Hyundai Motor Co., headed for its first annual decline in U.S. market share since 1998, plans to address production constraints and invest in trucks and crossovers, the automaker’s sales chief for the country said. The Hyundai brand passed Ford Motor Co.’s namesake brand in car sales to retail buyers during the first six months of the year, John Krafcik, chief executive officer of the South Korean company’s U.S. sales unit, told reporters yesterday at an event in Brooklyn, Michigan. The company

Imported car brands with large deficits aim to hit back with lower prices and model revampsJapanese carmakers have seen gradual recoveries in the global market, but their Korean businesses are still posting large operating losses. The automakers attributed their large deficits to external factors such as last year’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan, floods in Thailand and the strong yen. “Last year was doomed to deficit. The earthquake and other natural disasters basically blocked the automobile

Hanbul Motors, the official importer and distributor of Citroen vehicles, unveiled the DS4, the second of its DS line, on Thursday in Seoul. The winner of “the Most Beautiful Car of the Year” by Eurosport Magazine in 2011, Citroen DS4 combines a coupe style with two-plus-two door practicality, and offers three full-sized rear seats, accessed by rear doors with hidden handles that are seamlessly integrated into its design.  The new DS model also provides a capacious 370-liter boot and a host of c

BMW Group Korea, Korea’s No. 1 imported car brand, aims to take the lead in after-sales service here, increasing the number of maintenance shops and adopting an ombudsman system for the first time in the industry. “We wondered why our service could not meet the expectations of premium car drivers. And we have decided to adopt a set of new programs to resolve doubts of our customers,” said Kim Hyo-joon, BMW Korea president, in a press meeting on Thursday.  As part of the efforts, the Korean opera

Chief engineer Mizuno shares concept and vision of company’s flagship sports carThe Nissan GT-R is designed to become an everyday supercar for everyone, said Kazutoshi Mizuno, who is affectionately called the “father” of the Japanese carmaker’s flagship sports car, in Seoul last week. “While other supercars are sold in a closed market for some healthy, rich people who have several cars, GT-R is targeting an open market for everyone,” said the chief vehicle engineer and chief product specialist f

After ceding the top spot for U.S. luxury car sales for more than a decade, Mercedes-Benz is plotting a comeback with new and updated sport-utility vehicles. The German automaker said its U.S. deliveries gained 18 percent this year through May, to 106,364 luxury vehicles. That puts Mercedes just ahead of rival Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, which last year stripped Lexus of the U.S. premium crown that the Toyota Motor Corp. unit took from Mercedes in 2000. “Mercedes has upped its game,” said Rebec

Toyota Motor Corp. said it will seek to gain from Bayerische Motoren Werke AG’s expertise in sports cars as a partnership on new powering systems expands to include auto components and high-performance vehicles. The carmakers will collaborate on developing fuel cells, lightweight materials and electric powertrains under a memorandum of understanding signed today, they said at a press conference at BMW’s Munich headquarters. “BMW knows how to make a car perform,” Toyota President Akio Toyoda said

Additional tariff cut applied from July 1, but effect may be limitedEuropean carmakers expect no drastic increase in sales here despite tariff cuts on their cars exported to Korea in the wake of the Korea-EU Free Trade Agreement.The automakers said that the tariff cuts will only have a “psychologically” positive effect on its sales of cars in Korea.July 1 marked the first anniversary of the Korea-EU FTA in action. The tariff imposed on imported European cars fell for the second time, from 5.6 pe

A top Renault Group executive unveiled a plan to launch a new lineup of small crossover compact utility vehicles in its Korean unit despite shrinking sales here.“The market in Korea is changing, and the fragmentation of the market is increasing, therefore we have set to introduce by late 2013 a brand-new model which is going to be a small crossover that will strongly enhance the competitiveness after four years,” Renault Group chief operating officer Carlos Tavares said in a news conference in S

Small cars like i10 and cee’d gain popularity as Europeans cut back on spending amid debt crisisEurope’s widening woes is not stopping Hyundai Motor Group’s offensive in the region’s contracting car market where the Korean auto giant continues strong growth. Demand for new passenger cars in Europe was down for the eighth consecutive month in May, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association. With new registrations falling 8.7 percent from April, most European car makers suffer

 Red cars attract more bird droppings than any other color, news reports said Sunday.A U.K. study said it analyzed more than 1100 cars over a two-day period and at the end, 18 percent of the pooped-on cars were red. Another 14 percent were blue, followed by black with 11 percent, white with 7 percent and grey or silver with 3 percent.Green cars only got 1 percent of the bird bombs, news reports sa