When It Comes to Cars, Korea Is the New Japan Options

[Rayzor]

By Justin Hyde, Jalopnik

Hyundai and Kia have sold more vehicles to Americans than all European automakers combined through the first seven months of 2011, and they’re growing faster than any other automaker. Here’s how South Korea’s automakers have the rest of the world on the run.

It’s not a great time to sell new cars and trucks in the United States, what with people not having cash or jobs or homes that are worth as much as they thought when they bought them with money they didn’t have. Yet Hyundai has seen sales grow by an astonishing 23 percent this year, while Kia, its semi-autonomous budget-brand partner, has recorded 28 percent growth. Those are records for both companies.

It makes sense. Each company has a strong lineup of vehicles with few weaknesses. The Hyundai Sonata and Elantra were the ninth and 10th-best selling cars in the country last month, and the Kia Sorrento cracked the top 10 for trucks.

Behind the success of the Korean automakers lies a combination of skill, luck and @$$-kicking by a man now among the world’s most powerful executives.

Here’s a few reasons for the Koreans’ good fortune:



Both automakers have for the first time found a visual style that appeals to Americans. Hyundai’s curved grille and waved body creases look handsome on the Sonata and work well enough on the new Elantra and Tucson that models yet to receive the design language seem stale. The new styling may not wear well, but it’s captured the moment.

Kia used to build sedans that looked like they’d been scavenged from Jaguar’s recycling bin, but the fantastic Optima sedan (pictured above) is arguably the best-looking midsize sedan, and far better than the sea of beige coming from former champions Honda and Toyota. The 2012 Toyota Camry looks so derivative that Kia and Hyundai sedans will keep taking its lunch money.

Despite some lingering quality problems, Hyundai and Kia have surpassed the test of basic safety and dependability standards that once kept them in the last-ditch bracket with Mitsubishi and Daewoo. They also were among the first to embrace the idea that the inside of a small car should look more luxurious than the bins at airport security. The Elantra’s handling might not be as crisp as the Ford Focus or Honda Civic, but it has the best interior in the class, putting the new Civic to shame. And for the rare stories of problematic defects, Hyundai’s been quick to deal with them quickly.

Hyundai’s savvy marketing and high-concept incentives — like buying back your car if you lose your job — drew shoppers without costing a fortune. Kia’s marketing has been more annoying (Why couldn’t the Aztecs kill those rapping hamsters?) but it’s done a great job getting Kia noticed.

You can have your Sonata with a zippy turbo or miserly hybrid drivetrain. Nearly two-fifths of the vehicles Hyundai sold in July have fuel economy ratings of 40 mpg, taking the mantle for efficient sportiness Honda lost when it built the Honda Insight hybrid. Meanwhile, there are rumors Hyundai will throw a V8 into the award-winning Hyundai Genesis coupe, challenging the traditional Detroit muscle car.

Each automaker now has a factory in the United States, and through the magic of building in the most union-resistant reaches of Dixie, they pay the lowest factory wages of any automaker in the country. That provides a cost advantage over Detroit, the Japanese and Volkswagen.

Japan’s earthquake knocked its automakers dizzy, but the Japanese also have been struck by currency changes that have whittled away profits on vehicles sold in U.S. dollars. South Korea’s currency hasn’t had such issues. And unlike Japan, whose automakers face a populace more obsessed with gadgets than cars, South Korea considers automaking a national priority, even though its roads are rarely less than bumper-to-bumper.

I keep calling Hyundai and Kia two companies, but they’re part of the same Korean conglomerate, or chaebol. Although vehicles such as the Optima and Sonata are mechanical twins and the Kia plant in Georgia also builds Hyundais, the U.S. marketing branches of each automaker are told to view each other as competitors.

Still, the two branches converge in Korea on a tree skillfully tended by Mong-Koo Chung, chairman of Hyundai Motor Group.



Chung (pictured at right) is the scion of South Korea’s version of the Ford family. He is the country’s richest man, with a fortune of more than $2 billion, and he has overseen Hyundai’s transformation from regional steel-stamper to world-class corporation. His family’s ambitions nearly cratered Hyundai in the late 1980s when it flooded the United States with embarrassing crap cans. Kia, independent at the time, was little more than a contract builder; its oval logo is the same size as Ford’s so it could play “two for you, one for me” when building Ford Aspires.

In retreat, Chung made quality, technology and styling the company’s primary focus. He hired engineers from around the world, brought in former Audi designer Peter Schreyer to remake Kia — which Chung bought out of bankruptcy — and winning an intra-family battle for control of the Hyundai chaebol. That victory lets Hyundai buy much of its steel and parts from its own affiliates.

