oldcajun

I wish Hyundai and Kia had established some differentiation in the character of their higher end cars. For instance Hyundai focusing on luxury and Kia focusing on sport sedans. The current overlap does nothing to expand the appeal other than styling preference.

I really like the style of the next Genesis and the K900. They will certainly be on my list for evaluation when I replace my LS460 next year. I'm not sure that they need a new brand for luxury cars as long as they continue the service plan that is in place for the Equus.

I also like the trend at BMW to making their cars more comfortable and roomy enough for use as a real sedan. I'm just not sure that they have the reliability issues under control enough to take another chance on owning one again.
Steve

Infamous3

Kia's and hyndais will never get the respect other top car manufacture companies get. the kia optima is one of the weirdest looking cars on the market, somebody else said it and i agree, it looks like a damn spaceship.

Dream36

The article is somewhat misleading. I lived in ROK from 2004-2005 and even the. Seoul was a moden city. They are leagues ahead with public transportation and the architecture (both new and old) is absolutely stunning. With that said, I seen dozens of Hyundai and Kia and daiwoo cars that were never offered outside the ROK. Even sat in a MR drive similar to a mr2 made by Hyundai. The bongo truck is a huge stable of the Asian market and they make huge profits from selling abroad (I wish we could get them here). The strangest thing I noticed was the badging. They will sell a car with the name, logo, the another decal for "deluxe model" and another "gold edition" followed by "super platinum plus" all on the same car lol.

Nah, I think they are doing well, and yes I think luxury car makers should be nervous. The genesis is just a practice car for future designs. Next generation should be nasty.

hlee12

i think what the article meant to say was that seoul was a third world up until late 70's. i'm sure they are not idiots. seoul is now a big bad major city that you want to visit for couple of weeks, but not want to live. i hate big cities.

TRDFantasy

Right, let me guess, you must be a master mechanic ?
Get out of here with your personal insults. My friend knows cars inside out. He used to live, breathe cars and how cars are built and put together.
Forget all the PR fluff, marketing, and warranty info. This is the cold hard truth in the streets, so to speak.

What are you trying to prove throwing those warranty numbers at me?
Go to talk to some proven and experienced mechanics, they'll tell you the same thing my friend told me.

Many of these problems are covered under warranty, but many of them occur right after warranty. Speaking of warranties, you should look up the warranty scandals with Hyundai, how they often refuse to cover problems under warranty and will often make up excuses as to why major problems aren't covered under warranty.

I got nothing to prove to you. If you don't want to believe it keep doing your thing.

No large or proper off-road SUVs and no pickup trucks. By industry definition one is not a full-line automaker unless you offer those vehicles.

Of course they won't get respect. They're arrogant, desperate, and very in-your-face about why you should consider their cars and why they're so great and how much they're improved.

That's not how you get respect, even in a "bold and brash" country like the US.

Compare it to the corporate philosophy and marketing attitude of the American brands, and it's a night and day difference. Even though the American brands have a very American approach to marketing, as they should, they treat the viewer/customer with way more respect than Hyundai or Kia.

mmarshall

That definitely was not the case in the mid-2000s, where, as I said in previous posts, Hyundai probabaly reached its peak in quality, driveability, ride-comfort, and material-solidness. Yes, today, there has been some downgrade since then, but not anywhere near as dire as you imply.

mmarshall

Fine, but the Soul was selling well even before the hamster-ads came out. It was just an inexpensive, sensible, space-efficient vehicle that a lot of people seemed to like. And, of course, something else that helped fuel its sales was the fact that Toyota had (for the most part) misjudged the 2Gen redesign of the Scion xB, and the Nissan Cube, though interesting, was just not well-suited for the American market. The Soul, in the end, just didn't have a lot of real competition any more.

Publicity and car-info, though, comes from many sources, not just silly TV ads/cartoons....car magazines, Consumer Reports (an extremely wide-read publication, including myself), car-reviews, auto shows, automaker web-sites, and, of course, great auto-forums like our own CAR CHAT.

Don't forget, though.....for awhile, the Rodeo and Trooper had direct competition from Honda/Acura, which sold both vehicles as Passport and SLX rebadged versions. Honda did that until their own SUVs (CR-V and Pilot) were ready.

hlee12

your definition of weird is weird.

and define respect. internet warriors bashing each other in discussion forums? lame. if they were so disrespected then why would people buy their cars? internet opinions do suck sometimes.

jwong77

Thats what they used to say about Lexus. Look at them now.

hlee12

what makes hyundai's approach any different than other brands? after all most if not all brands preach their accolades, accomplishments, and whatever stats that may stand out. what's the difference between hyundai's marketing tactics than any of these lexus ads? right now lexus is selling sex & affluent lifestyle in their ads. new IS TV commercial is a great example.

hey look






Lexus is saying 'LS is for mid 30's hotshot' please look at us!


it's all about selling the image. hyundai/kia is selling the 'new perception' 'underdog' 'we are here' 'our quality is awesome' 'we are value but we offer style too!' to the masses. they have to force feed all those things because well, they've been traditionally been regarded as low quality crap. many people still do. just like you. so they obviously have to preach that they aren't crap anymore. why wouldn't they brag about brand loyalty? winning car of the year? or whatever they have to brag about? and these did work because perception has gotten better and better. you have to admit that no matter how much you hate them.

and right now lexus is selling sex because they've been regarded as old & boring. they changed the design direction to young & bold. they don't want to be associated with wealthy retired folks in the keywest. instead they want to be associated with modern, young, and rich in the wallstreet.

and you need to stop taking things personally. may be you should take some marketing courses to understand why brands do things certain way. it will enlighten you and help you understand why hyundai/kia is doing whatever they are doing right now. they don't spend ton of money to **** you off. they spend it, so they can sell more and get better. and that's why brands change ad agency to agency. i don't know which agencies have hyundai accounts now, but i know it was goodby, silverstein and partners who did most of the memorable hyundai campaigns including that Angry Boss superbowl ad.

corporate philosophy? get outta here. corporate philosophy is to sell, sell, improve brand image, and sell some more. that's the corporate philosophy for most if not all brands. and usually people upstairs let agencies do their thing. trust me. i know this.

yowps3

Not really. In the 90s my uncle had just purchased a brand new SC400 and let me tell you it was the biggest WOW FACTOR ever. It was so ahead of time and was a crazy car in every way. Power, acceleration, performance, interior, tech, features and looked amazing. It was like nothing I had seen before.

That day I knew Japanese cars and Lexus were truly superior.

Now until Hyundai can truly give me the WOW FACTOR like Lexus did with the SC400, then I'd consider them world class and not secondary tier brand