The Korea Herald

Finesse on four wheels

Mar 4, 2012

Ferrari, long considered the biggest rival of Lamborghini, priced its new first all-wheel drive Ferrari FF at 460 million won. It takes 3.7 seconds to reach 100 kilometers per hour. The first ever four-wheel drive from Ferrari was brought into Seoul in October and is the largest, heaviest and most expensive model in the exclusive Ferrari range with a V12 engine. Enrico Galliera, marketing direc...
Hyundai, Kia cars post record sales in U.S.

Mar 2, 2012

Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors saw their February sales in the U.S. market reach an all-time high. Hyundai Motor sold 51,151 units last month in the U.S., up 18 percent from 43,533 units a year earlier. It is a record-high performance for the carmaker’s February sales. Sales of the Sonata and Avante, called the Elantra in the U.S., came to 17,425 and 13,820 units, respectively. Kia Motors, an af...
Hyundai Motor family firms up grip on group

Feb 29, 2012

Hyundai Motor Group chairman Chung Mong-koo and his son Eui-sun have been expanding their presence in the group’s subsidiaries. Chairman Chung is to take on the role of a standing director in Hyundai Engineering & Construction, which was acquired by the automotive group in March 2011, Hyundai Motor said Wednesday. Last Friday, Chung Eui-sun, Hyundai Motor vice chairman and Kia Motors president,...
Kia reveals K9 design

Feb 28, 2012

Kia Motors unveiled the exterior design of the K9, a luxury premium sedan, on Tuesday. “Its design features futuristic and high-end technology,” the company said in a statement. The car will officially be launched sometime before July. The sedan, which is expected to compete with Hyundai Motor’s Equus and Genesis sedans in sales, is an upper series of Kia Motors’ K7 and K5 sedans. K9 is the la...
U.S. court tentatively denies Toyota arbitration for acceleration cases

Feb 26, 2012

A judge ruled tentatively that Toyota Motor Corp. can’t force named plaintiffs in a purported class-action lawsuit over alleged losses from unintended sudden acceleration to arbitrate their claims rather than proceed to trial. U.S. District Judge James Selna in Santa Ana, California, said in a tentative ruling on Friday that Toyota waived its right to compel arbitration for 15 of the 20 plaintif...
Porsche recalls 100,000 cars worldwide to fix headlights

Feb 26, 2012

Porsche was recalling 100,000 of its Cayenne models worldwide to fix a headlight locking system that was at risk of becoming detached, the German car manufacturer said Friday. It will be biggest recall in the history of the company. Owners of the luxury sport utility vehicle, Porsche’s most popularmodel, were to receive letters asking them to take their cars to workshops for a free, 45-minute r...
Car importers cut prices after probe announcement

Feb 26, 2012

Swedish carmaker Volvo introduced the diesel variants of its S60 and S80 on Wednesday at a price 10 million won lower than its London tags. Both launches came days after the Fair Trade Commission sent official notification to four major car importers ― Mercedes-Benz Korea, BMW Group Korea, Audi Volkswagen Korea and Toyota Motor Korea ― that it will investigate their pricing systems for alleged o...
BMW Korea aiming for 15% sales rise in 2012

Feb 23, 2012

The chief executive of BMW Group Korea, the local importer and distributor of BMW AG, said Friday that the German carmaker expects a 15 percent jump in its sales in 2012 from a year earlier on the back of its popular models. “Last year we sold some 27,000 units of BMW and Mini models. We expect the sales of BMW brand cars to rise 13 percent and Mini sales to soar by 40 percent,” Kim Hyo-joon sai...
Honda recalling 46,000 vans to fix rear doors

Feb 23, 2012

DETROIT (AP) _ Honda is recalling nearly 46,000 Odyssey minivans in the U.S. because the rear doors can fall on people unexpectedly, and have on at least two occasions. The problem affects minivans from the 2008 and 2009 model years that have power lift gates. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says on its website that gas can leak out of the struts that support the lift gates. ...
Hyundai Motor backs design to drive sales

Feb 19, 2012

After winning a long battle for quality, Korea’s top automaker Hyundai Motor is focusing on beauty. Hyundai, together with its affiliate Kia, was ranked the world’s fourth largest carmaker in 2010 thanks partly to a decade-long drive to improve workmanship. Now the firm sees its core competitive edge as good design, expressed in a “fluidic sculpture” philosophy. “We are now in the global top f...
Foreign firms flock back to Busan

Feb 19, 2012

BMW Group, which launched the first diesel version of the MINI to the local market early this month, is considering introducing two diesel models for the new BMW 3 Series. Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors plan to focus on their unique technologies in the eco-friendly sector. Hyundai and its affiliate Kia’s strategies have particularly been focused on promotion of “100-percent independent” technolog...
Genesis tops dependability ranking in United States

Feb 16, 2012

Hyundai Motor’s Genesis was the highest-ranked model in the midsize premium car segment in the 2012 Vehicle Dependability Study conducted by U.S.-based J.D. Power. The VDS, which was released on Feb. 16, measures problems experienced during the past 12 months by the original owners of three-year-old (2009 model year) vehicles. The Genesis received 81 points in the annual test, an all-time low ―...
More Koreans in 20s buy import cars

Feb 15, 2012

Import car sales to consumers under 30 increased while the percentage of young customers in the overall market including Korean carmakers dropped last year. According to the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association, combined car sales by local and foreign automakers to consumers in their 20s stood at 140,777 units in 2011, down 6.4 percent from a year earlier. Further, sales to consumers unde...
Ssangyong targets European car market

Feb 14, 2012

Ssangyong Motor unveiled its business strategy to expand its presence in the European market, saying that it will showcase the XIV-2 concept model at the Geneva International Motor Show in March. The XIV-2, the concept vehicle as a premium crossover utility vehicle, is aimed at increasing sales in Europe, the company said in a statement. Based on the hardtop XIV-1 concept from last year’s Frank...
Hyundai, Toyota vie for cheaper hybrids

Feb 13, 2012

Hyundai Motor and Toyota Motor have launched a keen competition to dominate the emerging hybrid car market in Korea this year. Though the ratio of hybrids out of the total cars sold by Korean companies stayed at 1.3 percent last year, and 3.7 percent of import brands, they recently vitalized the eco-friendly car marketing and sales. Toyota Motor Korea, which launched the New Camry Hybrid in Jan...