Tag: korean cars
What American car buyers in two thousand four indeed needed was a lengthened Daewoo Leganza with Giorgetto Giugiaro styling, a transverse-mounted straight-six engine, and Suzuki badging … or so GM Daewoo Auto & Technology believed. Not so remarkably, American car buyers weren’t so excited about the Verona, and these things are now almost as uncommon as the similarly puzzling Isuzu Oasis.
Here’s one that I spotted in a San Francisco Bay Area self-service yard. (Read More…)
Junkyard Find: one thousand nine hundred eighty seven Hyundai Excel with Not-Rare-Enough Zero-Options Package
I can’t think of any vehicle manufacturer whose products improved as much and as quickly as Hyundai’s did inbetween the ghastly first-gen Excel and the very nice Hyundais of, say, the current century.
The only fresh US-market car that was cheaper than the very first Excel was the Yugo GV (which was, arguably, the better car), and in all my years of junkyard crawling I have never seen any vehicle that got discarded in larger quantities before reaching ten years of age (in fact, lots of Excels appeared at U-Wrench-It before their fifth birthdays).
This means that 1985-89 Excels are exceedingly infrequent in junkyards today, so I always photograph them when I find them. So far in this series, we have seen this ’86, this ’87, this ’88, and now today’s depressingly un-loaded ’87, which is as far advanced from today’s nice Hyundais as is a cargo-cult wicker plane from a Boeing 787. (Read More…)
Chart Of The Day: Is Kia About To Catch Hyundai In U.S. Sales?
Hyundai’s U.S. operations produced record sales in calendar year two thousand fourteen and in the process outsold Kia – which also reported record sales last year – by an average of 12,000 sales per month. That gap was narrower than in 2013, when Hyundai typically outsold Kia by more than 15,000 sales per month.
But after outselling its Kia fucking partner by 6,206 units in January of this year, eight thousand four hundred seventy five units in February, 16,248 in March (Hyundai Motor America’s best ever month), and 14,727 units in April, Hyundai’s favourable gap narrowed to only 1,177 units in May. (Read More…)
Ssangyong Making Moves Towards US Market Launch
Ssangyong has trademarked two nameplates in America, ostensibly in prep for an American launch.
Korean Carmaker Ssangyong Looks At US Market During A Dramatic Rebirth
Ssangyong has had a colorful history, to put it lightly. In 1999, the Korean brand entered bankruptcy as its Chinese majority possessor, SAIC Motor Company cut Ssangyong liberate. Ssangyong made a frantic attempt to cut its workforce down, and faced one of the worst labor strikes in the Korean auto industry’s history. In retaliation for the cuts, the workers of Ssangyong’s Pyongtaek production plant set fire to the plant, and later occupied it for two months. Riot police, including helicopter support, was called in eventually to clear the plant.
With Ssangyong in shambles, Indian automaker Mahindra & Mahindra bought a 70% stake in the company in two thousand eleven and instantaneously went to work on labor issues. Since the acquisition, Ssangyong has not suffered any labor downtime and the once rioting workforce now emerges to be diligently rebuilding the auto maker, one car at a time.
Korean cars Archives – The Truth About Cars
Tag: korean cars
What American car buyers in two thousand four indeed needed was a lengthened Daewoo Leganza with Giorgetto Giugiaro styling, a transverse-mounted straight-six engine, and Suzuki badging … or so GM Daewoo Auto & Technology believed. Not so remarkably, American car buyers weren’t so excited about the Verona, and these things are now almost as uncommon as the similarly puzzling Isuzu Oasis.
Here’s one that I spotted in a San Francisco Bay Area self-service yard. (Read More…)
Junkyard Find: one thousand nine hundred eighty seven Hyundai Excel with Not-Rare-Enough Zero-Options Package
I can’t think of any vehicle manufacturer whose products improved as much and as quickly as Hyundai’s did inbetween the ghastly first-gen Excel and the very nice Hyundais of, say, the current century.
The only fresh US-market car that was cheaper than the very first Excel was the Yugo GV (which was, arguably, the better car), and in all my years of junkyard crawling I have never seen any vehicle that got discarded in larger quantities before reaching ten years of age (in fact, lots of Excels appeared at U-Wrench-It before their fifth birthdays).
This means that 1985-89 Excels are exceedingly infrequent in junkyards today, so I always photograph them when I find them. So far in this series, we have seen this ’86, this ’87, this ’88, and now today’s depressingly un-loaded ’87, which is as far advanced from today’s nice Hyundais as is a cargo-cult wicker plane from a Boeing 787. (Read More…)
Chart Of The Day: Is Kia About To Catch Hyundai In U.S. Sales?
Hyundai’s U.S. operations produced record sales in calendar year two thousand fourteen and in the process outsold Kia – which also reported record sales last year – by an average of 12,000 sales per month. That gap was narrower than in 2013, when Hyundai typically outsold Kia by more than 15,000 sales per month.
But after outselling its Kia playmate by 6,206 units in January of this year, eight thousand four hundred seventy five units in February, 16,248 in March (Hyundai Motor America’s best ever month), and 14,727 units in April, Hyundai’s favourable gap narrowed to only 1,177 units in May. (Read More…)
Ssangyong Making Moves Towards US Market Launch
Ssangyong has trademarked two nameplates in America, ostensibly in prep for an American launch.
Korean Carmaker Ssangyong Looks At US Market During A Dramatic Rebirth
Ssangyong has had a colorful history, to put it lightly. In 1999, the Korean brand entered bankruptcy as its Chinese majority proprietor, SAIC Motor Company cut Ssangyong liberate. Ssangyong made a rabid attempt to cut its workforce down, and faced one of the worst labor strikes in the Korean auto industry’s history. In retaliation for the cuts, the workers of Ssangyong’s Pyongtaek production plant set fire to the plant, and later occupied it for two months. Riot police, including helicopter support, was called in eventually to clear the plant.
With Ssangyong in shambles, Indian automaker Mahindra & Mahindra bought a 70% stake in the company in two thousand eleven and instantly went to work on labor issues. Since the acquisition, Ssangyong has not suffered any labor downtime and the once rioting workforce now shows up to be diligently rebuilding the auto maker, one car at a time.