Hyundai Pony

Vehicle Overview

The Hyundai Pony: When Hyundai wanted to develop their own car, they hired George Turnbull, the former managing director of Austin Morris at British Leyland in 1974. He in turn hired five other top British car engineers, Kenneth Barnett as body designer, engineers John Simpson and Edward Chapman, John Crosthwaite as chassis engineer and Peter Slater as chief development engineer. With Turnbull’s experience with the Morris Marina, engines and transmissions from Mitsubishi, some parts from the Ford Cortina they were already producing, and a hatchback body styled by Italdesign Giugiaro, they developed the Hyundai Pony. The Hyundai Pony was presented at the Turin Motor Show in October 1974, and the car was introduced in December 1975 as a four-door sedan to compete with the Saehan Gemini and Kia Brisa. A coupé utility version was added in May 1976, which was called Pick-up. Technically, a pickup has a separate cargo tray while the Pony had it integrated in the body. A station wagon arrived in April 1977. In 1981, the small bootlid from the sedan was replaced by a hatchback creating a new five-door model. This was accompanied with a new three-door hatchback. The Pony was loosely based on the Morris Marina, with former British Leyland engineers being hired by Hyundai to design the car.