When other automakers face off against Hyundai and Kia, they’re also fighting a government that considers Hyundai’s success a matter of national honor. When Chung was convicted in 2007 of embezzling $110 million for illegal political donations, his three-year sentence was suspended before the government pardoned him, saying he was needed “to continue to contribute to the development of Hyundai Motor Group.” Contrast with how folks responded to saving General Motors and Chrysler…

No industry is quite as volatile as the auto industry, and Hyundai is far from perfect. Chung’s push to offer luxury cars has Hyundai dealers trying to sell $50,000 Equus sedans, an experiment still too early to judge. Korea’s labor unions make the UAW look like a quilting circle, regularly striking and locking down plants. Akio Toyoda, another auto-industry scion, has his own comeback plans for Toyota, and he’s aiming right at Hyundai.

It’s been a long drive for a company that built its first original vehicle in 1976, and an impressive feat to conquer the automotive world in just four decades. Hyundai isn’t unstoppable, but you can understand why it might look that way to people in boardrooms from Detroit to Frankfurt to Shanghai right now.

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2011/08/when-...-the-new-japan/

[orange peel]

ooo that is le sexy

[VJDay]

really? What is a good Korean car?

I am considering buying a Civic by the end of this fall.

[KaptainAmeriKa]

ooo that is le sexy

Yea that guy is sure sexy.

[Retroman22]

By Justin Hyde, Jalopnik

Hyundai and Kia have sold more vehicles to Americans than all European automakers combined through the first seven months of 2011, and they’re growing faster than any other automaker. Here’s how South Korea’s automakers have the rest of the world on the run.

It’s not a great time to sell new cars and trucks in the United States, what with people not having cash or jobs or homes that are worth as much as they thought when they bought them with money they didn’t have. Yet Hyundai has seen sales grow by an astonishing 23 percent this year, while Kia, its semi-autonomous budget-brand partner, has recorded 28 percent growth. Those are records for both companies.

It makes sense. Each company has a strong lineup of vehicles with few weaknesses. The Hyundai Sonata and Elantra were the ninth and 10th-best selling cars in the country last month, and the Kia Sorrento cracked the top 10 for trucks.

Behind the success of the Korean automakers lies a combination of skill, luck and @$$-kicking by a man now among the world’s most powerful executives.

Here’s a few reasons for the Koreans’ good fortune:



Both automakers have for the first time found a visual style that appeals to Americans. Hyundai’s curved grille and waved body creases look handsome on the Sonata and work well enough on the new Elantra and Tucson that models yet to receive the design language seem stale. The new styling may not wear well, but it’s captured the moment.

Kia used to build sedans that looked like they’d been scavenged from Jaguar’s recycling bin, but the fantastic Optima sedan (pictured above) is arguably the best-looking midsize sedan, and far better than the sea of beige coming from former champions Honda and Toyota. The 2012 Toyota Camry looks so derivative that Kia and Hyundai sedans will keep taking its lunch money.

Despite some lingering quality problems, Hyundai and Kia have surpassed the test of basic safety and dependability standards that once kept them in the last-ditch bracket with Mitsubishi and Daewoo. They also were among the first to embrace the idea that the inside of a small car should look more luxurious than the bins at airport security. The Elantra’s handling might not be as crisp as the Ford Focus or Honda Civic, but it has the best interior in the class, putting the new Civic to shame. And for the rare stories of problematic defects, Hyundai’s been quick to deal with them quickly.

Hyundai’s savvy marketing and high-concept incentives — like buying back your car if you lose your job — drew shoppers without costing a fortune. Kia’s marketing has been more annoying (Why couldn’t the Aztecs kill those rapping hamsters?) but it’s done a great job getting Kia noticed.

You can have your Sonata with a zippy turbo or miserly hybrid drivetrain. Nearly two-fifths of the vehicles Hyundai sold in July have fuel economy ratings of 40 mpg, taking the mantle for efficient sportiness Honda lost when it built the Honda Insight hybrid. Meanwhile, there are rumors Hyundai will throw a V8 into the award-winning Hyundai Genesis coupe, challenging the traditional Detroit muscle car.

Each automaker now has a factory in the United States, and through the magic of building in the most union-resistant reaches of Dixie, they pay the lowest factory wages of any automaker in the country. That provides a cost advantage over Detroit, the Japanese and Volkswagen.

Japan’s earthquake knocked its automakers dizzy, but the Japanese also have been struck by currency changes that have whittled away profits on vehicles sold in U.S. dollars. South Korea’s currency hasn’t had such issues. And unlike Japan, whose automakers face a populace more obsessed with gadgets than cars, South Korea considers automaking a national priority, even though its roads are rarely less than bumper-to-bumper.

