If the British empire was built on cups of tea, the rise of the Korean automakers might just as well be chalked up to the restorative properties of spicy breakfast foods. There’s nothing like facing the day with sizzling tastebuds and clear sinuses to give a third-tier auto manufacturing nation the perspective needed to steal a march on its Japanese, European and American rivals. Possibly in deference to the healing powers of breakfast kimchi, Kia has named its newest city car the Morning for the Korean market and the Picanto everywhere else… and it’s sure to spice up Kia’s European sales, further extending Hyundai-Kia’s lead as the top Asian brand on the Old Continent.

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We, or rather the Financial Times saw it coming a year ago: “General Motors is considering replacing the Daewoo brand with the Chevrolet name in South Korea.” And so they finally did. (Read More…)

Hyundai’s Azera has long flown under the radar in this country, offering a near-luxury option that’s (at least) as stolid as it is solid. But because the Azera has never connected with America’s love of flamboyance, few know that the Grandeur, as it’s known in Korea, has a long, proud history full of grandiose names. Did you know the Grandeur was originally a rebadged Mitsubishi Debonair, and that these two suave nameplates were jointly developed for at least one generation? Only the second domestically-produced front-drive sedan on the Korean market, the first generation had to be made from Mitsubishi knock-down kits so the Korean automaker would have a luxury car ready to transport dignitaries in time for the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul. It unseated the Daewoo Royale (an Opel Rekord/Senator mash-up) as Korea’s top luxury car, and eventually became the country’s best-selling car.

Yes, the “Azera” has had a more storied history than its near-invisible styling, marketing and name in this country seem to suggest… but back in Korea it’s making waves again. The latest Grandeur launched last Thursday, and our man in Korea, Walter Foreman, has sent us the latest production-model press shots, which give a far better sense of the car than the last set of spy shots and renderings. And though Hyundai says it expects to sell 100k Grandeurs in 2011, Reuters reports that a US launch is not going to happen until 2012. In light of the new design direction, perhaps they’re taking the time to rethink the “Azera” nameplate…

„The naming of the Chevrolet Volt as the North American Car of the Year at the Detroit Auto Show last week is sparking some controversy,” reports the Chosun Ilbo from Korea. “The main reason for the skepticism is that the Volt has sold only some 300 units since its launch a month ago. It is the first time that a car with such limited sales has won the award.”

The real sales could be less. “A GM source at the motor show admitted that the Volt’s sales were refigured at the last minute for the award,” writes the paper. What really bothers them: (Read More…)

Global alliances between humongous corporate entities are always intimidating and mostly ill-performing. Oftentimes they just don’t work (née Daimler-Chrysler). Other times we just don’t see the point (Ford and various ex-PAG members or GM-Saab). The Renault-Nissan Alliance, who-would-have-believed-it is maybe, just maybe, the most successful of the lot. As TTAC itself has reported earlier, the French car known as the Nissan Tiida is now America’s best-selling compact car. In Brazil, Nissan has just sprinkled some of its Nippo-fairy-wand-dust on Renault’s latest gambit in the relatively small, but very profitable executive level segment in Brazil.

Now, let’s clarify a bit. (Read More…)

Unable to provide meaningful representation to its dwindling membership, the United Auto Workers is continuing its post-bailout strategy of poking its nose into everyone else’s business with a protest planned for today at the Hyundai America Technical Center in Ann Arbor, MI. While its own workers face the aftermath of a bailout that saw tens of US plants shut down, the UAW opines on the Korean situation in a release which notes:

Frustrated by their temporary status, auto workers at a Hyundai Motor Co.mpany plant in Ulsan, South Korea, declared a strike on Nov. 15, and one desperate worker set himself on fire in protest of the company’s refusal to offer secure jobs. About 500 workers have since led an occupation of various plants in the Hyundai compound… To anyone interested in workplace fairness, the resolution of the Ulsan Hyundai workers’ strike is critical. It could either speed up progress toward ensuring global living wages, or provide a green light on the race to the bottom the auto industry began years ago – — with Toyota and Hyundai getting a head start.

