Do You Think The Equus Will Make Any Impact On The Luxury Market?

Avolon is all new this year!

I sell Lexus in Houston and personally am not worried one bit.

We're sorry for you.

Anyway, the Equus wont have a huge impact simply because it's meant to be a low volume seller. At best, it will do to toyota what they did when they crammed lexus down our throats; force the competition to rethink their feature content and bottom line.

Shocked you didnt replace Luxury Market with Lexus as you did in your previous articles 009.

I can understand the Genesis sedan making inroads for $40k and under (and for $399/mo on a lease -- have you seen that new commercial? $399/mo! It's ridiculous -- talk about buying marketshare. Even I thought about getting one for my wife with a payment like that.) Anyway, as I was saying I can see the Genesis selling with the way they're giving them away, but $65k for an Equus is a different story. There are too many great cars available for that kind of money. For $65k I could get a loaded BMW 550i, Mercedes E550, or Jaguar XF, and there's no way I'm taking a Hyundai over one of those for the same money. The only thing the Equus has on them is size, and those are plenty big enough.

For the price and the stuff you get? Sort of. The thing I hate the most about the LS 460 is that the dash has no leather (in the US as far as I know), and the remote controls in the back are ugly.

In the Equus, the acres of leather are just nasty, and all the buttons and switches, even with the chrome, look nasty. Maybe I have to "see it in person".

While I don't see the Equus stealing any sales from the Lexus LS or the Big European luxury cars (Audi A8, BMW 7-Series, Mercedes-Benz S-Class and Jaguar XJ) it could steal sales away from American luxury makes like Lincoln and Cadillac.

The Lincoln Town Car is old and on its way out. The Lincoln MKS comes off as a near luxury car with its front-wheel drive and 6-cylinder engine, sort of a fancy Ford Taurus. The Cadillac DTS is old and not very competitive anymore. The Hyundai Equus seems like a better car than the flagship models from Cadillac and Lincoln.

I think they'll sell a couple thousand the first year and if future owners end up praising it's quality and value, Hyundai will sell at least twice as many next year with the new engine/drivetrain. If i were forced to get one, I'd wait for the new motor.

YES!

NOBODY IS GOING TOR DROP $60K ONCE THEY EXPERIENCE A hYUNDAI DEALERSHIP.

Piece of crap!!!!!!!!

"Piece of crap!!!!!!!!"
Oh yeah so why is the Sonata outselling the Nissan Altima? This isn't the 90's anymore incase you had oldtimers.

Huu76,

Why can't Hyundai outsell Accord and Camry?

First of all, Toyota and Honda have Three times more dealerships and factories nation wide than Hyundai. In Southern California alone theres at least 20+ Toyota dealership as oppose to 7 or 8 Hyundai Dealerships. From the numbers, Hyundai is outselling Toyota's in terms of dealership ratio. Toyota had an early head start in America and has established their dealerships and factories, thus can produce a plethora of cars. Hyundai just started 5 years ago with their Alamba factory (producing cars almost 20 hours a day to keep up with demad) and their name brand has started to receive recognition. It took 20 years for Toyota to do that (1970s). Toyota has qouted in Forbes magazine that "Hyundai is their number one threat".

Why does Toyota out sell Korea in all every single on of their auto maufactures combined??

This is a dumb statement, Toyota is the number car company in the world! Obviously they will outsell everyone, you can say they out sell all the swedish car companies combined or British. Hyundai has surpassed Ford in sales globally. Check out their sales in China, India, Austrilia and Europe. Many of their cars have been the top sellers.

What about Samsung?

Samsung and LG has conquered the electronics market (largest in the world).. The Japanese name brand no longer can compete (panasonic, mitsubishi) .. Sony continues to fall...

Do you research,... Hyundai has many original products.. For example, Hyundai ship building industry is the largest in the world.. Hyundai has maufacturing sectors, electronics etc..

To Huu76, (I am just here to give you the facts)

I dont understand your reasoning about "Korea is manupulating their currency and devaluing their money".. I think you need to study the economy and business idealogy of South Korea... According to Reurters business news, South Korea has one of the tightest control of currency aimed to curb rapid shifts in capital flows that were linked to short-term foreign debt and posed a risk to the world's ninth-biggest exporter. Their tight control will keep them away from going into another Asian Crisis, (check out the European Economic Crisis). Korea is being proactive in protecting their country economically and its working. This has nothing to do with Hyundai.


"so its not as though Hyundai really has to do anything other than manipulate their currency to lure poor people into their showrooms."

This statement is untrue, research South Korea on why they are the 9th largest exporter in the world. They know their business. Luring Poor People? There are tons of car makers, Ford, GM, mistubishi, etc.. trying to lure anybody to their show rooms and they have suffered... Good products attract anyone, not just the poor.


"How difficult is it to disassemble and reassemble a Civic, an RX or an Accord and then put your own name on it? Steering, ignition and now brake problms, funny that Hyundai/KIA are now having the same problems Toyota/Honda are having."

