New car news

02 October 2009 - 09:00

Equus horribilis

If the best way to generate column inches about your latest product is to brag about how expensive it is, alarm bells should be ringing.

Just launched in Korea and mercifully unlikely to make it to Australia, this is the long-wheelbase Hyundai Equus, a luxury barge that hopes to challenge the likes of the BMW 7-Series and Mercedes S-Class. And one that our cabbage-chomping chums are very keen to tell us will cost a horrifying $170,000 they gleefully announce, if you order all the toys.

The Equus has a 294kW, 5.0-litre V8 to haul its vast bulk around and features a world first: a powered footrest. Super.

They've also made a bullet-proof version and given the Korean president three. Just in case.

If you feel the urge to cough up the sort of money that would get you a W12 Audi A8 on a car you will have to get specially imported and that is going to depreciate faster than Roman Polanski's Oscar opportunities, order the armour, because we'll definitely have a shot at you.