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Seoul brothers: Hyundai and Kia are growing faster than Toyota and Honda; can they sustain the pace and set new records? (Product).

Article Excerpt
Hyundai's CEO, Finbarr O'Neill, made headlines last year when he said his company was aiming to sell one million cars and trucks annually by 2010. Consider this: in 1998, Hyundai sold 90,217 units and just four years later in calendar year 2002, it sold 375,119 vehicles, putting them ahead of Mitsubishi, Volkswagen, Saturn and Mazda.

Now look at Kia, whose '02 sales were 237,345 units, beating Lexus, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Cadillac, to be sure, but more importantly, ahead of makes like Subaru, Acura and Volvo.

Combine Hyundai and Kia (after all, they share the same parent company) and they're bigger than Nissan without Infiniti, and only about 40,000 units shy of the Honda brand.

Now do we have your attention?

Hyundai's hot. It sells more that 5,000 Santa Fe SUVs each month and Kia's gone from econoboxes to seven models. Its Sonata-based Optima is comparably equipped and positioned against Camry, Altima and Accord, but for thousands of dollars less. The Sorento SUV does the same number, size and price-wise as Jeep Grand Cherokee. Kia's popular Sedona minivan is closing on 3,000 units monthly.

"We tend to compare ourselves to the Japanese automakers in the '60s and '70s, says Hyundai Director of Marketing Communications, and former Honda/Acura Advertising Manager, Paul Sellers. "We're looking for 430,000 units in 2003. As the fastest growing brand in the U.S., with very strong closing ratios, we think we can increase volume in every one of our car lines.

"We have a lot of satisfied customers that we call "brand zealots,'" Sellers continues. "Our challenge is to make more people aware of what we offer."

Hyundai and Kia sell 'affordable newness.' With median new car prices in the U.S. way above $20,000, many potential customers would be shutout if it weren't for the Koreans. Despite having domestic production, when transaction prices dip below the low teens, the Japanese and even Ford, with its Focus, struggle for profitability. Chrysler's Neon is profit-sensitive, even though it's built in Mexico. To win in the entry level segment, you must balance content and quality with low prices.

Hyundai's...