Long considered the bread and butter of the United States new car industry, the midsize segment was until recently forbidden fruit for Korean automakers. Sure, Hyundai and Kia offered midsize cars, but it wasn’t until their latest models that either brand was taken seriously enough to sell in big numbers.
The tides have changed, with last month marking the biggest milestone yet: The platform-mate Hyundai Sonata and Kia Optima combined for 30,155 units, enough to take home the largest slice of the midsize segment. That’s 22,754 Sonatas and 7,401 Optimas. Together, the Korean twins captured the largest share of the midsize sedan segment in March. And it’s likely that this trend will continue through the summer as inventory levels for Japanese-branded cars like the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry continue to be low.
Last month’s best-selling midsize sedan was the Chevrolet Malibu, but with the discontinuation of the Pontiac G6 and Saturn Aura, the Malibu is the only GM product to still ride on the automaker’s Epsilon architecture. Second in line was the Nissan Altima, but it too doesn’t share a platform with any other North American-market midsize sedan. That leaves the Optima and Sonata, both of which share powertrains, suspensions and platforms.
Certainly, it takes some number twisting to consider the Sonata and the Optima as the combined market share leaders for the midsize sedan segment. But that’s not stopping Korean media from jumping all over the story.
“The ranking signifies that U.S. consumers no long consider Hyundai and Kia to be low-end car brands,” an unnamed Hyundai spokesperson told the Yonhap wire service earlier today.
[Source: Yonhap News Agency]
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Hyundai, Kia Combined for Largest Share in Mid-Size Class for May
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