I owned an 06 Sonata Limited, sold it to a friend at it's got over 90k trouble-free miles, but don't believe me either, lol.

Sure they built plenty of crap cars along the way, but the cars they build today are much improved over the 03s. Consumer reports now recommends most of their models, can't say that about alot of auto makers.

 

yep, it's a close tie between hyundai and kia as to who is the king of copying car design with cheap (and crappy) parts.

 

Hyundai is like the Japanese cars of 30 years ago. The Asians, per an old Wall Street Journal article, are and always were the Great Emulators. It would be consistent then that now that the Japanese have saturated the market, labor no longer as cheap as it was, the Koreans have stepped in to take over the price advantages. I've driven a 2008 Sonata as a rental car. It performed very nicely for what it is. A basic family sedan. Comfortable, good gas mileage, and respectable handling. It's not a G, but not too many cars can be a G > Audi A4 Quattro, 323 Xi, Hyundai Genesis??, maybe..... Nissan, Toyota, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Look over your shoulders.... Ford, you too...GM, that's done.

 

IMO you can't win car of the year by making crap cars... 1st gen g35 won car of the year. I have a coupe 6mt, not saying I'd trade in for a hyundai but I am not gonna lie they make nice cars now.

 

I know it is hard to believe but the OEM parts are one of the most expenxsive if not the most expensive for Hyundai among Asian cars and most parts for the Genesis coupe need to be ordered from Korea. Even some small parts too what you can walk in your Infiniti dealer and either they have it stock or comes from distributor and it is at your dealer next day.

 

Look at the Buick Lacrosse

 

Hyundai/Kia may be copycats to a certain degree, but as mentioned earlier they are 1st class when it comes to it and does add their own flare to it. The Chinese are far worse, Geely is a good example, they just slap on OEM-like parts onto their cars and call it a day.

Then again, every car manufacturer, except the evolutionary ones (i.e. evolve designs over the years -- Porsche, Audi, BMW, etc.), copy from some other manufacturer in one form or another. Even our beloved Honda, Nissan and Toyota has done so -- most especially their early years.

Hyundai may have been in the business for as long as they have, but they *seriously* ramped up QC in the past several years. They may be using the same parts from years ago, but they, too, are much improved either in terms of build quality, material or just plain QC. I had the pleasure, yes, pleasure, of having driven the fifth generation Sonata for an extended time and i have nothing but good things to say about it.

And YMMV on this one, but the local Hyundai dealership is topnotch -- or at least their sales people are. Never pushy, genuinely helpful and of the 3 or so i've talked to in the past several years, none ever tried to claim more than what the product was or had.

 

How are these for copycats?

 

I love these copies ^^^

I know I've seen more on the net from Europe. There is a copy of the smart car too. LOL Chinese are where Hyundai and Kia was 10 years ago.

Hyundai is out of Japan now. They could not handle the market for this reason. If you want to survive in Japan you have to be innovative. If you try to get the same technology to put in the car 3 years later when you can copy it it is too late there.

North America is different story. Lots of people shopping for deals. Cheaper = better

Hyundai sells a lot of cars in India and believe China. But soon the chinese will take over te place of Hyundai. For most people the car = transportation from A to B. They could not care. My neighbur calls my car a Mazda all the time. LOL Mazda Nissan close enough. I really don't bother explain to her. Because I could not care what people think about what I drive or others. I buy car to suit my needs not for status.

 

I think u got that wrong there.. I believe it's the import tax on the hyundai that makes it unprofitable to sell in that market.

 

Some news sources have pointed out that the main reason for the pull-out is overall poor vehicle sales in Japan across the board --- that and the Korean's generally poor image in Japan. (Korean's in general, not just Hyundai as a brand.)

 

There was an article about this and Japanese did not like Hyundai and Korean al together. But they were saying the #1 reaso was the outdated technologies in the car. What's the truth who knows.

 

Unprofitable?
That doesn't make sense. All the aditional cost include in $ of the car.

Also many other companies have to pay the import tax. How come they are profitable.

 

 

That red G looks cool!