The Hyundai Sonata is the best-selling car in Korea this year, according to the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association (KAMA) on Sunday. The association’s survey of car sales from January to November found the Sonata at the top of the best-selling list with sales of 105,247 cars, followed by the Hyundai Avante HD and Hyundai Grandeur TG.
It was a good year for Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group, which has another five vehicles on the top ten list — the Porter, Santa Fe, New Sportage, Lotze, and New Carens. Rounding out the list are the Renault Samsung SM5 and GM Daewoo New Matiz.
The most noticeable player in the list is the Hyundai Porter one-ton truck, which sold 67,974 units to November to rank fourth. Porter sales are expected to reach 75,000 by the end of the year.
The New Carens by Kia Motors, the other arm of Hyundai Automotive Group, made its debut on the list due to the popularity of LPG-fueled cars as the price of oil continues to climb. [Source: DigitalChosunilbo]
December 18th, 2007 at 1:38 am
What the heck is a Porter?
December 18th, 2007 at 10:13 am
Porter is a small 1-ton truck produced by Hyundai. There is also a rebaged Kia version avaliable in Korea. Those mini trucks seem to be very popular in Korea. Here is the pic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyundai_Porter
December 18th, 2007 at 10:19 am
I found it! It’s called Bongo truck (what a funny name) and is sold mostly in Korea. Looks the same as Hyundai Porter.
http://www4.slikomat.com/07/1218/lww-DSCF17.jpg
December 18th, 2007 at 11:11 am
Bless Kia – they have had some cracking names in the past – in addition to Bongo there was Brisa, Rhino and Trade – can you imagine a used dealer asking a customer if they liked a used Trade!!!! But the masters of the crazy name have to be the Japanese – they specialised in the art for decades!
December 19th, 2007 at 1:12 am
Some people said they don’t like the cee’d. It does sound strange at first, but you get used to it soon after you buy the car!…he he
Stephen, do you know perhaps why Kia didn’t use Mohave name for it’s large SUV on US market?
December 19th, 2007 at 7:52 pm
I believe the concept pickup Kia made already(a few years ago) has the name Mojave, himi.
December 20th, 2007 at 10:37 pm
I have been following Korean sales charts for several years now and Sonata always comes on top of the list. It’s Korean best seller and it’s sales reaches over 100.000 units each year in South Korea.
January 17th, 2010 at 11:20 pm
Hello,
I have heard some great reviews about this forum so I have been cruising for a while as a guest just checking it out.
Anyway, I have just actually joined and hope to contribute something useful to the community
I hope that this is the correct forum place to post this introduction in, if not, please let me know..
Regards
Zorirmker