Hyundai, Kia Lose Sales as GM Daewoo Sales Surge

[Ming]

Hyundai, Kia Lose Sales to Rivals Last Quarter
Digital Chosul Ilbo
4.3.2007

First quarter business results were down slightly for Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors while results for GM Daewoo, Renault Samsung Motor and Ssangyong Motor were way up.

Exports of Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors vehicles fell by 1.9 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively, while exports for the other three companies showed a marked increase in the January-to-March quarter.

According to sales results for the first quarter announced by the automobile makers on Monday, Hyundai Motor sold 612,477 cars for a 1.4 percent decrease compared to the same period last year, and Kia Motors sold 327,886 cars for a 0.3 percent decrease.

In the same quarter GM Daewoo sold 224,155 cars for a 28 percent increase, Renault Samsung sold 42,398 for a 21.7 percent increase and Ssangyong sold 33,326 cars for a 10.5 percent increase.

Source: http://english.chosun.com/w21data/ht...704030012.html

[Lewie]

It's great news for Daewoo, but they're not really taking any sales from their two Korean competitors...they're taking sales from others.

Hyundai and Kia only lost about 10k vehicle sales, while Daewoo saw an increase of more than 60k. Where did the other 50k sales come from?

[Ming]

Much of that is Daewoo's exports, the success of Chevrolet in Europe, Suzuki Forenza/Reno sales, Holden Viva/Aveo, etc. GMDAT is firmly establishing itself as source of inexpensive, value-packed rebadges for GM (and Suzuki), but into the future will be more tightly integrated into GM's global operations by sharing more components - and model names - so its not going to be a problem that Daewoo is not establishing a "name" for itself. For now, Chevrolet of Europe pretty much is Daewoo under a different name. The Chevy Europe cars for the most part use the original Daewoo nameplates like Lacetti.

HyunKIA can't be happy that they aren't the ones making these kinds of sales improvements. GM Daewoo has been on a roll for a while now.

Ssangyong's 10% increase is hardly threatening, however.

[mikesright]

Originally Posted by Ming

Much of that is Daewoo's exports, the success of Chevrolet in Europe, Suzuki Forenza/Reno sales, Holden Viva/Aveo, etc. GMDAT is firmly establishing itself as source of inexpensive, value-packed rebadges for GM (and Suzuki), but into the future will be more tightly integrated into GM's global operations by sharing more components - and model names - so its not going to be a problem that Daewoo is not establishing a "name" for itself. For now, Chevrolet of Europe pretty much is Daewoo under a different name. The Chevy Europe cars for the most part use the original Daewoo nameplates like Lacetti.

HyunKIA can't be happy that they aren't the ones making these kinds of sales improvements. GM Daewoo has been on a roll for a while now.

Ssangyong's 10% increase is hardly threatening, however.

Especially since SAIC (owns Ssangyong) was bragging that they would beat GM Daewoo for 3rd place in sales in Korea. Looks like its not only notgonnahappen.com, it's looking like GMDAT will extend its lead and perhaps take #2 in Korea very soon. Considering GMDAT is just beginning to expand its lineup from old Daewoos to newly platformed cars and trucks, minicars, SUV's, etc, it is not a stretch to say they will be on a roll for quite some time to come.

[HoeyHimself]

GM should just load Daewoo up with a bunch of sweet rebades and lay an embarassment on Hyundai and Kia..."Heres the all new Daewoo Daevette Z06"....itd beat the hell outta any Kia Sophia-MaMa-Mia or Hyundgay.

[HEVguy]

This is good for the GMDAT growth in general. However, it doesn't say much for Hyundia/Kia IMO... They have significant volume and have been executing vehicle designs very impressively of late!

[JVal14]

I'm sure Kia exports cars all over the world, but it seems in the U.S. they're almost entirely irrelevent. I only know one person who drives a Kia, and I don't know anyone considering getting a Kia. I've never even bothered to check them out online or stop by a dealer; so maybe I'm missing something, but I've never felt compelled to look into them. Every time I see a new Kia vehicle, I mutter to myself, "What were they thinking?" Hyundia is doing an admirable job of making their cars competetive, why can't they do it with Kia?

[HoeyHimself]

Originally Posted by JVal14

I'm sure Kia exports cars all over the world, but it seems in the U.S. they're almost entirely irrelevent. I only know one person who drives a Kia, and I don't know anyone considering getting a Kia. I've never even bothered to check them out online or stop by a dealer; so maybe I'm missing something, but I've never felt compelled to look into them. Every time I see a new Kia vehicle, I mutter to myself, "What were they thinking?" Hyundia is doing an admirable job of making their cars competetive, why can't they do it with Kia?

Kia is trying to establish their own style and design characteristics....Hyundai is waiting to see what the next popular trend is so they can scam off of it...and both suck a tremendous amount of ass.

[01cavalier]

Great for GM! Working hard on the product is getting somewhere. I wonder if Daewoo had not left the US market, would sales show the same success?

[AndrewGS]

Originally Posted by Ming

All dressed up with a nice American car. They just need a nice American guy to drive them around in it; namely, me.

[HoeyHimself]

Originally Posted by AndrewGS

All dressed up with a nice American car. They just need a nice American guy to drive them around in it; namely, me.

lol Opel has been American since.....well, like the 1920s..but come on now, you know what I mean.

[AndrewGS]

Originally Posted by HoeyHimself

lol Opel has been American since.....well, like the 1920s..but come on now, you know what I mean.

That's the Daewoo version, the G2X. It's still an American car though, a rebadged Saturn built in Delaware.

[Ming]

Originally Posted by AndrewGS

That's the Daewoo version, the G2X. It's still an American car though, a rebadged Saturn built in Delaware.

As I've written in my rants before in the commentaries section, if Detroit can offer the other arms of GM globally an attractive car (in this case the Saturn SKY) then the import / export thing need not be a one way street.

For every Buick Tosca we import (yes, I heard you groan, guys ) we can export a Saturn SKY, Cadillac CTS, or some other attractive American car to Korea for the GMDAT group to sell (they sell Cadillacs too). When a wide variety of cars can be offered this way by GM globally, everyone in the GM family wins.

But you can't make a ho-hum, not particularly sharply styled or shockingly value-packed car --- not bad but not stellar cars like the Cobalt or current Malibu and expect anyone overseas to want them in significant numbers.

A SKY on the other hand...

Andrew, you'll have to make up your mind since the Sky is a 2-seater...

[AndrewGS]

Originally Posted by Ming

Andrew, you'll have to make up your mind since the Sky is a 2-seater...

I know. Decisions, decisions.

[HoeyHimself]

Originally Posted by AndrewGS

That's the Daewoo version, the G2X. It's still an American car though, a rebadged Saturn built in Delaware.

I know what it is...it was a car that speaks more on behalf of Opel then anything.