Hyundai announced today that it has passed the five million sales milestone in the U.S. since entering the market a little over two decades ago. During that time, Hyundai has transformed itself from a cheap and shoddy import brand into one that can rival industry leader Toyota for reliability, and is now on track to reach its goal of being the fifth largest automaker in the world by the end of the decade.
The first Hyundai to be sold in the U.S. was the Excel compact, which arrived back in 1986. Hyundai was unprepared for the levels of sales its Excel would enjoy, and consequently couldn't provide adequate service for its rapidly growing customer base. This led to the company being stereotyped as the maker of unreliable cars, but this all changed at the turn of the century when Chairman Chung Mong-koo made quality a key priority.
Today, Hyundai is manufacturing cars in the U.S. and Europe and is on target to reach 550,000 sales in America for this year. Recently, products like the new Veracruz and Santa Fe have shown just how far Hyundai has come. Next up is the Genesis luxury sedan and a rear-wheel-drive coupe.
[Source: Detroit News]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
felipe @ Jul 19th 2007 2:39PM
best 2 cars i've owned in a long time.....
nothing beats the value.
woot for Hyundai.
felipe @ Jul 19th 2007 2:41PM
best 2 cars i've owned in a long time...
nothing beats them on value right now.
woot for Hyundai!
geo.stewart @ Jul 19th 2007 2:41PM
thus illustrating the difference between US Automakers concentrating on numbers (and stock prices and dividends) from quarter to quarter, and the Asian companies with 5, 10, and 20 yr plans.
Concentrate on the cars instead of the stocks, and the stocks will take care of themselves. too much tail waggin the dog. that and the what about me attitude of unions and mgmt.
Suellen @ Jul 19th 2007 2:52PM
Your right, US companies for the most part don't look at what kind of impression their cars will make when the car is 5-10 years old. Is it a reliable car when it has huge miles on it? They don't care. They sold it, they got their money. Once the warranty runs out, who cares. The millions and millions of owners that have older cars do. The Asians are very fast to learn and are driven to make ever better products. I'm embarrassed by my country and our lack of caring. Good for Hyundai
geo.stewart @ Jul 19th 2007 2:59PM
there is that but I meant more that Asian companies set corporate goals for 5, 10, 20, and some for 50 yrs.
US companies look at where does the stock price need to be next quarter so that no one balks and whats the easiest way to get there.
I guarantee no one at the US Big 3 are going: China and India are the next big markets. Where are they going to be in 20 yrs? What % do we want to have, and what do we have to do to get there?
They are instead saying: Let's see. China and India look big. We should invest but we have to be careful not to upset the stock price this quarter or this FY or short sighted investors may get upset and then we have to deal with them. So I guess add all those investors that want the stock market to be their get rich scheme as part of the problem.
Tsunami Racer @ Jul 19th 2007 2:52PM
i rented a sonata recently and was pleasantly surprised. i think everyone is accepting the fact that their cars are now good; they just have an image problem that still lingers to this day. and that's a tough problem to overcome.
Patrick Perron @ Jul 19th 2007 2:54PM
In defence of the American auto industry ... it's a lot easier to start from scratch than it is to turn around after having been at the top.
Congrats to Hyundai ... the little engine that could. I remember not too long ago they were hoping for a number 10 spot ...
Patrick Perron @ Jul 19th 2007 2:57PM
Back when Toyota, Datsun, and Honda, were being introduced they similar reputation issues ... hence the term jap-scrap. Look where they are today.
nissan blah @ Jul 19th 2007 4:27PM
uhhh, datsun, er nissan, is still crap. didn't u know?
RJ @ Jul 19th 2007 3:19PM
I put myself through college repairing Hyundai's and Chryslers. I always said that Hyundai was the better vehicle of the two and that people really should expect great things from them in the future.
Touching on some of the points previous posters have made, it comes down to a cultural difference between American and Asian auto manufacturers. In America we generally think of "long term" as being 1-5 years. In many asian cultures, their idea of long term is much, much further down the road than 1-5 years. Therefore asian businesses generally are much more likely to plan for the future, rather than just plan for the immediate "future".
Going back to Hyundai quality, it bewilders me that many claim Hyundai's to be "crap" on forums and blogs like this one. I believe there is a good chance that most people who claim Hyundais are "crap" have actually never even driven a recent vehicle from Hyundai. To say the company has made leaps and bounds is truly an understatement.
Barney @ Jul 19th 2007 4:17PM
People now look at Hyundai as an inexpensive car, rather then a cheap one. Many new buyers are unaware of the Pony or Excel. Low price and quality will always win buyers.
Nick Minetti @ Jul 19th 2007 4:26PM
Hyundai is going to be #5 biggest automaker...in the WORLD!? Whoah. Who knew that!? So what's all this talk on some forums about Hyundai being a tonka toy maker, a fly-by-night operation? These Asians have my respect and I feel embarrassed by Detroit. Why can't we do the same? What's wrong with us? Well, I'm off to the Hyundai dealership...
XJ @ Jul 19th 2007 5:14PM
Apparently the top 6 automakers in the world for 2006 were....
1) GM
2) Toyota
3) Ford
4) Volkswagon
5) DaimlerChrysler
6) Hyundai
Jumping DaimlerChrysler...er...whatchamacallit... by 2010? Yup, I could see that happening.
Brian W @ Jul 19th 2007 5:24PM
Because 70% of their cars are exported from a cheap a** country. We can't do it because we have a good standard of living. GM owned Daewoo beats Hyundai in their own country, we can do it on a level playing field.
Not Brian W @ Jul 19th 2007 9:14PM
dude, uh, no.
i've been living in Korea for five years now and the GM owned Daewoo is definitely not even close to beating Hyundai. It goes Hyundai, then Samsung, who's motor division is owned by Nissan, mind you, not an American corporation, then Kia, then there's that sweet ol' American Daewoo. it used to be a prominent company, selling excelling cars in Europe, like the Leganza, which still shows up in the streets and it still looks pretty good if you ask me.
get your s**t straight, man.
Jens @ Jul 19th 2007 4:59PM
There are some minor issues with my 03 Tiburon, but overall quality and reliability is not so bad. I have the feeling they're going to push even harder for the coming models ... no doubt they look into a bright future.
My next car will be a Hyundai again.
Brian W @ Jul 19th 2007 5:24PM
Hyundai's real goal was to sell 1,000,000 autos in the US by 2010. They aren't even close to that, KIA is growing but Hyundai isn't. Cheap still sells.
Pemo @ Jul 20th 2007 3:26AM
What is the purpose of your posts Brian W? All you do to trail Hyundai articles with biased useless garbage.
Dave @ Jul 19th 2007 5:42PM
Hyundai has lower overhead than GM / Ford / Chrysler.
Hyundai probably has lower overhead than the Japanese and Germans as well.
And they are making good use of their advantage.
Generalizations about US vs. Asian corporate culture seldom hold up. Toyota and Honda are the only truly successful Japanese car manufacturers - they have earned their place while other Japanese marques have failed or had marginal success at best.
Don @ Jul 19th 2007 8:19PM
Lol!
This article makes it sound as if Hyundai's early reputation was caused by a lack of dealership service bays...when in fact it was due to the Excel's awful quality.