Hyundai? [J.D. POWER SURVEY]: Hyundai leapfrogs Toyota in quality

What about Kia? Anyone?

 

My friend bought a fully loaded V6 sonata minus sunroof for under 18K. Thats cheaper than a basic civic.

 

Back in October, I narrowed my car choice to either the Jetta or the Sonata. I would have gotten the Sonata, but 1) the two Hyundai dealerships I went to in Houston were just ghetto (complete with apathetic and inept salesmen) and 2) it was a freaking Hyundai. I will say that about 2 months ago, while in Atlanta, Avis gave me a V6 Hyundai Sonata as a rental car (for 2 days), and it handled very well with a nice, smooth ride, although the steering wasn't as tight as my Jetta. I was impressed.

 

Some Kia haveToyota engines

 

I heard on the radio last weekend that the top selling cars in the US last year were:

1. Toyota Camry
2. Honda Accord
3. Toyota Corolla
4. Honda Civic
5. Chevy Impala

The top US made car only placed 5th in overall sales.

I just bought a new 2006 Honda CR-V this week for less than 20K. I spent more than that on my used 96 Blazer with 15,000 miles 8 years ago.

 

Ford F-Series and Chevy Silverado blow Camry's numbers out of the water. They sell over 2x as many F-Series as they do Camry's. Your stats are only for cars, not all automobiles.

 

Texas is the pickup capital of the world.

 

Kudos to Hunydai. I have been to Korea a couple times, People there are really proud of their cars. Hunydai, KIA, Daewoo... These cars have been around for a while now. It's not a fluke that Korean cars are catching up. Korean's manufacturing capability are world class.

Now the problem is, Korea has copied Japan and China is behind. They gotta be concerned one day China is catching up in the consumer products, which I think is happening.

 

Yes. That's why I said top selling cars.

 

That was brutal.

 

I didn't know this... which one(s)? I ask because Kia is owned by Hyundai.


Kam,

Kias were some pathetic cars in the past but according to that IQS, they've improved in "initial quality". I don't know that you should make your buying decisions on initial quality. It's not necessarily an indicator of how reliable a car will be.

 

I know, I wasn't trying to dispute anything you said. I just wanted to point out that there are a few things the American auto makers are still good at.

 

?

ROOOOOOKAY

 

What man? I haven't posted in this thread yet.

 

China is well on it's way.



China's Chery will be next Toyota, U.S. importer says




By Chang-Ran Kim / Reuters


SHANGHAI - It's the last thing the U.S. auto industry needs: another Toyota Motor Corp.

But that's exactly what Malcolm Bricklin, the energetic 66-year-old founder and CEO of Visionary Vehicles, is predicting will become of China's Chery Automobile Co., whose cars he plans to begin selling in the United States in January 2007.

"We're going to make billions from this business," Bricklin said in an interview at Chery's booth at the bustling Shanghai auto show, which opened to the public on Friday.

"Chery is going to be the next Toyota," he told Reuters.

He intends to help the Chinese maker join the ranks of General Motors Corp. Ford Motor Co. and Toyota to sell at least 2 million cars in the world's biggest auto market.

If Bricklin's calculations go to plan, the day when Chery emulates the world's second-largest and most profitable car maker could come as early as in several years.

The man best known for importing the cheap Yugo hatchback into the United States in the 1980s wants to sell 250,000 Chery cars in the first year through 250 dealerships nationwide.

By 2010, the Visionary/Chery partnership would have 18 models including two-door, four-door and sport-utility vehicles, to help sales to 1 million units. The line-up will not include the QQ minicar, which General Motor Corp. claims is a copy of its Chevrolet Spark and for which it is suing Chery.

"The problem is going to be that we're not going to be able to build enough cars to satisfy demand," he said.

Chery, China's eighth-largest car maker, sold 90,000 vehicles last year including 8,000 exports, mostly to Malaysia and Iran.

To hear Bricklin tell it, his business model of "redefining the price of luxury" is fool-proof.

"We're bringing Chinese cars that are beautiful, luxurious, built in state-of-the-art facilities, and we're going to sell them for far less than the competition," he said.

"Our SUV is going to compete with the BMW X3 and sell for less than a Subaru. It will compare to a $35,000 car and we will sell it for $19,000."

PERFECT MATCH

The entrepreneur says he searched all over the world for the right partner, travelling to Romania, Poland, India and England, among other countries, before ending up at Chery, based in the eastern Chinese province of Anhui.

"They are so head-and-shoulders above anybody who ever broke into the car business," he said. "They know what they're doing, they're sophisticated, they're intelligent, they're hard-working and ambitious -- every good quality you'd ever want to have."

Despite having ambitions to broaden its exports, including to Europe, it was Chery that stalled, following Chinese tradition of taking its time to gauge a potential business partner's personal character before signing any deals.

When Chery management insisted they needed to get to know him better before offering a contract on Bricklin's second visit to China, the charismatic entrepreneur volunteered to bare all.

"He took off his shirt down to his skin and said to them, 'This is me! This is who I am!'," his son Jonathan, a filmmaker who is working on a documentary of the partnership, said.

Chery eventually gave Bricklin the deal of his dreams.

It's a prospect that frightens Detroit's heavyweights, both of which are already losing market share to Asian brands, to the point where Ford hinted that trade barriers might be in order.

"How long will the U.S. be an open market for whatever comes in? It won't be forever," said Ford President Jim Padilla.

"Unlimited growth of imports is something that has to be balanced over time," he told reporters in Shanghai.

Balancing imports is exactly what Bricklin intends to do.

After the first million cars sold, Visionary/Chery would build a manufacturing base in the U.S. to avoid any political backlash -- "just like Toyota does", he said.

"What we're saying to the world is, 'Don't worry about us. We're not coming in and taking over everybody.'"

Bricklin warned, however, that other Chinese makers would probably follow in his footsteps, bringing more unwanted competition to a saturated market.

"They'd be crazy not to," he says. "I'd expect two to two-and-a-half million cars a year to be imported from China."

 

The biggest problem with Chinese cars are the plastic engines ~ that will never fly in the US.

 

LOL...looks like that Chinese company copied Ininiti's logo and Chevy's name.

 

From what I understand, they won't use the Chery name in the US because of the similarity.

 

Here's an update.

link

Chery to take longer to ripen than Bricklin expected

Posted Jun 8th 2006 8:04AM by Chris Paukert



Time to unmark your calendars. Chery, the opening salvo in what is likely to be a tidal wave of Chinese imports into the U.S., is running behind schedule. Visionary Vehicles chief Malcolm Bricklin is relenting on his bid to have cars in American dealerships by late 2007, and when the vehicles arrive, he doesn't expect them to sell as many as originally expected.

Bricklin had targeted 250,000 units in Chery USA's first year, but it will appear that hopefuls and critics will need to wait until some time in 2008 before seeing how the whole thing pans out.

 

Fleet vehicles.

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When I rent from Enterprise I request a Maxima or a Sonata ~ let me say the Sonata is rock solid at 125 +

I would never ever buy a first year car of any make except Honda or Toyota, but I must say the Sonatas i've driven have been very nice - with impressive fit and finish. To score say a 2007 [a year to prove their reliability] Sonata ultra-loaded leather etc. under $20 grand might be tempting... Just slap on some nice rims and remove all the Hyundai badges.
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I believe it is the Tercel engine or whatever they call their entry-level car these days.