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Hyundai puts Michel Nandan in charge of WRC effort

Hyundai has appointed former Peugeot WRC technical director Michel Nandan to head up their assault on WRC. As Hyundai matures in to a credible mainstream force, improving brand perception is crucial to its long-term goals and 2012 is all about improving Hyundai’s brand experience and perceptions of the brand. A part of that focus is to take Hyundai back in to WRC rallying with a much modified i20, where Hyundai are hoping for a better experience than they had when they went rallying a decade ago – which should be a given considering the big strides Hyundai has made in its cars in the last few years.

Kia turn to consumer reviews to drive the brand

Kia is launching a brand awareness campaign in the UK with the main focus being on over 3000 consumer reviews on the Kia website. It looks like Korean twins Hyundai and Kia are both going to be concentrating on building the value of their brand in 2013. Yesterday we learnt that Hyundai are to focus on brand building in 2013 rather than chasing big sales increases, and today Kia has revealed it is following a similar path with a new marketing campaign built round consumer reviews of Kia cars.

First 2010 Shelby GT500, two Mustang concepts to be auctioned

Three future Mustang classics will be auctioned off at the seventh annual Barrett-Jackson event April 9-11 in Palm Beach, Fla. The headliner is the first retail 2010 Ford Shelby GT500. The other two ponies are concepts that debuted during the 2003 auto show season.