Toyota and Honda get the gasface. From MotorWeek:
The American made Hyundai Sonata is the first Korean-brand car to ever win our Best Family Sedan award; and did so with a tremendous value combination of roomy comfort, quality assembly, and most of all safety. Standard ABS, skid control, and curtain airbags, simply outclassed the mighty Camry and Accord.
(Hat tip to Nomad)
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Nevermind the Sonata, check out this convertible:
http://www.mpt.org/motorweek/dc2006/04.shtml
It’s from Pontiac, no less…sweet.
Wait a dog-gone minute…the Sonata is an American car?
All these years, the Hyundai was the butt of jokes and while it was so, it was a Korean car. But now Hyundai garners accolades and automotive MVP awards, and the Americans are jumping on the bandwagon and claiming it as one of their own?
O the hypocrisy! I hope this sparks an introspective, soul-searching debate in the wider US media about the treatment of manufactured goods with identity conflicts.
The Sonata sold in America is manufactured these days by Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama, LLC right there in Montgomery, Alabama. To all accounts the Sonata made in America or made in Korea is a good car; this acknowledgment from MotorWeek has been a long time coming.
HMMA is an interesting case study because they seem to be walking on water in terms of building worker loyalty and esprit de corps. One would not have expected this, given that the area where HMMA has set up shop is called the “Black Belt” of Alabama, and Koreans generally exhibit a “Negro problem” elsewhere. But gotta give ‘em credit: To now, there is a warm atmosphere of mutual respect and goodwill being built. HMMA must have a great management team of Korean adventurers.
With a name such as Hyundai, Americans know it’s not an ‘American’ car, but that won’t stop most people from buying one. People look for the best quality and suitability, and if the Sonata fits the bill…
I think in the US (and Canada) there’s less of a tendency to buy merely for nationalistic reasons-after all, why is the US’s balance of imports/exports totally out of whack in favour of imports?
Wait til the Chinese start building cars. Several years ago DVD players used to cost at least $200. Now, you can buy one for $50. Same thing will happen to cars. We will see the $5000 car. China will walmartize the car industry just like they did with everything else.
The $5000 car? Maybe.
Will they have reduced shipping costs sending it across the Pacific or through the Suez? Will imported metal cost less going into China than it does in other countries?
Even if they can produce a good-quality product coming out the gate, what they have going for them is cheap labor, which I don’t think is going to be bring down the cost to a mere $5000, which even back in the mid-1980s is what a Korean car cost in mid-1980s dollars, I think.
And then there are people like me who won’t buy a Chinese car as long as the Chinese government is doing that thing they do to all their people. But then again, I come from a place where even Yugo dealerships were picketed for using slave labor.
Anyway, I don’t think China can pull off a $5000 car of passable quality. But if I’m wrong, I’ll recant on my deathbed.
As pointed out By Brendon, the Sonata sold in the US built in the US by American labor, but there’s more: the specs are different, e.g., thicker gauge sheet metal in the body - which is why a few years ago, even when the export model Sonatas were built in the ROK, many Koreans would purchase an export model in the US and import it themselves back to Korea because it was just more of a better car.
All 4 cylinder 162 HP models that are sold in North America are Korean made, while the 6 cylinder models are made in Alabama. Strange, but I couldn’t tell the difference between the model I saw in the US dealership, and the model that I rode in Korea. They all seem to have the same sheet metal to me. Come to think of it, it would not make much business sense to have two different types of assembly lines.
‘where koreans have a negro problem…’ brendan
here we go again with the racist popping off at the mouth. when he’s not doing that, he’s telling able bodied men to join the army. tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk….
So now it’s racist to decry racism? I love how the term has lost all linkage to its literal meaning and become another random insult, much like “retard” as in “pawikirogi is a retard.”