Originally Posted by tofu_house

TRD, I'd like some proof about the government backing claim. It's not the first I've heard of it but like you, that information has come from Hyundai anti's with never any hard evidence. If you can provide that, your post may have a little more solidity that your own personal claim which holds certainty whatsoever.

Originally Posted by tofu_house

TRD, I'd like some proof about the government backing claim. It's not the first I've heard of it but like you, that information has come from Hyundai anti's with never any hard evidence. If you can provide that, your post may have a little more solidity that your own personal claim which holds certainty whatsoever.

Originally Posted by The G Man

Thay said the same thing about the Japanese 30 years, The Japanese use to take apart the competition's car and study and copy them. That is the advantage of being a start up car company. You can pretty say that about any industry, its always cheaper to follow than to lead. Toyota and Lexus have learned that a long time ago. Only recently have Toyota started to introduce some new automotive technology. Honda have learned that new technologies doesnt always spell profit.

Originally Posted by tofu_house

I hope that all of you who are bashing Hyundai and questioning their finances do realize that unlike Toyota/Lexus, Nissan/Infiniti, and Mazda, Hyundai Corp is a manufacturing GIANT not limited only to automotive vehicles.

You wonder where the money comes from? They're not solely dependent on their vehicle sales for profit.

TRD, I'd like some proof about the government backing claim. It's not the first I've heard of it but like you, that information has come from Hyundai anti's with never any hard evidence. If you can provide that, your post may have a little more solidity that your own personal claim which holds certainty whatsoever.

Originally Posted by TRDFantasy

Toyota has been introducing new technologies for 20 years now. Look it up. The original Lexus LS400 in 1989 had many "world's first" technologies and innovations.

Originally Posted by The G Man

There have been a few threads on this already. World's 1st, such as an 8 speed transmission doesnt not mean its a new automotive technology. Toyota have always play it safe, thats not necessarily a bad thing.

Originally Posted by 1SICKLEX

Some reading for everyone...



http://books.google.com/books?id=Uec...acking&f=false

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/compa...y-History.html

As Korea's second-largest conglomerate, with 1990 revenues estimated at $35 billion, Hyundai Group was clearly to play an important role in the new Korea. Indeed, the Hyundai founder and chairman, Chung Ju Yung, chose personally to play a new, political role in that development, founding a new political party early in 1992 with a view to promoting open-market policies. Chung's Unification National Party (UNP) promptly won 10 percent of National Assembly seats; Chung himself then retired from his Hyundai chairmanship to set his sights on the Korean presidency. The Hyundai conglomerate, already forced by the government to pay billions in back taxes, came under even more severe government pressures after Chung formed his party. Regulators charged illegal political contributions by one Hyundai company and accused others of tax evasion. In addition, Hyundai's ability to finance its operations was threatened by other government actions. In return, Hyundai, at this time headed by Chung Se Yung, threatened to withhold huge investments planned for the coming year. In 1993, having finished third in South Korea's presidential election, Chung Ju Yung reportedly said that he would resume chairmanship of the Hyundai Group and would reorganize the corporation into many specialized, independently run companies. In 1995, his second-eldest son, Chung Mong Koo, was named chairman of the group while Chung remained honorary chairman.


http://www.exampleessays.com/viewpaper/2373.html

The Korean auto industry is both a product of timing and of an industry that has the backing and influences of the national government.

http://www.atimes.com/asia-crisis/BF03Db01.html

Asian Crisis

Hyundai falls, South Korea rises

STRATFOR.COM's
Global Intelligence Update
June 2, 2000


Summary

Chung Ju-yung, the founder of South Korea's largest business conglomerate, Hyundai, announced on May 31 that his family would completely withdraw from day-to-day management of the company. Chung also announced Hyundai would place international investors in management positions and allow much of the company to be parceled up and sold on the open market. This very public acceptance of government-urged reforms has left the Korean financial markets giddy in anticipation of what is to come. The outlook for the South Korean economy and the South Korean government just brightened considerably.

Analysis

The patriarchal leader of South Korea's largest business conglomerate, Hyundai, announced May 31 that his family would drastically reduce their presence in the conglomerate's operation and restructure the entire firm, placing international investors in management positions and allowing much of the company to be parceled up and sold. These changes mirror the Korean government's plans for all of the Korean business giants, or chaebol. Hyundai's restructuring and the chain reaction of reforms that will follow will bolster Korea's economy as well as South Korean President Kim Dae-jung.

Hyundai is not the first of the chaebol - Korea's family owned corporate giants - to be cut down to size. Last July, Daewoo, then the country's second-largest chaebol, collapsed under the weight of its $78 billion debt - $20 billion more than the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) entire 1998 bailout package for South Korea. Since many of the chaebol face similar situations, the collapse of the industrial giant unnerved South Korea, which slowed the pace of economic reform considerably.

Over the past several weeks, however, the South Korean government quietly pushed Hyundai to put its financial affairs in order, knowing that if it waited too long, then Hyundai - an $80 billion firm - would eventually collapse as well. Yet Hyundai proved stubborn in the face of government demands that it dump nonproductive firms, adopt transparent accounting practices and streamline management structures.

For the government of President Kim, the break-up of Hyundai is nothing short of a political gold mine. While recognizing that decades of chaebol-government collusion created the wealth they now enjoy, Koreans remain bitterly resentful at the level of corruption within the family-run conglomerates.

But now Hyundai, the chaebol most favored by the Kim administration, is being systematically dismantled. Kim will undoubtedly reap the political windfall - and promptly turn it to his advantage.

Originally Posted by TRDFantasy

I guess your definition of "new automotive technology" differs from that of other people.

If an 8-speed auto transmission is not "new technology" in your opinion, then many of the world firsts and technologies that Mercedes introduced over several decades aren't "new" either.

Comparing apples to apples, when you look at what the industry considers as "new technology" and what other automakers have been credited for, yes Toyota has indeed been introducing new technologies over the past 20 years.

Originally Posted by PAULGS430

Technically speaking, I think all Japanese car corp. are backed by the Government too. In the Japanese constitution, I think? U.S. govt. backed GM,Chrysler, & Ford. Kinda along the same lines.

Originally Posted by The G Man

Well, paying their assembly workers slave labor rate certainly helps Not to mention not having to mean EPA standards on factory pollution and sub standard working conditions government subsided factories and the lack of safety regulations.