Hyundai Curb: Hyundai's Juke at Detroit

The Hyundai Curb gets revealed at Detroit

Hyundai has revealed their compact and funky urban crossover – the Hyundai Curb – at the Detroit Motor Show.

As we know, Hyundai has been taking the fight to the Japanese in a big way in recent years. Their cars have become more credible; better built, more contemporary and better designed. But you could argue they’ve played it safe. No big style departures; no trend-setting and they’ve followed the Zeitgeist, not inspired it.

The Hyundai Curb may not be trend-setting – the Nissan Juke got there first – but the small, funky urban crossover that is the Hyundai Curb is on the breaking wave of compact urban crossovers, rather than coming up behind to steal a piece of the action.

The Curb Concept gets a turbo 4-pot delivering 175bhp, complete with dual-clutch ‘box. The 22″ alloys are wrapped in Michelin tyres with saffron coloured tread pattern. The exhaust vents open to reveal a bike rack. There’s a pop-up roof rack and a third rear door. Very Urban. Very Concept. Very won’t make it to production.

The inside is also very ‘Concepty’. There’s a big screen to share info to all the passengers and a head-up display for the driver showing stuff like the images from the camera mirrors, and splashes of saffron trim litter the interior and match the funky Michelins.

We love the Curb, but then we love the Juke. Small, butch and cool, they are the perfect ‘Urban’ transport. Will the Hyundai Curb make it to market any time soon? Oh, yes. Hyundai can see the way the market is moving and being in the vanguard rather than in the follow-up will serve them very well.

Even if the Curb is toned down somewhat for production.