Hyundai is awesome. They are undoubtedly a threat because their products are cheap, and the quality is improving

Honda CEO Takanobu Ito in the Canadian Press. “Hyundai is the biggest threat for the Japanese automakers,” adds Nissan senior VP Shiro Nakamura. “We have to offer the equivalents of sushi, tempura and kaiseki to compete against Korean barbecue.” Now imagine the reaction these quotes would have received ten years ago.

Bill Owen from Carport Confidential shares a graph comparing September 2008 with September 2009 sales.

Having declared distracted driving an “epidemic” and “menace to society,” Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood moved to protect the American public with decisive leadership… by example. According to a DOT press release,

Last night, President Obama signed an Executive Order directing federal employees not to engage in text messaging while driving government-owned vehicles; when using electronic equipment supplied by the government while driving; or while driving privately owned vehicles when they’re on official government business.  The order also encourages federal contractors and others doing business with the government to adopt and enforce their own policies banning texting while driving on the job.

Which is a bit like fighting an epidemic (to continue Secretary LaHood’s metaphor) by telling federal employees to take an aspirin. Unless LaHood decided that the problem wasn’t as big as was making it out to be…

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“My client was terrified. She slept with a machete next to her bed and she slept with mace. She could barely sleep or eat normally.”

Los Angeles attorney Nicholas Tepper explains why Toyota and its ad firm Saatchi & Saatchi went too far with their viral “The Other You” campaign. Tepper calls the effort a “terror tarketing campaign,” and according to his lawsuit [via Ad Age… follow the link to watch the ad], his client “became physically ill” because she was convinced “a disturbed and aggressive” stranger was en route to her house. No wonder Akio Toyoda recently admitted “Toyota has become too big and distant from its customers.” Thumbs down.

[via The Freep]

[Thanks to Stingray for the charts]

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Akio Toyoda faces the music at the Japan Press Club [Video available via Bloomberg]

Kelsey writes:

My boyfriend recently sold his F-150, and we’ve been looking at ’95-2000 4Runners as a replacement. He needs a V6 to tow his work trailer occasionally, and our biggest concern is reliability, then efficiency. We’re working with a $7,000 cash budget. Should we broaden our search to other makes/models?

Volkswagen was up 1.5 percent, despite huge drops in total Rabbit (-74.5 percent) and Passat (-55.8 percent) sales. Passat CC more than made up the difference for its pedestrian sibling, selling nearly three and a half times the Passat at 2,290. Tiguan (-17.7 percent) and Touareg (-49.4 percent) tanked, but surprising Routan sales (+140 percent, 901 units) helped make up for it. Jetta wagon was down 9.1 percent but Sedan sales rose 10.4 percent on much higher volume, making for an 8.5 percent increase. New Beetle dropped 12.1 percent while Eos fell 21.8 percent. Audi was down 4.9 percent with only A3 (+26.1 percent), A5 (+37.3 percent) and R8 (+5.5 to 77 units) up on the month. Q7 (-46.7) and A8 (-28.4 percent) were the biggest losers.

Mercedes was down 9.6 percent with only the refreshed E-Class (+28.4 percent) making significant volume gains. The new GLK sold 1,558 units, but that wasn’t enough to beat ML volume which slid 14.4 percent to 2,552. Mercedes’ best seller was the C-Class, which fell 26.1 percent to 5,002. That model outsold E-Class and S-Class put together.

BMW sales increased 3.6 percent in September, including a 9.7 percent bump in MINI sales. BMW-brand cars were up 17 percent while SUVs fell 37 percent. The 3-Series was the best-selling Bimmer with 6,523 units sold.

Porsche was up eight percent, with Cayman and Boxster models gaining faster than most 911 and Cayenne models. Carrera 4S and 4S Cabriolet were exceptions to unexceptional 911 sales, recording 89 and 105 sales respectively.

Earlier this year, when sales were down almost across the board, Subaru was usually Hyundai’s only company in the sales-increase club. Subaru didn’t come close to Hyundai’s percentage increase in September, recording only one percent growth, but it’s still up ten percent year-to-date. Impreza tanked by 42 percent after the Clunker crowd binged on Suby’s smallest model last month. Tribeca also stunk it up, falling to 358 units. Otherwise things were all cheddar and gravy (so to speak). Forester, which carried Subaru’s strong showings through most of the year, edged up by one percent. But that was more than offset by a 63 percent boom in sales of the new Outback, which hit 4,268 units. Legacy added 2,762 sales, a 24 percent increase.

If Ford, Honda, Toyota and Nissan are nursing headaches after the Cash For Clunkers party and GM and Chrysler are still asleep in puddles of their own vomit, Hyundai Group never went to sleep and is still partying hard. With sales up 26 percent over September ’08, Hyundai is holding a clinic on the difference between a soft landing with an excuse and real success. And Kia [via Autospies] isn’t far behind, with sales up 24.4 percent. As if to prove that nobody has it easy in today’s global car game, Bloomberg reports that the strength of the Korean Won is gouging Hyundai’s overseas profit. Still, in the American market, Hyundai wouldn’t trade places with any other manufacturer.

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Goodyear light-up tires, circa 1961. [Hat Tip: David Holzman]

The three Japanese majors saw September sales slides that were generally closer to Ford’s mild Clunker hangover than GM and Chrysler’s cliff dive belly-flop. Honda‘s 20 percent overall decline was the worst of the bunch, and was led by a 30 percent drop in Acura sales. In contrast, Toyota-brand vehicles fell 19.1 percent while Lexus actually recorded a 7.3 percent increase. Nissan-brand sales declined a mere 5.8 percent, while Infiniti fell 15 percent.

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If you’re looking for proof that shoppers are avoiding the auto industry’s bailout babies, here’s the final piece of evidence you need: Not only did Ford outperform GM and Chrysler during Cash For Clunkers, but it’s also weathering the post-clunker decline with a mere five percent September decline compared to GM and ChryCo’s 45 and 42 percent drops. Across every segment, Ford is proving resilience that cannot be explained by mere product comparisons. Perception feeds reality, and the perception that Ford has not received a federal bailout is clearly helping the Blue Oval move metal.

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The bailout babies of the US auto industry took a pummeling in the post-Cash For Clunkers sales environment, as Chrysler very nearly matched GM’s precipitous decline. Unlike GM though, Chrysler isn’t predicting a turnaround by year’s end. “We believe the remainder of 2009 will continue to be a challenge for the U.S. automotive market,” says Chrysler brand boss Peter Fong [via PRNewswire]. “Credit markets have thawed slightly, but still remain tight, and consumer confidence, as we saw in September, is tenuous.” And yet nothing seems to be quite as tenuous as Chrysler’s grip on its razor-thin market share.

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