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Redesigned Hyundai Azera for world markets, but not U.S.Manufacturer image
CARS.COM — Hyundai made unsurprising news official today, announcing a 2018 brand lineup that gives the hook to the slow-selling Azera full-size V-6 sedan.
Hyundai said as much last fall when it announced a redesigned Azera for South Korea and global markets, though it told Cars.com in an email at the time that it had not slammed the door on a U.S. launch. The new Azera flagship for the Hyundai brand went on sale in South Korea, where it is known as the Grandeur, in November.
Hyundai said then that a U.S. decision would be "announced in due course." That time came today when Hyundai released a 2018 roster listing Azera's U.S. market availability as "discontinued."
U.S. buyers who want a sedan bigger or fancier than the Hyundai Sonata mid-size — or 1 with more than 4-cylinder power — will still have choices from the Hyundai company, with its premium Genesis brand's G80 sedan and corporate sibling Kia's redesigned 2017 Cadenza full-size sedan. The 2017 Azera starts at $34,995, while the 2017 G80 starts at $42,350 and the 2017 Cadenza starts at $32,890. Meanwhile, the starting price for the refreshed 2018 Sonata is up $500 to $22,935, and it tops out with the Limited 2.0T that starts at $33,335. (All prices include a destination charge.)
2017 Hyundai AzeraManufacturer image
There was little business case to continue the current Azera. Just 241 were sold in June. Sales in the 1st 6 months of 2017 were a meager 1,792, down 30.4 percent from the period a year ago and lagging the Cadenza's 2,655.
Sales of competing near-luxury full-size sedans have suffered, as well, as buyers flocked to SUVs and mid-size sedans have gotten bigger. Still, Toyota, for example, has sold 16,735 Avalons year to date; Chevrolet has sold 31,312 impalas; and Nissan has sold 31,519 Maximas.
You still can get a new Azera for now, however, and likely could get a deal. As of today, Cars.com listings showed 808 new 2017 Azeras and 127 new 2016 Azeras.
Given the ever-slow sales, this is to no one's surprise.
Over the years, I personally have known only one person who actually bought one (an older single lady in our condo-development).....and she doesn't have it any more, having traded it for a much smaller smaller Elantra LOL.
What is interesting is that its corporate brother, the Kia Cadenza, seems more solidly-built, using better hardware, somewhat more conventionally styled inside, and, IMO, is actually a better car for (roughly) the same amount of money. While the Cadenza itself is not a big seller either, Kia seems to be keeping it on the market for a reason.
That new Azera looks great. This move is no surprise though. Hyundai has been pushing themselves upscale, and with the Kia Cadenza and Genesis brand there is no longer room for the Azera.
...Or it could be re-worked off of the current or future Kia Cadenza, which, IMO, is an excellent vehicle to start with.
The Hyundai Azera / Grandeur and Kia Cadenza / K7 are related, sharing a platform.
Perhaps if the Azera shared a platform with the Sonata (as the Avalon and Camry share a platform), the Azera could be produced on the Sonata's US assembly line, making smaller production numbers profitable.
The Hyundai Azera / Grandeur and Kia Cadenza / K7 are related, sharing a platform.
Yes, I know. The reason I made the reply I did was that IMO, despite the platform-commonality, the Cadenza is a better vehicle. It is noticeably more solidly-built than the Azera.
Perhaps if the Azera shared a platform with the Sonata (as the Avalon and Camry share a platform), the Azera could be produced on the Sonata's US assembly line, making smaller production numbers profitable.
I'm not sure a Sonata platform would have made any difference. Americans, by and large, just don't care for this car.....just like they didn't care for the VW Phaeton when it was offered here.
I always liked the look of the Azera so this is too bad.
On a side note, does anyone else see huge LS500 side profile resemblance in that world market Azera with 5 series headlights? lol
Don't see a side profile resemblance. The new LS has a crack-load of C and D-pillars. The Azera has a clean, 2-post design. The shoulder line also sags more on the LS. No sag on the Azera, just a kick up toward the rear.
Toyota turns to rental lots for lift in slowing market
July 6, 2017 @ 10:34 am
John Lippert
Bloomberg
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Toyota's U.S. deliveries fell 3.6 percent this year through June, outpacing the industry's 2.1 percent decline. Photo credit: DAVID PHILLIPSSend us a Letter
UPDATED: 7/6/17 3:24 pm ET - adds detailsAs automakers in the U.S. struggle to keep selling new cars to American consumers at a record clip, Toyota Motor Corp. plans to turn to rental car companies and other fleet operators for a boost.
Toyota will nearly match last year's total sales to fleet customers, which means the company has some catching up to do. Deliveries to rental car companies and other fleets were down by about 20 percent during the 1st 6 months of the year, according to Jim Lentz, chief executive officer of Toyota's North American operations.
"A lot of our fleet sales are backloaded into the 2nd half," Lentz said in a phone interview before the grand opening Thursday of Toyota's new North American headquarters in Plano, Texas. "We're confident we're in good shape for the rest of the year."
Automakers sold fewer cars and trucks during each of this year's 1st 6 months, putting the industry on course for its 1st annual drop since 2009. Toyota has been hit harder than many of its peers by a rapid shift in demand toward crossovers and SUVs and away from sedans like the Camry, the U.S. market's top-selling passenger car for the last 15 years.
Toyota's deliveries fell 3.6 percent through June, outpacing the industry's 2.1 percent decline. The company lost market share each of the last 2 years as crossover, pickup and SUV demand climbed.
Deliveries to rental-car companies and other fleet customers tend to make up a lower portion of Toyota's overall sales compared with U.S. and Korean automakers or Japanese peer Nissan Motor Co. Toyota sold about 219,700 vehicles to fleets last year, about 9 percent of its total, according to the Automotive News Data Center.
Another reason Lentz has a brighter 2nd-half sales outlook for Toyota in the U.S. is accelerating output of RAV4 crossovers from plants in Canada and Japan. He predicted the company will sell 400,000 RAV4s this year, enough to surpass the perennial leader in its lineup, the Camry.
Toyota also is boosting production of the Highlander crossover, Sequoia SUV and Sienna minivan at a factory in Indiana and C-HR compact crossovers in Turkey, Lentz said.
Sales at Toyota's Lexus luxury division will be more than 300,000 vehicles this year, Lentz said, even as the company declines to match deep discount offerings by some of its competitors. Lexus reported deliveries of 331,228 cars and SUVs for 2016.
Lentz spoke as Toyota prepared for the opening of a $1 billion corporate campus the company has been constructing that consolidates North American sales, engineering and finance organizations in the Dallas suburb. The North American headquarters will eventually house 4,000 workers, including about 1,000 new hires from Texas and transfers from Toyota facilities in California, Kentucky and New York.
President Donald Trump issued a statement to say he's proud of what the company was doing and would support more growth of its U.S. operations by eliminating regulations and cutting taxes.
"We want to be the car capital of the world once again," Trump said in the statement, which Toyota released on its website.
Of the Toyota employees offered transfers from other locations, 72 percent chose to accept them, Lentz said. This exceeded the company's internal target of 50 percent and Nissan's acceptance rate after it relocated North American headquarters to Nashville, Tennessee, from California more than a decade ago, he said.
Lentz predicted the move will allow Toyota to make faster, better decisions. Up until now, he said Toyota employees who predicted demand for sunroofs or the car colors that customers would want sat in Torrance, California, while those who actually set production schedules for each factory worked in a suburb near Cincinnati, Ohio. Now, they're all part of the same team in Plano and report to one boss.
07-06-17, 06:02 AM
Hyundai Discontinues the Azera
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