The G Man

Before you call me ignorant, which BTW is against the forum rule, can we get a ruling from the mods on this one.
As I was saying, Before you call me ignorant, read my post again. I said the cost to build a Korean product is cheaper than the competition, much like the same advantage the Japanese car companies had years ago.
Sure there are foreign cars in Korean, but they are tax heavily and the cost is much higher than the US prices.
Lastly, I do not hate Hyundai, in fact, I am seriously looking at the Genesis as my next car. There is not much to hate about Hyundai's pricing and quality. I guess if there is one thing I hate about Hyundai is the styling, or the lack of original styling.

Jujharoo

They should view it as threat. Hyundai has improved dramatically in last 2-3 years.

Though last Hyundai Sonata (07) I drove, a rental, was horrible. It felt horrible, it drove horrible, it made horrible noises. Perhaps I felt this way because my daily driver at that time was an 04 GS300.

mmarshall

You're a little late to the party. Hyundai's quality started coming up long before that...around 2000.

It must have been in an accident, or poorly repaired. An undamaged 2007 Sonata in proper running condition was, and is, a pretty nice vehicle.

Jujharoo

I was referring to the announcement/launch of Hyundai Genesis.


I am not sure, but it was a rental vehicle from Enterprise.
07 with 1700 miles or so.
It was well equipped too.

UDel

I don't know about today but when I lived in South Korea for 2 years in the early to mid 90's you hardly ever saw a non Korean car in the city off military bases. Seeing an American, Japanese, or German or non Korean car in downtown Seoul Korea was as rare as seeing Ferrari's or Lamborghini's in middle class suburbs. Maybe things have changed now but all I saw was Daewoo's, Hyundai's, Kia's and a few rarer Korean brands in South Korea in the early-mid 90's when I lived there and never really saw any non Korean cars unless they were driven by Americans or some Koreans working on US military bases. You hardly ever saw non Korean made products sold in the city, you had to drive or ride the subway pretty far to a electronics hub part in the city to find non Korean electronics/video games. Their must have been some pretty tight import controls/taxes to have it so skewed at that time, maybe regulations have loosened up now to where you see more foreign products but it was not like that in the early 90's.

FKL

Actually this is incorrect. Hyundai and all the other Korean chaebols actively lobby for protectionist measures to be taken by the central government. Look at the stranglehold that Samsung, LG, and Pantech have on the mobile handset market. Samsung [Anycall] holds >60% of that market because the government has dictated that South Korea hold a completely proprietary software standard on mobile phones. The Apple iPhone is just becoming available, to the kicking and screaming of Samsung. There's a reason why South Korea's government is often dubbed "The Republic of Samsung"; between them and Hyundai, South Korea is a nation that goes out of their way to protect their chaebols.

As far as cars go, those foreign imports are taxed heavily and the government actually goes out of their way to audit taxpayers who own these vehicles. Remember, South Koreans are very, very nationalistic, much more than most other nations around the globe, and owning a foreign import is often scorned at.

The bottom line is that the Koreans are hardly "open" to much of anything foreign, cars included. We could have a conversation about the very real Japanese central government protectionist measures, but they are not as extreme as the South Koreans.

plex

iTrader: (11)

Competition is always good, maybe now Toyota will build a RWD Coupe platform to compete with the Genesis and 370Z.

FisforFast

We all seem to froget that Lexus automobiles back in the days borrowed a lot of design cues from Mercedes-Benz and quite honestly still do today.

IS-SV

Original styling cues in luxury cars today are rare. Most have a lot of the same styling cliches, the list is endless.

Trexus

Not sure if that is correct. As of 2008 worldwide in sales, Hyundai is 11th.

1. Toyota Motor
2. General Motors
3. Daimler
4. Ford Motor
5. Volkswagen
6. Honda Motor
7. Nissan Motor
8. Peugeot
9. Fiat
10. BMW
11. Hyundai Motor
12. Renault

For 2009, that will be a different story and I don't have the figures in yet because this year isn't over yet...

FisforFast

Largest automaker is what he meant. Here are the figures for the first half of the 2009 fiscal year:

http://wot.motortrend.com/6544939/in...r/photo_1.html

Trexus

I'm curious as to why Daimler, BMW and Fiat isn't on that list?

FisforFast

Didn't BMW sales go down like 70% as compared to last year? And all of the Daimler-Chrylser lots down here are full of unsold 2008 cars, so they definitely aren't selling.

madoka

Yeah, it's not true anymore. I saw a ton of MB, BMW, and Lexus cars last year in Seoul. In fact, I saw more Maseratis and VW Phaetons there than I ever saw in California.

madoka

Have you ever even been to Korea or are you just pulling things out of your posterior? There are a TON of Hondas, Toyotas, and European brands there, so where you do get this idea that Koreans are not open to foreign cars? Their department stores have dozens of foreign brands that I never saw in the U.S. Hell, there is an entire section in Shinsegae Department stores dedicated to a single Japanese brand (M- something) and many Koreans hate the Japanese.

I went to a car show in Seoul last year. Honda, Toyota, Audi, BMW, MB, VW, Peugeot, Renault-Nissan, Ford, etc. were all there in force. GM had a huge stage (largest at the show it seemed) where they had a rock band playing. I went to the Lexus display and got the price sheet for the cars. They were a just few thousand more than in the U.S. but it's no where near as bad as your are trying to make it out to be. Your impressions of Korea are like 30-40 years old.