"It was out of embarrassment that Hyundai decided to launch  "Operation Dave or Bust." The year was 1998 and the South  Korean carmaker was in big trouble. Its U.S. sales had fallen 65 percent  from their peak 10 years earlier, and Hyundais had become a favorite  target of America\'s popular late-night TV comedians. Jay Leno  equated the Hyundai with the Olympic luge, "a three-foot-long  vehicle that has to be pushed to get started and only goes  downhill." But when David Letterman compared Hyundai to  Russia\'s breakdown-prone Mir space station, a young Hyundai  salesman from Montana decided he\'d taken enough. He headed for New  York in a Hyundai Tiburon Coupe, planning to challenge Letterman to a  test drive. Hyundai assigned a PR team to Operation Dave, and cheering  staffers greeted the hero at dealerships across the United States.  "It was time to fight back," says Hyundai spokesman Mike  Anson."

Newsweek International
March 5, 2001 | Piore, Adam; Lee, B. J. | Copyright