I keep calling Hyundai and Kia two companies, but they’re part of the same Korean conglomerate, or chaebol. Although vehicles such as the Optima and Sonata are mechanical twins and the Kia plant in Georgia also builds Hyundais, the U.S. marketing branches of each automaker are told to view each other as competitors.

Still, the two branches converge in Korea on a tree skillfully tended by Mong-Koo Chung, chairman of Hyundai Motor Group.



Chung (pictured at right) is the scion of South Korea’s version of the Ford family. He is the country’s richest man, with a fortune of more than $2 billion, and he has overseen Hyundai’s transformation from regional steel-stamper to world-class corporation. His family’s ambitions nearly cratered Hyundai in the late 1980s when it flooded the United States with embarrassing crap cans. Kia, independent at the time, was little more than a contract builder; its oval logo is the same size as Ford’s so it could play “two for you, one for me” when building Ford Aspires.

In retreat, Chung made quality, technology and styling the company’s primary focus. He hired engineers from around the world, brought in former Audi designer Peter Schreyer to remake Kia — which Chung bought out of bankruptcy — and winning an intra-family battle for control of the Hyundai chaebol. That victory lets Hyundai buy much of its steel and parts from its own affiliates.

When other automakers face off against Hyundai and Kia, they’re also fighting a government that considers Hyundai’s success a matter of national honor. When Chung was convicted in 2007 of embezzling $110 million for illegal political donations, his three-year sentence was suspended before the government pardoned him, saying he was needed “to continue to contribute to the development of Hyundai Motor Group.” Contrast with how folks responded to saving General Motors and Chrysler…

No industry is quite as volatile as the auto industry, and Hyundai is far from perfect. Chung’s push to offer luxury cars has Hyundai dealers trying to sell $50,000 Equus sedans, an experiment still too early to judge. Korea’s labor unions make the UAW look like a quilting circle, regularly striking and locking down plants. Akio Toyoda, another auto-industry scion, has his own comeback plans for Toyota, and he’s aiming right at Hyundai.

It’s been a long drive for a company that built its first original vehicle in 1976, and an impressive feat to conquer the automotive world in just four decades. Hyundai isn’t unstoppable, but you can understand why it might look that way to people in boardrooms from Detroit to Frankfurt to Shanghai right now.

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2011/08/when-...-the-new-japan/

Very, very nice. Good to see the Koreans putting out some great looking stuff.

[VJDay]

You boast about how great Korean cars are, but you wouldn't even suggest a single good Korean brand for me to buy?

What a joke.

I'm buying a Civic. It's final.

[KraterosHellas]

i don't understand why koreans always compare thmselves to japan. i don't see japan comparing itslf to korea or even america for that matter, ever.

[VJDay]

... because Korea, if unified, can actually beat the living $hit out of Japan economically, politically, and militarily... That's why the Japanese want to see Korean reunification the least... historically, Korea has been the most advanced civilization in that region outside of China.

[Pessoptimistic]

You boast about how great Korean cars are, but you wouldn't even suggest a single good Korean brand for me to buy?

What a joke.

I'm buying a Civic. It's final.

you could try the Elantra from Hyundai if you somehow change your mind since its under 25k like the Civic and supposedly better from what I've read. But the Civic is good too i guess.

Random comparison site I found: http://www.insideline.com/hyundai/elantra/...rison-test.html

This post has been edited by Pessoptimistic: Aug 10 2011, 02:34 AM

[Nostylez]

Hyundai i30, great car !! bang for buck.
Although doesn't compare to my Golf Gti, still Hyundai has come a long way !

[zoopiter]

i don't understand why koreans always compare thmselves to japan. i don't see japan comparing itslf to korea or even america for that matter, ever.

becos japan is leading in this market, so whoever who are catching up will take pride for that.

[WideAwake]

i don't understand why koreans always compare thmselves to japan. i don't see japan comparing itslf to korea or even america for that matter, ever.

Japan does compare itself to America and is now comparing itself to Korea. Japanese industrial experts are coming to Korea to study how corporations are run due to the decline of Japanese companies like Sony, etc. They also have lots of programs about the Korean Wave, explaining how it got so big.

[WideAwake]

Hyundai Surprises Honda and Has the Japanese Automaker Worried

If you would have asked anyone in the car business whether Honda would slip from its pedestal as, perhaps, the leading automaker in the world – not the world's largest as that is safely Toyota's mantle – no one would have thought that the vehicle that would climb over Honda would be, of all brands, Hyundai.

But that's what happened recently when Honda's Civic slipped out of the coveted top 10 cars in the world, as labeled by the consumer authority Consumer Reports, and into 11th place. Its replacement, of all vehicles, was the Hyundai Elantra.

