The Hyundai Grandeur was once a staple of the Korean brand’s lineup, but it hasn’t been sold here for nearly two decades – and that’s probably not going to change.
Despite the Grandeur living on in the Korean domestic market as well as the Middle East, Hyundai’s local product development says it’s unlikely to ever return due to rapidly declining sales of large sedans in Australia.
“I’d love to have [the Grandeur] here because that’s my style of car personally, but I’m not sure if the market’s really demanding that,” said Tim Rodgers, product planning and development manager for Hyundai Australia.
“And that’s what I think ultimately what will dictate if we ever offer fully fledged model lineups in that space ever again.”
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Sitting above the Sonata, the Grandeur serves as Hyundai’s flagship passenger car the same way the Palisade headlines the SUV lineup – if you discount the all-electric Ioniq range.
It’s effectively a low-slung Palisade sedan, running the same platform but a slightly different powertrain lineup – including a 3.5L V6 and a 1.6L turbocharged hybrid – and remains enduringly popular in its home market. Outside of Korea, it’s also known as the Azera.
Measuring 5035mm long and 1880mm wide with a 2895mm wheelbase, the Grandeur isn’t far off the current BMW 5 Series in size, with more premium proportions and appointments than something like a Skoda Superb.
While a bridge between the Hyundai and Genesis ranges, the Grandeur started life as a rebadged Mitsubishi in the late-1980s. It’s now in its seventh generation, and has since become a status symbol in the South Korean market, even now with Hyundai’s premium arm existing.
Generations three and four were sold in Australia from 1999 to 2011, but slow sales throughout its lifecycle saw it culled from the local lineup. It was somewhat replaced by the Hyundai i45 sedan, which was actually the sixth-generation Sonata, but that was also axed in 2013 in favour of the slightly smaller and more Euro-focused i40 sedan and wagon before the Sonata returned in 2015.
The large passenger car segment is a particularly small one, with just 201 sales in the mainstream end and 1959 units at the premium end in 2025.
Top of the pops are the Mercedes-Benz E-Class (519 units), BMW i5 (484) and 5 Series (315), all of which wear starting prices in excess of $100,000.
Hyundai’s own Genesis G80 only mustered 41 sales throughout the entirety of 2025 by comparison, which is less than half the volume achieved by the Porsche Taycan (176).
The Korean brand still plays in the mid-size sedan segment – though the dimensions now are positively large – with the 4910mm-long and 1860mm-wide Sonata registering 375 new units last year.
Despite the dominance of the electrified Toyota Camry and Tesla Model 3, the Sonata isn’t offered here with a hybrid powertrain.
Hyundai has, however, committed to bringing in the facelifted all-electric Ioniq 6 streamliner sedan as its flagship sedan though the finer details of the updated range remain unclear.
The high-performance Ioniq 6 N is a sure-fire starter, set to arrive in the coming months, though the core range is still to be confirmed – no surprise, given MY23 examples of the pre-facelift range were still being sold in 2025 with substantial discounts.
Stay tuned to CarExpert for all the latest, and let us know in the comments if you’d like to see the Hyundai Grandeur in Australia.
