Hyundai: THe new name in Reliability
twospirits
03-14-2005, 08:23 PM
Reprinting the following article from MarketWatch, in case it disappears in the future from their website. Original article found here (http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7B13E88A15%2DB333%2D43E9%2DA109%2D 4B4E41D58D6E%7D&dist=rss&siteid=mktw).
Hyundai: The new name in reliability.
Top industry honors affirm Korean automaker's rebound.
By Shawn Kanglois, MarketWatch
Last Update: 12:57 PM ET March, 14, 2005
San Francisco (MarketWatch)-- It wasn't too long ago that Hyundai's line-up of cars garnered about as much respect as the storied Edsel and Gremlin of yesteryear.
With a dismal track record dating back to the U.S. introduction of the Excel in 1986, the South Korean carmaker was perhaps second only to the Yugo as the punch line of choice among drivers everywhere: What do you call a Hyundai with two tailpipes? A wheelbarrow. How do you double the value of your Hyundai? Fill the tank.
The jokes just kept on coming.
But look who's laughing now. Struggling Japanese automaker Mitsubishi certainly isn't. Neither are the Big Three.
"Brands like Chevrolet and Mitsubishi are real targets, and they have reason to be concerned," said Mike Chung, an analyst at Edmunds.com. "Hyundai will likely keep taking market share, particularly in the U.S. as domestic automakers are forced to cut back incentives."
However, Hyundai has some catching-up to do in the court of public opinion, where the brand still conjures up images of the garage-bound, Korean lemon that almost put the company out of business.
"The perception of Hyundai's quality is changing, but it's not changing as fast as reality," Hyundai Motor America's head of sales Ed Bradley told MarketWatch in an interview.
Reliability the catalyst
Much like its home country, Hyundai (HYNDF (http://www.marketwatch.com/tools/quotes/detail.asp?view=detail&symb=HYNDF&siteid=mktw&dist=mktwstoryquote): news (http://www.marketwatch.com/tools/quotes/news.asp?siteid=mktw&symb=HYNDF&dist=mktwstorynews), chart (http://www.marketwatch.com/tools/quotes/intchart.asp?siteid=mktw&symb=HYNDF&dist=mktwstorychart), profile (http://www.marketwatch.com/tools/quotes/profile.asp?siteid=mktw&symb=HYNDF&dist=mktwstoryprofile)) has undergone a massive transformation. And the change was punctuated this week by a coveted nod from Consumer Reports.
The consumer watchdog magazine named the Hyundai Sonata the most reliable vehicle on the road with only two mechanical problems logged per 100 vehicles. To put that in perspective, the Nissan Quest and the Lincoln Navigator brought up the rear with 49 problems.
Overall, the Hyundai brand rated 11 problems per 100 vehicles, putting it in lofty territory with perennial high-scoring luxury lines Lexus and Infiniti. Subaru was the top brand at 8 per 100.
"The success of the Sonata illustrates how Hyundai has been able to turn around their brand from among the worst just a few years ago to among the best now," said Rick Paul, automotive editor for Consumer Reports.
Before that, Hyundai made its best showing last year in the J.D. Power & Associates Initial Quality Study, scoring well enough to take the runner-up slot behind Toyota Motor Corp.
The survey showed that from 1998 to 2004, Hyundai's quality increased 62 percent, almost doubling the industry average of 32 percent and making it the most improved brand over the period.
To Bradley and Hyundai, such industry accolades are far from inconsequential.
"It's absolutely huge," Bradley told MarketWatch. "Something like this really resonates with consumers. We're exceptionally proud of that accomplishment."
A turning point
Hyundai's dramatic shift began to take shape in the late 1990s when Finbarr O'Neill took the helm and offered a 10-year, 100,000-mile limited warranty, dubbed "America's Best", to combat concerns over the brand's reputation for breaking down.
It was a gambit that could have proven costly if Hyundai hadn't substantially improved its reliability.
"When we announced the warranty, we knew that our quality was significantly improved, and we just needed to prove that to the consumer," Bradley said. "If we would have put it on the vehicles without the quality, it could have spelled disaster."
