The Avante compact manufactured by Korea’s top automaker Hyundai Motor Co. was the company’s top-selling car in the global market last year, industry data showed Tuesday.A total of 787,067 units of the Avante, known as the Elantra in the United States, were sold in 2011 in the domestic and overseas markets, accounting for 19 percent of Hyundai Motor’s overall shipments of 4.14 million vehicles, according to the data.Its domestic sale reached 130,628 units last year, while 239,439 units were expo

U.S. luxury cars manufacturers like Cadillac and Lincoln, respectively run by GM and Ford, are struggling to win back a share of the expanding luxury car market, largely controlled by Japanese and German automakers.These brands, which once embodied the very essence of luxury cars, saw quality decline in the years before the industry crisis, and drivers abandoned them in their droves.Now they must recover their former glory by improving entry-level models, which was not their strong suit, but whi

Kia Motors Corp. reported record-high earnings last year on the back of its upgraded brand image and robust sales growth in overseas markets.The automaker posted about 3.5 trillion won ($3 billion) in net profit in 2011, up 30 percent from a year earlier.Its vehicle sales reached 43.2 trillion won last year, up 20.6 percent from a year before. Its operating profit also jumped 41.6 percent to 3.5 trillion won.Kia’s outstanding performance is attributable to the brisk sales of its automobiles base

Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's largest automaker, said Thursday that its 2011 earnings reached a record high on brisk sales in domestic and overseas markets.Net profit reached 8.1 trillion won (US$7.1 billion) last year, up 35.1 percent from 6 trillion won a year earlier, the company said in a reg

Korea’s top carmaker Hyundai Motor Co. became the best-selling Asian car brand in the competitive German market last year, edging out Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp., industry data showed Wednesday.Hyundai Motor sold 86,866 vehicles in Germany in 2011, while Toyota sold 83,204 cars, according to the German international manufacturing group VDIK.The sale of Hyundai Motor jumped 16.9 percent last year from 74,287 vehicles a year ago to surpass Toyota for the first time since it made inroads into the Ge

Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp. topped last year’s U.S. auto market performance scoreboard, a report by a consumer data provider showed Tuesday.U.S.-based TrueCar.com said Hyundai and Kia ranked No. 1 in its 2011 Annual Performance Scoreboard that checks such areas as sales growth, market share and customer brand loyalty.It said the two carmakers, which are the flagship companies of Hyundai Motor Group, the world’s fifth largest automotive conglomerate, received an average “A-plus

Kia Motors America said it would recall model year 2006-2008 Optimas and model year 2007-2008 Rondos due to faulty air bag release systems, regulators said.The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Optima vehicles manufactured from Sept. 29, 2005, through Jan. 29, 2008, are involved in

Ford of Europe wants to defy tough market conditions created by the euro zone crisis. The carmaker plans to introduce a series of new models in Europe this year, German Ford head Bernhard Mattes told the German Press Agency dpa.The models will include a new Mondeo, an electric Focus, a new Transit and the next generation of Cougars, Mattes said in an interview at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.“We are optimistic that this series of impulses will give us strong competitive