NEWS RELEASE

News Release (Wednesday 31 August 2005)

Hyundai stars again in NRMA car running cost mega-survey. New Sonata and Getz top in class

Hyundai is one of only two car brands to top more than one of the NRMA's eight car classes in its annual mega Vehicle Operating Cost Survey for 2005, the new Sonata 2.4 debuting as the new Medium Car benchmark while Getz again tops the survey as well as the Light Car class.

For the third consecutive year, Getz is both the most and second most economical car to run of all 451 cars surveyed. The Getz XL 1.3 manual costs just 37.17 cents per kilometre or $107.23 per week to run, saving $9.61 a week over seventh-ranked Echo. Second most economical is the Getz GL 1.5 3-door manual at 38.43 c/km or $110.86 a week.

In Medium Cars, the new NF Sonata 2.4 litre manual sedan on 47.51c/km and $161.02 per week beats Camry 2.4 while the Selectronic automatic Sonata 2.4 ranks third, out-saving even manual variants of Mazda6, Vectra, Subaru Liberty 2.0 and others.

The new Sonata 3.3 litre V6 is the most economical Large Car with automatic transmission. With figures of 64.82c/km and $186.98 per week, Sonata V6 is over $10 per week less to run than Commodore.

Tucson V6 AWD is the most economical Compact SUV of larger, roomier size and costs less to run at $173.42 per week than four cylinder Nissan X-Trail, Honda CRV, Mitsubishi Outlander, Subaru Outback and others and is only pipped by the much smaller Cruze and 3-door short wheelbase variants of Rav-4 and Vitara.

The costliest vehicle surveyed, the Toyota Landcruiser 4WD Sahara Turbo Diesel, was calculated at well over three times more expensive to run or cost well over $12,000 per year more to run than the Getz XL.

The NRMA surveys all the obvious car operating costs like fuel, maintenance, tyres, registration, comprehensive insurance and repairs, plus the more hidden cost of funds - interest income foregone on car purchase funds - and the biggest cost of all, depreciation.

The NRMA's figures assume private ownership over five years covering 15,000km per year. Fuel costs are based on ADR 79/01 compliance testing while NSW on-road charges and NRMA comprehensive insurance and club membership are also imputed.

While the NRMA figures relate to motoring in NSW, costs in other states and territories will be similar, the main differences being in statutory charges.

"The NRMA survey shows yet again further proof of Hyundai's owner-friendly engineering excellence, benchmark real-world value-for-money and importantly, good resale value which keeps down depreciation-the big bogey car operating cost," said Theo van Doore, Hyundai Motor Co Australia's Director of Sales & Marketing.

"It's particularly pleasing to see Sonata take the economy lead with its Euro-4 low emission engines," he said.

Futurist and adventurer Hans Tholstrup drove a Getz XL 10,000km around Australia in 2003 and averaged just 4.65 litres of petrol per 100km.

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Further information:

Richard Power, General Manager-Public Relations
Hyundai Motor Co Australia Pty Ltd
Tel: 02-9763-3670; mobile: 0401-990-194; fax: 02-9763-3433
E-mail: richard_power@hyundai.com.au