Seven years and millions of cars later, Hyundai's taking on the industry's leaders in the very arena in which it had come up so short for so long. And the big strides in quality and reliability are having a very real effect in the North American market.
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/image.asp?track=201&guid={13E88A15-B333-43E9-A109-4B4E41D58D6E}
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U.S. sales of the flagship Sonata surged 58 percent in February from a year earlier, with 9,762 vehicles snatched from dealer lots. This year, Sonata sales have jumped about 44 percent from the same period in 2004.
And for the first time, Hyundai is opening a plant on U.S. soil, where later this month it will start building the new Sonata. A retooled Santa Fe sport-utility vehicle will be built there in 2006.
At this point, taking major market share from Japan's three-headed juggernaut probably won't happen anytime soon, according to Edmunds.com's Chung. But struggling Korean brands and smaller Asian manufacturers are squarely in Hyundai's sights.
The Toyota Camry and the Honda Accord lead the crowded midsize sedan segment with U.S. market shares of 13.5 percent and 11.8 percent, respectively. The Sonata, while not nearly as entrenched in the U.S., still has seen its share of the midsize market surge from 2.9 percent to 4.7 percent over the past year.
Chung pointed out that the Chevrolet Malibu and Mitsubishi Galant are most likely to surrender market share to Sonata as the low-price, high-reliability model continues draw attention from buyers.
If all goes according to plan, Hyundai, the seventh largest automaker in the world, will break into the global top five by 2010 by selling more than 5 million cars and trucks.
Last year, Hyundai and its Kia affiliate sold 3.2 million vehicles worldwide and this year they are expected to sell 3.7 million.
And they aren't talking about wheelbarrows.
Shawn Langlois is a reporter for MarketWatch, and the editor of its community message boards.
Copyright © 2005 MarketWatch, Inc.
Pretty cool if you ask me. Go Hyundai.
TS Out
Hyundai: The new name in reliability.
Top industry honors affirm Korean automaker's rebound.
By Shawn Kanglois, MarketWatch
Last Update: 12:57 PM ET March, 14, 2005
San Francisco (MarketWatch)-- It wasn't too long ago that Hyundai's line-up of cars garnered about as much respect as the storied Edsel and Gremlin of yesteryear.
With a dismal track record dating back to the U.S. introduction of the Excel in 1986, the South Korean carmaker was perhaps second only to the Yugo as the punch line of choice among drivers everywhere: What do you call a Hyundai with two tailpipes? A wheelbarrow. How do you double the value of your Hyundai? Fill the tank.
The jokes just kept on coming.
But look who's laughing now. Struggling Japanese automaker Mitsubishi certainly isn't. Neither are the Big Three.
"Brands like Chevrolet and Mitsubishi are real targets, and they have reason to be concerned," said Mike Chung, an analyst at Edmunds.com. "Hyundai will likely keep taking market share, particularly in the U.S. as domestic automakers are forced to cut back incentives."
However, Hyundai has some catching-up to do in the court of public opinion, where the brand still conjures up images of the garage-bound, Korean lemon that almost put the company out of business.
"The perception of Hyundai's quality is changing, but it's not changing as fast as reality," Hyundai Motor America's head of sales Ed Bradley told MarketWatch in an interview.
Reliability the catalyst
Much like its home country, Hyundai (HYNDF (http://www.marketwatch.com/tools/quotes/detail.asp?view=detail&symb=HYNDF&siteid=mktw&dist=mktwstoryquote): news (http://www.marketwatch.com/tools/quotes/news.asp?siteid=mktw&symb=HYNDF&dist=mktwstorynews), chart (http://www.marketwatch.com/tools/quotes/intchart.asp?siteid=mktw&symb=HYNDF&dist=mktwstorychart), profile (http://www.marketwatch.com/tools/quotes/profile.asp?siteid=mktw&symb=HYNDF&dist=mktwstoryprofile)) has undergone a massive transformation. And the change was punctuated this week by a coveted nod from Consumer Reports.
