Deju vu: consumers buying low-priced, quality, Korean cars in Japan
Korean automakers like Hyundai continue to make inroads in Japan against domestic manufactures like Toyota, Nissan, and Honda. Hyundai Motor Japan, which has been doing business in Tokyo since 2001, sells six models with its high-end Grandeur (Azera) costing a little over $29,000. However, states a salesperson, "It (Grandeur) does not pale in comparison with Japanese cars of the same class in terms of quality and equipment. But the price of the car is about 1 million yen ($8,547) less."
Quality products at low prices have also helped the automaker worldwide. According to Business Week, Hyundai Motors ranked third in global corporate brand value for 2006, just after Toyota and Honda but ahead of Nissan. South Korean auto exports to Nippon nearly quadrupled in the past ten years, as well. Hyundai alone hopes to double its sales in the country in 2006 and plans to increase its dealerships from 57 to 70 within three years.
[Source: Kyodo News via The Japan Times]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Dirk Dundenburg 9:22PM (8/26/2006)
Of course, trying to sell a foreign made car (or just about anything else)in S.Korea results in crushing tariffs and nationalistic jingoism. Maybe other nations should enact a fair trade policy with them.
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azark 10:43PM (8/26/2006)
Dirk, how is that any different than what Japan does to protect its own auto industry?
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qaz 11:54PM (8/26/2006)
If the Koreans can make considerbly cheaper cars just as relible and built well as the Japanese, then there is no reason to buy a Toyota or Honda. Relibility, quality, and value are the only advantages of Japanese. More soul and passion is needed in cars for them to be competetive in the future
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jfrolang 12:20AM (8/27/2006)
I see less soul in Korean cars than the average Toyota.
Toyota and Honda are much larger companies than they were 20 years ago, and they have lost the character that made them what they are. Cars like the Celica, Prelude, CRX and MR2 were sporty, inexpensive and fun to drive cars, all since cancelled. Toyota has lost that spark completely, and Honda just has the now upmarket Civic Si, and to a lesser extent the Fit remaining. Korea never had anything like those cars though.
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qaz 12:40AM (8/27/2006)
Hyundai can make fun cars too like the Tiburon, though it is similar to the Celica..
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John 1:03AM (8/27/2006)
Hyundai is not just souless.
Hyundai still possesses the abominable, unreasonably repulsive styling of Korean, and Chinese brand "designs".
I acknowledge the Azera's quality craftsmenship and choice of materials, but does it not still look like a sedan from the 1990s? It's some kind of cross between 1990s Buick and Lincoln.
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8189720 3:03AM (8/27/2006)
Celica, Prelude, CRX, and MR2 (just like the Camaro, Firebird, Probe, etc.) have been cancelled not because of a lack of soul. But because of a lack of sales. So perhaps it's not the companies losing the interest in those cars, but the general public buying them.
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andy 4:17AM (8/27/2006)
that dress is hawt
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jack_brack 1:30PM (8/27/2006)
c'mon there's some Seoul in korean cars!
thank you, thank you....I'll be here all weekend.
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John 5:06AM (8/27/2006)
Yes that dress is hawt. Screw the car.
I mean screw the babe. Leave the car alone.
I'll take her home today. How much?
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sp 6:29AM (8/27/2006)
they sold only 5,000 cars... Toyota sells more cars in S. Korea...
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GhostDoggy 7:24AM (8/27/2006)
Makes no difference what we Westerners think. Someone in Japan is buying Korean cars. The question I want answered is if and when SK will be selling more of their domestic brands in Japan than the USA does in Japan.
BTW, IIRC the USA placed heavy V6 tariffs on the Japanese because our domestics couldn't compete. We still can't compete. Did those tariffs ever come down? Considering how much less one can buy a daily driver for from Hyundai, I am not going to bash them on my personal soul-seeing inclination.
You people see souls. Now that's funny!
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PanAsianBiz 7:44AM (8/27/2006)
I don't know where sp got that 5,000 car figure, but if that's accurate, then I would hardly call that making "inroads in Japan." I don't think I've ever seen a Hyundai on the road in all of my years in Japan, and really doubt that Toyota et al have anything to worry about (in Japan anyway).
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Japanese Car Exporters 10:03AM (8/27/2006)
Well, at one time Japan had virtual monopoly in the electronics market. But today Korean companies have successfully established themselves in many electronic sectors such as CRT and LCD displays & computer chips. Japanese Car manufacturers have to note these signals and compete accordingly.
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ShureF00t 10:03AM (8/27/2006)
The only way for Korean manufacturers to seriously start selling in Japan, is if brands like Hyundai and Kia become wildly popular and TRENDY here in the US and Europe. The highly fashion conscious Japanese (read: label whores) and their "me too" haut couture mindset is mainly based on former US and European fads.
Why else would the H2 currently be selling like hot cakes in Tokyo?! http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060814/FREE/60803009/1004/THISWEEKSISSUE "...that is sooooooo 2003!"
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Ryan 10:09AM (8/27/2006)
Well one thing is for sure, the gal in the picture hardly looks low-price or low-quality :-)
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sp 10:35AM (8/27/2006)
Numbers came from article above... i think toyota sells 3x-4x times more cars in Korea... Even Lexus sells around 2,500 cars in Korea per year.
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travis 10:32AM (8/27/2006)
1./ Actually tarriff doesn't matter. It's like under 5 percent.
Firstly, Heavy taxes raise the price of every car in South Korea, including domestic ones. Plus dealers who sells imports put lots of money into marketing area. These freaking situation makes a loaded MB E350 into weird 10K US$ range there. Average price of American cars are 1.5 times of the price in the states.
As a result, only the rich buy the imports. And most of them believe American cars are not that prestigious. They buy Mercedes, BMW, Audi and Lexus, and some of them want Honda(Acura models + Accord and CRV), but not American cars.
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travis 10:47AM (8/27/2006)
Oops, US$ 10K -> US$ 100K
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travis 10:58AM (8/27/2006)
18./ Toyota Korea has only Lexus. You can hardly find any Camry over there.
I heard Lexus sells around 500 a month in Korea. BMW, with about 600 a month, is the most selling imports there.
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