That probably was as bitter pill to swallow as Honda has had to swallow on a long time, but, it's not without reason that Consumer Reports bumped Honda down a few notches. It began with the silly restyle into a jellybean car about four years ago. Yes, it was a sleek model and it features some, for the time, innovative design, such as the impressive line it gave to the wind as the air swept up and over the smoothly rounded lines of the Civic.

But, there was something else that was equally troubling to long-time Honda watchers. The automaker was turning to plastic, just the way the American auto industry turned to plastic some years ago and for which it lost its place in many ratings. (American cars, by the way, are staging a comeback of humungous proportions such that Ford has at least one design in the top 10 and Chevy and GMC have designs in the top 10 SUVs out there. Those ratings are usually done by services such as Consumer Reports or the J.D. Powers and Associates array of services.

Specifically, we are talking about the Civic's interior that more than one analyst has remarked is way too plastic. Indeed, it has many of them worried that the vaunted Civic has been leap-frogged by the Hyundai Elantra in interior fit and finish. Indeed, the Elantra was once almost universally ridiculed as the plastic car by the automotive world, but that position has flip-flopped.

Indeed, some very influential observers raked Civic over the coals because it just wasn't up to the standards established when Honda made its name as the engineering giant with its early entries in the Civic market. Those cars had ride and handling down pat and they were among the first to use disc brakes all-around for sure stopping. In fact, their engineering was lauded by many observers at the time – yours truly included – for the very simple fact that you didn't know whether the front-drive Civic was actual being pulled or being pushed. Its handling and ride were just that good.

That is no longer the case and examples we have seen and driven have not only shown us the Honda is having a love affair with hard plastic, but it is also have its own love affair with poorer engineering altogether. For example, the Civic is now a noisy vehicle that wallows into corners like a bloated whale and exits them with the aplomb of a water buffalo eating. That's not a very nice picture, but it is what it is.

On the contrary, the Korean auto industry – Hyundai/Kia – is making a concerted effort to lure former Honda buyers with vehicles that feature not only state of the art interior design and materials, but also with state of the art design altogether. The item that has Honda most worried, especially in the American market where Civics are traditionally big sellers, is that Hyundai has bushwhacked them with their quality and it is beating the Japanese automaker at its own game.

Who would have thought it?

http://www.auto-types.com/autonews/hyundai...rried-7713.html

[Chan-Ho]

Hyundai and Kia deserve to be where they are today. They've overcome tremendous odds by being pragmatic and beating competitors in every dimension while keeping true to value. I have no doubt that Hyundai and Kia will lead the industry.

This post has been edited by Chan-Ho: Aug 11 2011, 12:49 PM

[Forummember]

I wouldnt buy a korean car yet. I gues it takes 10 more years before they can match the Japanese or European cars.

I notice some problems with the quality of the KIA cars. Also they look very fuel efficient in their books, but in real life, they use a lot more fuel than that.

That being said, korean cars have made a lot of progress last few years.

[Nostylez]

I wouldnt buy a korean car yet. I gues it takes 10 more years before they can match the Japanese or European cars.

I notice some problems with the quality of the KIA cars. Also they look very fuel efficient in their books, but in real life, they use a lot more fuel than that.

That being said, korean cars have made a lot of progress last few years.

They have definitely come a long way, props to there engineers.
If they keep churning out quality cars of good value they will no doubt
Be at the top.

[Chan-Ho]

I wouldnt buy a korean car yet. I gues it takes 10 more years before they can match the Japanese or European cars.

I notice some problems with the quality of the KIA cars. Also they look very fuel efficient in their books, but in real life, they use a lot more fuel than that.

That being said, korean cars have made a lot of progress last few years.

You're behind the times man. I have a feeling you haven't driven any new Hyundais or Kias lately.

[KraterosHellas]

Hyundai and Kia deserve to be where they are today. They've overcome tremendous odds by being pragmatic and beating competitors in every dimension while keeping true to value. I have no doubt that Hyundai and Kia will lead the industry.

u hardly ever have doubts about a positive future for korea

[Chan-Ho]

Do you own and use a Korean car?

Actually I do drive a Hyundai Elantra. I've had mine since before Hyundais became cool. lol

u hardly ever have doubts about a positive future for korea

I'm a positive guy, I don't dwell on negatives anymore... not worth my time or energy.

[taebum]

I believe the quality of Hyundai cars surpassed the general preconception.
I did not drive many national brands cars but Hyundai actually better to drive than my past driving Japanese cars overseas.

As myself who drove the Japanese car during my stay oversea but that experince never made me to hesitate to get back to Hyundai/Kia.

Its also long time ago past idea that hyundai is only sold to the financially poor class.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405...1267185128.html

http://blogs.wsj.com/drivers-seat/2011/07/...-buy-a-hyundai/