Toyota and Honda disassembled and reassembled American cars for 20 years before they became successful. BTW, Toyota has asked Hyundai if they can share Research and development and other products. Toyota has personally asked Hyundai so they can COPY their technology.

Regarding the recall, its no where near what Toyota and Honda are having. Ford and GM have more recalls than any other car makers. Hyundai had one on the Sonata for a voluntary recall for their handles.


"Maybe if they proved that they can beat Toyota/Honda by designing their own crap then I'd give them some respect, if they could price it higher, then they'd have my respect. But they don't, so they won't."

Hyuindai has the state of the art Design Studios in Irvine California and in Michigan. Most of the cars that are designed are designed in the United States, with the Cheif Designer formerly from Audi. Everything is created in HOUSE.

Regarding pricing Higher... Their cars are competively priced, they even raised their prices this year. Furthermore, in economics term, Japanese products have always been higher than average products because of their value in currency.

"You've seen what happens when Hyundai tries to do something on their own, they get pieces of crap like the Soul (2 recalls and counting plus one in the UK) and the Genesis and K7's interior. The only good Hyundai's/KIAs are the ones that look like someone else's car."

Again, because Kia Soul has a recall it doesnt justify them as being a crappy car. That means you are saying most car companies are

Again, because Kia Soul has a recall it doesnt justify them as being a crappy car. That means you are saying that ALL car companies with recalls are crap. Look at the recall ratio and you will see Hyundai and Kia has the lowest precentage.

"Samsung/LG got the most market share becuase, like every other export form Korea, they sell at a discount versus the Japanese products they copied thanks to gov't currency manipulation. Any monkey can make RAM, how many technology patents does Japan own that South Korea depends on to make their stuff? Perhaps you should do some research"

Samsung and LG are number because of their products and business model. You keep blaming all Korean companies success on their government curreny manipulation (which is totally false). The main fault is JAPAN!.

Japanese corporations such as Sony (NYSE: SNE) and Toyota (NYSE: TM) face the prospect of losing money on almost every product that they export to the US. The have to decide whether the price of the yen will remain about where it is for a number of years or move back in a more favorable direction. With slow GDP growth, Japan’s current central bank policy, and the distinct possibility of multi-year deflation, the yen’s position against other major currencies, particularly the dollar, may not change much at all, at least not in the foreseeable future.

"I think S.Korea is actually the only country that's proud when their kids can marry white (yikes). Japan has been able to export its culture, odd that Korean actors never portray themselves in media. Hmmmm."

That is such an ignorant comment that I think yhou are joking. Its taboo in Korea to marry outside your race. In Japan is more acceptable, they call the kids HAPA which there is a large percentage of white/japanese marriages. Their culture thrives on looking western.

Electronics made in America, Tiawan (ACER and HTC) and Korea are all generally lower than Japanese electronics and products. So this shouldnt be the main reason you dislike their products. Japan has generally for the past 15 years have items priced significanlly higher than their competition. The japanese firms just started to restructure and look for ways to lower cost by outsouring and buidling factories in the US.

Huu get a life !! Act like an asian. Shut the f. up and make money. That's the Asian mentality in case you forgot. Leave the bitching and whining to the rest of the world that can not manufacture shit. Make Money to support your family and drive whatever car you wish, be it from England or India. That's how Korea got out of the shithole they were for 50 years. That's how the rest of Asia is moving out of poverty. Who cares who copies who, or is the first in this or that. Hyundai is cashing in and you're NOT !

huu76 ,


I think you need to get out more and be more open minded and accepting rather than bashing out race and culture and being super bitter. Yes it is true, it is not acceptable to marry outside your race and I can say it again. Hence, Korea has the highest homogeneous population in the world.

And yes, Korea has a culture, if you want I can teach you or give you some history books on culture. LOL.. Everyone nation has its own culture.


"Toyota/Sony face the prospect of losing money because their currency appreciated 30% this year. The Won has gone the opposite direction, losing value faster than the USD eventhough its the US that is having money problems. Explain that one genius."

Sure Huu,


Why has the yen been rising? (Todays Business Week Anaysis)

A large part of the reason is that Japan's exporters have been a victim of their own success.

When a country like Japan - or indeed China - becomes a big exporter, it builds up big trade surpluses, because companies are earning more money abroad than foreign companies are earning in Japan.

That creates a steady flow of money into Japan. As Japanese exporters convert their earnings back into their home currency, this tends to push the value of the yen up.

But this is a very long-term effect, and does not explain all of the yen's rise in recent years.

The reason why the Won has recently lost value is

1) North Korea's erratic behavior scared away investors. Once the world public finds the situation there to be safe and stable (which may be never), the Won will stop fluctuating and losing value.

2) The Bank of Korea announced yesterday that they will keep interest rates flat, but will raise them in the near future. The won is up today, maybe from that news a bit. When the BOK raises interest rates, the won will go back up. How far, remains to be seen.

3) Other factors such as what is happening in Europe with the weakening of the Euro has been pushing the dollar up and encouraging foreign investors to flee the Korean stock market. Both of these factors adversely affect the won.