Later this year, Hyundai will up its ante in the US car market, to include a car in the $30,000 range. If you've been following along, you'll know the car may be called the Equus, in reference to the company's Equus concept shown in 2002, and the executive car of the same name Hyundai sells to Korean salarymen and government whatwhats. Now, as The Car Connection reports, the final product will be unveiled at the New York auto show this April, ahead of a market intro later in the year. TCC says a V8 is imminent, while other sources have indicated the base engine would be the corporate 3.8-liter V6. Expect considerable luxe for the money — like wood trim, leather surfaces and seating, and tons of those safety bags that inflate on impact. – Mike Spinelli

Spy Shots: '08 Hyundai Equus [The Car Connection]

Related:
More on the Hyundai Equus [internal]

Hyundai's upcoming rear-drive sedan, codenamed BH (aka Equus), apparently has been flaunting its Korean-made luxe all over suburban Detroit — exposing its kinky C-pillar and other salacious whatnots. While we'd heard the new executive car would hit market for MY 2008, powered by a version of Hyundai's workhorse 3.8-liter V8 V6, Winding Road reports Hyundai will offer a V8, though we're still unclear clear on its origin (i.e., homemade or sourced). As if Buick didn't have enough to worry about. – Mike Spinelli

Hyundai Equus Caught In Detroit [Winding Road]

Related:
More on the Hyundai Equus sightings [internal]

What will Hyundai's next upmarket. rear-drive sedan be called? It may take the Equus name, like its Korean executive-car counterpart, or it could get an entirely new designation. Either way, Streetfire.net put up a spy video of that sedan — clad to the hilt in obfuscative leather — reportedly codenamed BH. According to spies, its 116" wheelbase surpasses that of current Equus, and a 270-hp, 3.8-liter V6 will reside under the hood, though a V8 may also be in the offing.

Related:
Spy Photos: 2008 Hyundai Horse, er, Equus [internal]

Despite Chairman Chung's penchant for slushies, Hyundai's plan to attack every automotive genre, right up to the V8, rear-drive luxury category, continues unabated by scandal. The company's plans to bring a new upmarket sedan to the US — like those it sells in Korea — have been vaguely public since 2002, when it unveiled its 2002 Equus Concept. The Car Connection has new spy shots of a prototype of that car, reportedly set to debut
in 2008 either under the Equus banner or by another name, possibly replacing the Azera. Watch for a Korean debut of the new model later this year.

MORE PHOTOS: 2008 Hyundai Equus [The Car Connection]

Related:
Spy Photos: Hyundai's Luxury Equus [internal]

Edmunds Inside Line obtained some shots of Hyundai's forthcoming entry in the US luxury-car market, the Equus. Hyundai has been selling the current generation of the car, which gets its name from the zoological genus of all horse-like animals (like the Zebra and that tiny horse that looks like a Great Dane puppy), though the current model is decidedly un-horselike.

Developed with Mitsubishi and launched in 1999, the Korean Equus is an executive car with a quad-cam, 32-valve, 4.5-liter V8 engine and adaptive five-speed automatic, and rear-wheel drive (in its latest version) — mainly used to transport government officials and corporate titans. In 2002, Hyundai indicated it was serious about addressing the US luxury-car market by showing its new Equus concept (pictured) on the North American car show circuit. The spy shots reveal a car the could share some of the blockiness and heft of the concept, if not its more radical body lines and cut-ins. Reports that emerged last year had pegged the Korean domestic launch of the new Equus at late 2006, and the US launch in 2007 as a 2008 model. And don't expect the horsey name to carry over.

Hyundai's 2002 Equus Concept

Spy Shots: 2008 Hyundai Equus [Edmunds]

Related:
Hyundai Opens First US Plant in Montgomery, Alabama; Spy Photos: Clearly a Hyundai Santa Fe; Spy Photos: 2007 Kia Magentis/Optima [internal]