At the Paris Motor Show, Hyundai displayed the Arnejs concept car and unlike most concept cars the Korean company has shown in the past, this one looks like becoming a production reality.

Yes, the Arnejs still looks like a concept car, but it is not too difficult to visualise a showroom model closely related to it and, encouragingly, it is good-looking. Hyundai tells us that the show car is "the best clue yet as to what the company's all new C-segment car will look like when it arrives in the UK next summer", which means it can't be long before the actual production version is shown; probably at the next Geneva Show in March 2007.

It is thought that the production model will share much of its mechanicals with Kia's new cee'd range, though the styling of the Hyundai version (if the concept is anything to go by) looks more extroverted. You'll notice that it has an upswept side window shape (as on the cee'd), with a sporty lowering rear roofline. The rear view is particularly distinctive, thanks to the large lights and unusual sculpting of the boot door.

Shane O' Donoghue - 5 Oct 2006