station.
누군가는 현대가 대형차 시장에 어울리는지 회의를 가질 것이다. 월마트같은 싼 차를 내놓는 자동차 회사가 대형차를 내놓는다면 사람들은 납득할까? 누군가 말하길, "내가 비싼 차를 산다면 독일차를 사겠어"

Not long ago, I might have agreed. There was a time when I would not have accepted a Hyundai if I won it in a contest. Now there are some models that I would actually consider buying. So would many of my car buddies. “This is a Hyundai?” one of them marvelled after a spin in the Genesis.
얼마전에도 나도 그렇게 생각했다. 그런데, 현대의 몇몇 모델은 진짜로 사고 싶어지고 있다. 내 친구들이 제네시스를 보면 "이거 현대 맞아?" 라고 말할 것이다.

Which brings us back to the long-suffering Kelleher, who can finally hold his head up at a party ? the Hyundai H-symbol, once the scarlet letter of the automotive world, now has some street cred.
과거에 현대의 H모양 엠블럼은 떼버리고 싶은 부끄러운 것이었다. 그런데 지금은 멋진 것이 되고 있다.

“There are people who are proud to own a Hyundai,” Kelleher says. “That's new, and it's good. People used to be ashamed to own a Hyundai. They didn't want one in their driveway.”
켈러는 말하길, "사람들이 현대를 갖는것에 자랑을 느끼고 있다" "그것은 새롭고 좋은거다. 예전에 사람들은 현대차를 사는 것을 창피해 했지만 이제는 달라졌다"

www.theglobeandmail.com ?http:>http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-drive/new-cars/auto-news/how-hyundai-got-hip/article1436840/