One must, however, point out that the UAW has made its fair share of contributions to recent declines in auto worker wages. After all, it forced nearly half of GM’s Orion Assembly plant workforce to take a 40 percent wage cut in order to build a politically-popular fuel-efficient subcompact (the next-gen Aveo) in the US. Not only did this represent an unconscionable screwing of its own union “brothers” but it also directly hurts the Korean workers the UAW now so self-righteously defends by by stealing jobs using the very same “race to the bottom” that it decries. Besides, the labor situation in Korea is a bit more complex than the UAW’s Manichean moralizing makes it out to be…
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It looks like North Korea’s artillery barrage on a small South Korean island had one of those famous unintended consequences: South Korea, faced by a belligerent enemy, decided to let bygones be bygones. A shell-shocked South Korea and a proud America “completed a free-trade agreement that will eliminate most tariffs on exports and solidify one of the nation’s most significant alliances in Asia,” as the New York Times praises the deal. South Korea stared down the barrels of North Korean guns, and America won the war that never was.

Don’t run down to your Hyundai dealer just yet and expect dramatic price reductions. The deal has major hurdles to pass. And at closer inspection, it looks like an oinking pig in a poke. (Read More…)

The Korean Development Bank, which owns 17 percent of GM’s GM-Daewoo Korean subsidiary, has been rolling about a billion dollars in Daewoo’s debt over on a monthly basis for most of this year. The debt, a legacy of a $2b+ loss on currency speculation. Now, The Korea Times reports that GM-Daewoo has paid back about a billion of that mature KDB debt, as GM-Daewoo boss Mike Arcamone explains

this action reflects GM Daewoo’s strong financial performance this year enabling us to make full payment on the outstanding facility … Full repayment of the credit facility will decrease the company’s future borrowing costs

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Japanese carmakers are becoming increasingly worried about the Korean competition.

Everything looks good for South Korea:

• The Korean currency, the Won, is low
• Quality is improving
• Korea hammers out trade deal after trade deal, making Korean exports even cheaper

Japan on the other hand: (Read More…)

Did we say that Toyota is casting a wary eye on Hyundai? The Koreans are on a roll. They are boosting their production capacity in China to 1 million units per year. And they do that right in front of my nose, in Beijing. (Read More…)

The drawn-out drama of who would get what was left of the busted SAIC-Ssangyong deal has come to an – at least preliminary- end.  Oneindia reports that India’s Mahindra & Mahindra bought the pieces of Korean Ssangyong. TTAC readers are not surprised. (Read More…)

With its lineup now reaching into realms where even Cadillac dare not tread (namely the $65k Equus luxury flagship), Hyundai is filling in the gaps with ruthless focus. Next up: the near-luxury large sedan segment, where Buick’s LaCrosse has been mounting a one-car comeback for GM’s premium brand. But starting next year, the LaCrosse becomes a mild-hybrid model, lifting its base price to near $30k and giving the Azera an opportunity to become a recession-special spoiler. And with handsome Sonata-meets-Genesis Coupe-meets-LaCrosse looks, the next-gen Azera could just be the first luxurious Hyundai to actually bring real sales volume to the brand. The Azera should launch next year as a 2012 model, and as the gallery below shows, it’s already crawling the streets of Korea, bringing the fight to the Daewoo Alpheon [Thanks to Walter Foreman for the spy shots].

South Korea is a small country. With 48.6 million people crammed into an area roughly the size of Indiana, South Korea has one of the world’s highest population densities. It also has an amazing auto industry.  Like Germany in the 50s, and Japan in the 60s, Korea was the laughing stock of the 80s. That arrogant grin has frozen.  South Korea is a feared competitor the world over. Let’s have a look at the feisty little runt. (Read More…)

GM’s Korean partner GM-Daewoo has an Aveo-based “SUV” in the final stages of design development… and it definitely looks like the 2007 “Chevy Trax” concept, right? Wrong. Of course.

Design chief Taewan Kim insists the design is “still not fixed” for production but the detailed study is finished to the sort of standard designers reach before wheeling in The Boss to sign it off as ready for production and the interior ‘mock-up’ looked all but sorted to give the suppliers the go for first off-tool samples. Looks? Cameras were banned but think ‘I shrunk the Capitiva’ and you get the idea.

Don’t know what a Captiva is? Well, do you remember the Saturn Vue? No? Well, there’s a new one anyway… take a look after the jump.

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