Quickly now, can you name the best-selling sedan in South Korea?
If you said the Grandeur, it's probably that you cheated and asked your AI buddy.
Hyundai has just revealed a facelifted edition of the Grandeur, which isn’t just the top selling sedan in the carmaker’s home market, it’s the second top seller of any format, behind the Kia Sorento SUV.
Canadians may actually remember the Grandeur, only without realizing it. And that’s because it was sold here until 2009 (and in the U.S. until 2017), but under the Azera name. The Azera lost its spot on the North American roster with the advent of the too-similar Hyundai Genesis sedan. But the Grandeur has continued on, successfully, in its home market and elsewhere, and now the seventh generation of the flagship sedan gets a new facelift that makes us want it back, we say.
In a nutshell, the model gets a sleeker front end (slimmer full-width light bar, redesigned grille and air intakes, thinner headlights), with an unchanged profile leading to a mildly modified back end. In length, it spans 5,050 mm, about the same as the BMW 5 Series, which stretches 5,060 mm.
Inside, as befits a premium large sedan, it features a 17-inch touchscreen, which houses both the infotainment display and the climate control commands. On top of the dash in front of the driver sits a digital instrument cluster. Seating is covered in quilted upholstery and metal and wood accents abound.
Up above we find an even premium-er touch, a “smart vision roof” that can be set to either opaque or transparent.
Hyundai didn’t provide details about the powertrains for the new Grandeur, but it’s expected the facelifted model will offer the same choices as the outgoing model, namely a naturally aspirated 2.5L GDi, a 1.6L Turbo Hybrid and a 3.5L V6.
For all the talk about premium materials and refinement, here’s the amazing thing about this attractive sedan: it will likely retail in South Korea, when it debuts later in 2026, for the rough equivalent of $36,000 CAD. We think a lot of Canadians would say yes to such reasonably priced Grandeur here.
