Comments on: Hyundai Sonata — Revenge of the Nerds!

By: Guns and Butter

Guns and Butter — Fri, 26 Aug 2005 09:49:03 +0000

Kushibo:Can you tell me where you saw that? I looked at part of what Consumer Reports had to say through MSN or something, and I couldn??t find that. A quick glance indicated that the other cars got fairly good ratings, including on reliability.I think I read that in the CR annual report (it comes as a booklet). If you check the survey, Sonata did very well in reliability but other models are, yes, still lagging behind.

Still, I must admit, the reliability of Korean cars has improved tremendously. I will nonetheless continue to buy Japanese cars for now and until someone else makes cars with as great a balance of luxury, performance, reliability and service (in fact, I just bought another Japanese car yesterday).

James J. Na
aka Guns and Butter
aka The Asianist

By: kimbob

kimbob — Thu, 25 Aug 2005 07:04:32 +0000

For instance let's look at the year 1991. Compare the 5 out 5 stars Hyundai Sonata http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/reliability.aspx?year=1991make=Hyundaimodel=Sonata with everyone's favourite, the Honda Accord with 4 out 5 stars. http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/reliability.aspx?year=1991make=Hondamodel=Accord

By: kimbob

kimbob — Thu, 25 Aug 2005 06:58:10 +0000

“where do the stats for korean cars being reliable come from?”

Read again, post #9. I didn’t say “Korean cars”, I said “Hyundai”. The stats are a compilation of millions of mechanical data from North America. It’s the biggest that’s out there. It’s all there for you to view and compare each models and makes.

By: Kushibo

Kushibo — Wed, 24 Aug 2005 20:33:37 +0000

Guns and butter wrote:On the other hand, I believe CR makes a point of stating that the rest of the Hyundai lineup has not caught up yet and still has shoddy models.Can you tell me where you saw that? I looked at part of what Consumer Reports had to say through MSN or something, and I couldn’t find that. A quick glance indicated that the other cars got fairly good ratings, including on reliability.

By: rowan

rowan — Wed, 24 Aug 2005 18:58:56 +0000

where do the stats for korean cars being reliable come from? if its from in korea (for korean cars) as opposed to a foreign country for foreign cars. It could be something to do with the fact that they never actually repair anything on a korean car. All a korean mechanic knows how to do is change parts. so if they don’t know whats wrong they replace parts till it works again. My 10 year old daewoo i sprob half relaced parts by now. that has to help reliability. The cost of parts is what makes this possible. parts and especially labour are a lot cheaper here, so its viable to change the parts, where its not in other countries and things are more likely to be repaired rather than replaced.

By: JYC

JYC — Wed, 24 Aug 2005 18:52:05 +0000

Is this really a widespread belief in Korea?

Maybe this kind of belief comes from the fact that there are rather noticeable price differences between the prices of the same product made by domestic electronics makers, with the price in Korea being much higher than for the same product overseas.

By: dogbert

dogbert — Wed, 24 Aug 2005 17:30:23 +0000

If there were a snopes.co.kr, Korean society would collapse overnight.

By: Kushibo

Kushibo — Wed, 24 Aug 2005 16:08:30 +0000

James, I had always thought the same about the impracticality of manufacturing two different quality levels within the same car.

More than likely, it may have been a reference to things like California’s strict pollution control systems, and it just got sexed up to an urban legend about exporting the good cars to the US or other countries, while the Koreans got the short end of the stick shift.

By: James

James — Wed, 24 Aug 2005 15:59:58 +0000

I doubt that there are really two different quality levels, that doesn’t make sense from a manufacturing point of view. More than likely what people are refering to is the difference in performance tolerances between products meant for domestic consumption and those meant for export. There was a group of people (KIA employees I think) that recently got busted for stealing parts meant to go into cars for export and then sell them on the black market here in Korea because they would enhance performance for the cars they were installed in. I think that is the essence of why Koreans tend to have this misunderstanding. It could just be a sill old wives tale like sleeping with the fan on will kill you or that charcoal will block and absorb all electromagnetic radiation in your home.

By: Kushibo

Kushibo — Wed, 24 Aug 2005 07:11:58 +0000

Rowan, read the link in #9. It’s fairly objective criteria.

I know some of you out there are thrown into a state of cognitive dissonance whenever something positive about Korea is in the news, but the attempts to dismiss this are becoming comical.

Remember that joke in “Back to the Future,” where 1955 Doc Brown looks at the 1985 time machine parts and announces to 1985 Marty, “Here’s your problem: ‘Made in Japan!’”?

Japan started out with lower-quality but cheap stuff, and then focused on quality — successfully. Now they are the ones to beat. Many Korean companies made no secret of following that business model, and some of them have become successful. In a couple decades, maybe Chinese or Thai companies or Indian companies will be giving Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, and Kia a run for their money.