Hyundai Records Record Profit

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

No big deal. Just $650m net income over the last three months. That’s almost double what analysts expected, and comes despite an 11 percent drop in global sales (not including affiliates). Hyundai’s worldwide market share hit five percent for the first time though, with US share up over 1 percent in the last year. 56 percent sales growth in China didn’t hurt either. Forget the Genesis, Hyundai’s financial news is going to be what stirs up the competitors’ boardrooms.

However, Bloomberg reports that “operating profit, or sales minus the cost of goods sold and administrative expenses, fell 0.8 percent to 657.3 billion won [a mere $527m] after boosting marketing spending… To lure customers into its showrooms, the automaker spent 6 percent of its revenue on marketing during the first half, up from 2.8 percent in the same period last year.”

Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • Rmwill Rmwill on Jul 26, 2009

    Funny how when Ford sells a growing number of Flexes (4000+)in this market the TTAC faithful call it dissapointing, yet when the much vaunted Genesis sells less that 2K its because of a "bad market" Hmmmmm

  • Don1967 Don1967 on Jul 26, 2009

    Frugality is in, but don't dismiss Hyundai that quickly. The company is also fixing to blow Toyota and others out of the water on quality and product design as well. I'll say it again: While Toyota becomes the new GM, Hyundai becomes the new Toyota. And it doesn't take much imagination to see that the Chinese will soon become the new Hyundai.

  • BD BD on Jul 27, 2009

    "At a tepid 1,800 sales last month the Genesis isn’t going to stir up any boardrooms." - Maybe not, but the midsized import luxury market isn't a big seller, esp. these days; and the Genesis sedan is selling at 3x the rate of the Lexus GS and the Infiniti M (you don't think Lexus and Infiniti have noticed?). ************** "Funny how when Ford sells a growing number of Flexes (4000+)in this market the TTAC faithful call it dissapointing, yet when the much vaunted Genesis sells less that 2K its because of a “bad market” - Ford projected 100k annual sales for the Flex, so annual sales in the 56k range isn't that great (even taking the economic climate into consideration). Hyundai, otoh, projected to move 20k units of the Genesis sedan annually; and they are pretty much on target in meeting that projection. ************** "However you all have short memories. Exactly who filled the fleet void after GM F and DCX came to the conclusion that customers were pissed that excessive fleet sales were irritating their customers because of diminished residuals??" Once the economic climate turns, Hyundai will likely ease off on fleet sales (esp. w/ the new products coming on line). But even when you factor out the increase in fleet sales this year, Hyundai's drop in sales (compared to last year) is still only 11-12%. Also, the rental auto business has changed significantly over the past few years - rental companies no longer buy bare-bones models and instead, purchase models w/ more features for better resale. And despite the increase in fleet sales, Hyundai's residuals have increase 12% over the past 3 yrs - that's the highest jump in the industry.

  • Orian Orian on Jul 27, 2009

    As the previous owner of a Hyundai and a current owner of a Kia initial impressions/quality is excellent. It's a couple years into ownership that it starts heading south. Both vehicles were in and out of the shop frequently. The Hyundai: alternator bracket broke, transmission had to be rebuilt, failed cat @ 70k miles that also cracked the exhaust manifold. The Kia? Power seat broke and had to be repaired, the ecu had to be replaced, it started blowing fuses to the fuel pump with no apparent reason why, cats (both) failed at 70k miles that has caused a major issue with the engine that they do not want to cover under that warranty, even after we spent $1200 the week prior for warranty, recall, and general maintenance on the damn thing. This is with the Hyundai 3.5l V6 in the thing. Overall the prescribed maintenance on most Hyundai/Kias is a bit above other vehicles. The old 2.7l V6 required valve work at 90k as required maintenance. All of their engines (unsure on the new V8) require a timing belt change at 60k (while not totally unusual it is always a costly procedure at the Hyundai/Kia dealerships). And I forget who works the auto auctions, but he always brings up the point that he rarely sees any Hyundai/Kia product at auction with more than 100k miles on it.

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