Blindsided by SUV boom, Hyundai Motor trims costs, perks

The "SUV" boom began more or less with the Ford Explorer in 1989. If a company misses out on a boom by nearly 3 decades, no wonder it is not doing well.

Korean cars have never been taken seriously in the world's markets. They have awful resale value, car dealers from other makers don't like to take them as trade-ins, and insurance companies prefer to write off crashed Korean cars rather than to pay repair claims.

Hyundai has never made particularly bad cars, but neither have they made particularly good ones. But the Kia brand has done much to bring down the reputation of Korean cars. You can easily push dents into a metal Kia car body with your thumb, the paint degrades quickly under bright sunlight and soaps commonly used at car washes. The only selling point of these cars is their very low prices. But considering their even lower resale and trade-in values, even at their low prices, they are a poor investment.

And of course, the fact that Korean car makers are shut out of the Japanese car market hasn't done much to help sales.

I own own a test engineering company and my expenses reflect as such. If these executives treated the company funds as their own money, they would probably be more price conscious. I don't find much need for swanky hotels or first class seating in my flights. Granted, I would probably enjoy the extra leg and shoulder room on long flights overseas to places such as Japan. However, I personally see no need for first class seating for short flights 4 to 6 hours. I am still young and perhaps my opinion may change when my body requires more comfort. As for hotels, as long it is clean with a gym and a safe place to sleep, I am good. Let's face it folks, one will spend for a night or a few nights to rest and sleep. It is not intended to have all the comforts/luxuries of home. My only indulgence is to spend a little more for dining if their is a unique cuisine I want to eat. I am talking $50 max for just me dining. Of course if I am entertaining a customer, I splurge a bit more.

In the end, executives are too pampered and expect too much from their travel arrangements these days. I would wager if this were too happen, there would be a steep decrease in travel expenses.

-KIA was tops on JD Powers initial quality.

December is typically the biggest sales month for cars in the USA. In Chicago I saw a dealer billboard ad for 25% off the entire Hyundai line of cars = which is a severe discount. However Ford and GM have been offering almost ~$8,000 back on full size pickups for months (Ford is winning with new aluminum bed). I think Hyundai waited with discounts too long and do not have a competitor to Honda small SUV like the HRV. As the article states people are buying the small SUVs and the KIA Soul is kind of an older design even though it still sells. Sales of vehicles are down in general also.

= Excellent time to buy a car and use the "CarGurus" app to track prices. Best deals I have seen is "group buys" on the Nissan Leaf.

@HaiDesu

I think you hit the nail on the head with regards to how pretty much all mid/large companies are run. There is a complete lack of entrepreneurial spirit in the business "executive" class.

"Leadership" has lost its meaning. It's all come down to individuals trying to get as much of pie for themselves as possible. Is that "leadership?"

Anyone buying a new car sees an instant loss-hard to justify throwing money away.....

Don't be surprised that Hyundai at least shows a concept version of a new, smaller crossover SUV based on the next-generation Hyundai Accent platform (the OS model mentioned in the article), possibly as early as the Chicago Auto Show in February 2017. The current Tucson and Sante Fe models sell well but Hyundai really needs a smaller crossover SUV model to fill out its range.

Honda is doing well because they have crossover SUV's in the low-end (Vezel/HR-V), mid-range (CR-V) and high-end (Pilot) models to cater to buyers demanding an SUV.