Hyundai move from Baboons to Kids to test quality

Hyundai has let a group of four and five year old kids loose on a Hyundai i30 Tourer to prove their cars can stand up to all the rigours of a boisterous family.

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Last year, Hyundai let a troop of 40 safari park baboons loose on an i30 to see if, left to their own devices, they could trash Hyundai’s very well bolted together (just ask Martin Winterkorn) i30.

It was a clever way to demonstrate that the i30 doesn’t just look good, but is made of a bit more than recycled baked bean cans and Fairy liquid bottles.

The i30 came through the baboon test with flying colours (even the company tasked with cleaning it up after the baboons commented on the story that they were impressed by how unscathed the i30 was), but Hyundai has now come up with a quality test that makes the baboon adventure look like a walk in the (safari) park.

Anyone with four and five year old kids will know how much mess they can make, even when you’re keeping a beady eye on them, so the idea of letting 15 four and five year olds from Holmer Green First School do their worst to an i30 Tourer is enough to send shivers down the spine of any parent. But that’s what Hyundai has done.

The i30 Tourer was parked in the school playground and for six hours the little darlings – in their mud-caked wellies – jumped round the inside, slid down the bonnet, prodded and poked things you wouldn’t even think could be prodded and poked, and generally had a high old time.

When the little ones had finished causing mayhem, a group of 10 older children from the Junior School, having watched what the four and five year olds had been doing, were all given white coats and clipboards to assess the damage and play quality inspector.

One of the ‘Inspectors’, ten year old Yasmin Pierce, said:

I really enjoyed becoming a quality inspector for Hyundai. We called ourselves the ‘Junior Scientists’ and it was our job to inspect the car while the reception children got it extremely messy. It was good to be able to feedback our findings to Hyundai and I thought that the i30 was really stylish and overall very strong. It is a good car for families.

It’s another clever bit of marketing from Hyundai and will resonate with parents of small children, even if the idea of letting little ones have their destructive head on their pride and joy is a frightening thought.

You can watch the kids do their worst to the i30 in the video below, but even if you have an i30 Tourer we really wouldn’t recommend you try this at home.

Well, not unless it’s a hire car.

Hyundai Kids Quality Testing Video