What you're looking at is not the 2012 Hyundai Accent, it's the 2012 Dodge Attitude. Yes, we see the Hyundai badge. No, we aren't kidding.

Dodge has, for quite some time now, sold a rebadged version of the Hyundai Accent in Mexico under the Attitude moniker. (Hyundai, as an automaker, is otherwise absent from the Mexican market). And while the previous-generation Attitude was simply a rebadged version of the old Accent sedan, it appears that the 2012 model doesn't even go that far.

We got our first glimpse at the U.S.-spec Accent at the 2011 New York Auto Show earlier this year, and while our market will benefit from the functionality of the five-door hatchback configuration, the Dodge Attitude will only be available as a sedan. A 1.4-liter gasoline engine is standard, with a 1.6-liter powerplant available as an option.

UPDATE: Looks like the Accent isn't the only Hyundai vehicle being given the Pentastar treatment in Mexico. The Korean automaker's Starex van (known as the iLoad and iMax - seriously - in Australia) also wears a Dodge nameplate in Mexico, though like the Attitude, the Hyundai badges have remained intact. The Dodge H100 is available in both cargo van and passenger van configurations. (Hat tip to owenrec!)

Dodge updates Attitude for Mexico with latest Hyundai Accent, forgets badges *UPDATE originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 26 May 2011 11:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Hey Dodge, Hyundai's marketing crew called, they want you to go to Mexico and try a little harder to badge engineer the Accents they sold you. That's right, the car sold in the US by Hyundai as the Accent is sold in Mexico as the Dodge Attitude. It doesn't stop at the Accent either, the Hyundai Atos, a city car sold throughout the world, is also part of this badge engineered deal.

It's not really much of a surprise the two have teamed up in Mexico to market a couple small Korean cars as Dodges. The North American wing of DCX has nothing in the subcompact and micro classes, and with U.S. domestics still highly regarded in Mexico, it's no wonder that Hyundai choose to market through another manufacturer. And there isn't anything inherently wrong in this arrangement; it's just painful to see such a poor attempt to reuse Hyundai's own press photos and Photoshop in a Dodge emblem. You guys couldn't even spring for a new set of Glamour Shots?

(Thanks for the tip, Neal!)

Continue reading Badge engineering gone bad: the Dodge Attitude

Badge engineering gone bad: the Dodge Attitude originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 22 Sep 2006 20:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.