The consumer watchdog magazine named the Hyundai Sonata the most reliable vehicle on the road with only two mechanical problems logged per 100 vehicles. To put that in perspective, the Nissan Quest and the Lincoln Navigator brought up the rear with 49 problems.
Overall, the Hyundai brand rated 11 problems per 100 vehicles, putting it in lofty territory with perennial high-scoring luxury lines Lexus and Infiniti. Subaru was the top brand at 8 per 100.
"The success of the Sonata illustrates how Hyundai has been able to turn around their brand from among the worst just a few years ago to among the best now," said Rick Paul, automotive editor for Consumer Reports.
Before that, Hyundai made its best showing last year in the J.D. Power & Associates Initial Quality Study, scoring well enough to take the runner-up slot behind Toyota Motor Corp.
The survey showed that from 1998 to 2004, Hyundai's quality increased 62 percent, almost doubling the industry average of 32 percent and making it the most improved brand over the period.
To Bradley and Hyundai, such industry accolades are far from inconsequential.
"It's absolutely huge," Bradley told MarketWatch. "Something like this really resonates with consumers. We're exceptionally proud of that accomplishment."
A turning point
Hyundai's dramatic shift began to take shape in the late 1990s when Finbarr O'Neill took the helm and offered a 10-year, 100,000-mile limited warranty, dubbed "America's Best", to combat concerns over the brand's reputation for breaking down.
It was a gambit that could have proven costly if Hyundai hadn't substantially improved its reliability.
"When we announced the warranty, we knew that our quality was significantly improved, and we just needed to prove that to the consumer," Bradley said. "If we would have put it on the vehicles without the quality, it could have spelled disaster."
Seven years and millions of cars later, Hyundai's taking on the industry's leaders in the very arena in which it had come up so short for so long. And the big strides in quality and reliability are having a very real effect in the North American market.
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/image.asp?track=201&guid={13E88A15-B333-43E9-A109-4B4E41D58D6E}
c
U.S. sales of the flagship Sonata surged 58 percent in February from a year earlier, with 9,762 vehicles snatched from dealer lots. This year, Sonata sales have jumped about 44 percent from the same period in 2004.
And for the first time, Hyundai is opening a plant on U.S. soil, where later this month it will start building the new Sonata. A retooled Santa Fe sport-utility vehicle will be built there in 2006.
At this point, taking major market share from Japan's three-headed juggernaut probably won't happen anytime soon, according to Edmunds.com's Chung. But struggling Korean brands and smaller Asian manufacturers are squarely in Hyundai's sights.
The Toyota Camry and the Honda Accord lead the crowded midsize sedan segment with U.S. market shares of 13.5 percent and 11.8 percent, respectively. The Sonata, while not nearly as entrenched in the U.S., still has seen its share of the midsize market surge from 2.9 percent to 4.7 percent over the past year.
Chung pointed out that the Chevrolet Malibu and Mitsubishi Galant are most likely to surrender market share to Sonata as the low-price, high-reliability model continues draw attention from buyers.
If all goes according to plan, Hyundai, the seventh largest automaker in the world, will break into the global top five by 2010 by selling more than 5 million cars and trucks.
Last year, Hyundai and its Kia affiliate sold 3.2 million vehicles worldwide and this year they are expected to sell 3.7 million.
And they aren't talking about wheelbarrows.
Shawn Langlois is a reporter for MarketWatch, and the editor of its community message boards.
Copyright © 2005 MarketWatch, Inc.
Pretty cool if you ask me. Go Hyundai.
TS Out
illusion123a
03-23-2005, 11:47 AM
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=677&e=21&u=/usatoday/20050323/bs_usatoday/hyundaikiashiftgearstoovertakecompetition
here's some more of hyundai in the news
here's some more of hyundai in the news
Jaguar D-Type
05-30-2005, 06:25 PM
I could care less about Hyundai.
twospirits
05-30-2005, 09:08 PM
and this has to do with the topic at hand? If you do not care for Hyundai then why post in the Hyundai forums? :screwy: Why not enlighten us with your reasons instead of posting remarks that give no insight in your way of thinking.
TS out
TS out
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