The Balance Bracelets Complete the Star Trek Uniform

And a belt-buckle from outer-space. This is David Maus, an Orlando car-dealer who basically owns the airwaves. Every traffic and weather report on the radio is sponsored by him. Every game on TV is interrupted by him. And in his latest ads, featuring his dealership's coffee shop, he sports the freakiest get-up for a car dealer since the checkered blazer. The Double-Point/Smile^TM at the end is Dave's trademark.

Hyundai Knows You Want a BMW

Saw an interesting out-of-focus full-page ad on the back of the NYT business section this week, something about a car should have more airbags than cupholders, with ThinkAboutIt.com as the only call to action. So I went. A nice site, really, but this copy at left struck me as odd. Sort of like, "Hey, we know. Our logo sucks, but our Korean overlords won't let us change it. So stop being so shallow about brand image and deal."

Hyundai has always had trouble with image in the US. At first it was their name that no one knew how to pronounce. Then it was getting people over the hurdle of buying a Korean car. We knew German, Japanese, Swedish, Italian, French and British, but we didn't even know Korea made cars. Then it was the fact that Hyundais were perceived as a cheap unknown, with no record for reliability. When I see the Hyundai logo on the front of a car, I still have a hard time shaking those early notions I attached to the Hyundai name, and to a lesser degree, their logo.

But Hyundai's image has changed now in the minds of many, and Hyundai is currently the 6th largest car maker in the world. Still, I don't think I'd ever buy one.

Or maybe I would if they changed their logo.