Most expensive Hyundai won't come to the UK

Hyundai Equus

Hyundai has just unveiled the new Equus. Priced between about £70,000 and £80,000 in its home market, it is the most expensive car ever produced by the Korean manufacturer.

With its five-litre V8 engine, it is aimed at the BMW 7-Series and Mercedes S-Class; a special bullet-proof version will be used by the Korean president. Hyundai says that the Equus is unlikely to be imported into the UK.

Given the rapid progress being made by the Korean manufacturers, Hyundai's ability to make a convincing car for this price bracket isn't in doubt. On the other hand, experience shows that even when the mainstream car-makers produce vehicles that are as good as those from the prestige brands, these struggle to be taken seriously by badge-conscious buyers – the best recent example being the Volkswagen Phaeton.

The most expensive model in Hyundai's current UK line-up is the rarely-seen £27,000 Genesis saloon; the Grandeur, which slots into the Hyundai range between the Genesis and the Equus, isn't sold here at all. In the long-run, if it is to compete convincingly at the top end in Europe, Hyundai probably needs to create its own luxury brand – as Toyota did with Lexus – or acquire one of the existing premium manufacturers. Both of these options are expensive, but neither would be beyond the resources of Hyundai-Kia, which is now the fourth largest car-maker in the world.

Mercedes' 2010 E550 Coupe wins the E-class beauty contest

Is the 2010 Mercedes E550 Coupe pretty? This is no trivial matter. After all, why would you buy an E Coupe when for about the same money you could get Mercedes' new E Sedan? The mid-size four-door Benz is the standard by which all Mercedeses are measured. It's the company's bestselling model worldwide and the unimpeachable choice for every Beverly Hills tennis pro and real estate agent who ever lived. The E Sedan is bigger, more practical, more richly equipped. It's a car every bit as tightly nailed together, offering performance nearly equal to that of the sports-minded E Coupe. Only one reason: The E Sedan is beastly looking. In my review of June 12, I said the sedan was "very proper and Swabian and gloriously unartistic." In the months since, my opinion has only soured. I hate the way the car slumps at the head like a pole-axed buffalo. I loathe the over-shaved, winnowed taper around the grille. I detest the graceless quadrangle of windows on the sides. I gag on the exaggerated accent lines on the fuselage that don't visually intersect with anything in particular. It's a terrific machine, but really, the E Sedan's homeliness has a kind of malign ambition about it. Meanwhile, the E Coupe, the replacement for the long-lived CLK Coupe, is lovely. The grille -- with two horizontal bars supporting a softball-sized Mercedes emblem -- looks tougher, more masculine and declarative. The black-mesh intakes in the lower bumper are deeper and more aggressive. On the E Coupe, the accent lines actually give the shape some visual velocity, converging like metal contrails at the rear of the car with the deco-like fender flares. The roofline arches exquisitely over a pillarless canopy (that is, there's no "B" pillar roof support). Low, wide and rakish, the E Coupe design has an organized, coherent energy about it, a godly brow to the E Sedan's low forehead.