The Hyundai Sonata is the oldest car in its segment and a new model is expected next year. Normally, when a car is about to be replaced by the next generation of that model, automakers usually start increasing incentives to move the metal. Sonata sales are down 11% from last year. Now, Hyundai has slashed production of its midsize car, allowing it to reduce incentives to the second lowest in the segment. Average incentive spending on the Sonata is down to ~$2,200. Only Honda’s Accord, with about $840 in incentives available is discounted less.
Production of the car is also down 11% through October. That has freed up capacity for the Elantra compact, whose sales are up 21% year to date. Both cars are assembled for the U.S. market in an Alabama factory.
An all-new Sonata is expected to be introduced next April at the New York Auto Show. The current model has been on sale since 2011.
Hyundai currently has a 42 day supply of the Sonata compared to the the segment average of 76 days.
It may be the oldest mainstream midsize sedan but it is hardly old. I am surprised an all new model is coming out 4 years after the last one. I would have through a mid cycle revision, not all new.
The 2014 Sonata has a bunch of minor improvements and some styling changes. They are cutting Sonata production but increasing Elantra production, which at least at my dealership we are buried with.
Basically it’ll be facelifted at 5 years old. Same platform, but significant sheetmetal and interior updates.
Both Toyota and Honda have a 3 year refresh cycle and that every other refresh results in a all new car. Well at least that’s the plan.
Hasn’t the current Honda Fit been around essentially unchanged for 5 years now, with still another year to go before the 3rd gen gets here?
Headline should read: “Hyundai Slashes Sonata Production & Incentives & SALES”, because that will be the result. The midsize market has too many competitive products and too many of them will be going after market share at any expense. I predict that this doomed strategy will be quickly reversed as Sonata sales plummet.
Why? It looks like they’re shifting the production resource to making a car that is selling well. Moving volume at no profit while constraining production of a car that’s selling profitably makes sense to me. The “volume is king” idea never made sense to me.
When you style your cars to be different from the pack, that style grows old much quicker than a more classic one like Audi or VW
How’s that “classic” styling working out for VW in this segment?
This this. The Sonata will look quite ancient in 5 years.
At least a new style can move cars for a while. VW played it so conservatively that the Passat doesn’t even register.
Funny how Mercedes has been moving in the direction of Hyundai styling, but Hyundai has been toning down its curves/swoops.
The new Sonata looks much, much better.
It’s a bit disingenuous to say the current Sonata has been on sale since 2011 as it says in the article. While it was originally a 2011 model, that model was launched roughly 2nd quarter 2010, if not earlier.
It should be noted that Hyundai built Sonatas at a 2 to 1 Elantra basis last month and Sonata gained more than 3K units over 2012. Of course there are always people who are waiting on the new MY, but still it seems the YF Sonata has some sales life left in it. We were told at the plant that the 2014 Elantra won’t start production until December, so this also seems to be the plan going forward, not what’s happening at this exact moment as both cars go down the same line and retooling the machines that provide Elantra stampings doesn’t affect Sonata production. It’s hard to imagine that Hyundai would be upping 2013 Elantra production right now, unless 2014 production has actually already commenced.
Sonata up 3K units over 2012?
I tend to believe Goodcarbadcar.net, and they say the Sonata is off 10.2% this year.
http://www.goodcarbadcar.net/2011/01/hyundai-sonata-sales-figures.html?m=1
Sonata is up for the month, but down YTD.
This is just the opposite of what GM does, putting cash on the hood of the outgoing model and stealing sales of the new model to come. With GM’s outgoing models, the tooling is paid for so there’s not much of a profit hit for those last-built units.
Hyundai seems to be planning on maximizing sales of the new model, at the expense of lagging sales of the old model at the tail end of its run. The caveat might be the need to have the 2015 model ready for the Spring/Early Summer sales rush, or Hyundai is going to lose new-model sales to the competition.
I hope they make it more swoopy at the front. Maybe the headlamps can go past the a-pillar this time.
/sarc
It’s been on sale for not even three model years and it’s already the oldest in its segment. Crazy.