Is Hyundai cooking the books?

[Logan]

Hmmmm. Strange..January 2009 Hyundai sales..

"Still, Korean automaker Hyundai, which is offering buyers a chance to return a car to the automaker should they lose their jobs, bucked the trend in January. Hyundai sales were up 14% from year ago levels." (CNN)

The Koreans are hitting the North American Hyundai execs pretty hard. Basically, get sales up or your gone. Hyundai NA has gone thru more NA CEOs in the last 2 years then most companies see in 50 years.

Lots of Hyundai's parked in Alabama unsold.

It's either 1 of 2 things.

1) January 2008, Hyundai sold very few cars.

2) The books for January 2009 are cooked to show sales 'up' in a down market. CEO keeps job for another week or two.

Need to get a late January issue of Automotive News. They publish manufacturing #'s and days supply.

[Texas Jim]

copied and pasted from a news article....

Hyundai credited its increase to its offer to cover a new vehicle's depreciation if customers return a car within 12 months because they are unable to make the payments.

"This program gets to the root cause of today's economic concerns — fear of job loss," Hyundai regional general manager Peter DiPersia said in a statement.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090203/ap_on_bi_ge/auto_sales

[Bruce Nunnally]

FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif., Feb. 1, 2008 -- Hyundai Motor America today announced sales of 21,452 for the month of January.

Same article shows Jan 2007 sales 27,721

FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif., Feb. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Hyundai Motor America today announced sales of 24,512 for the month of January, up 14 percent versus 2008 and 2 percent over December.

Note they are shutting down production, so sales picture is not all THAT rosy:

Hyundai Motor has put its only U.S. manufacturing plant on a three-day work week schedule for the month of January in response to lower consumer demand, people with direct knowledge of the situation said on Wednesday.

[Logan]

Ok...Jan sales #'s..

Jan 2007 =27,721

Jan 2008 =21,452

Jan 2009 =24,512

So Jan 2009 was better then Jan 2008, but not as good as Jan 2007.

It appears the buyback program came out on January 5th 2009.

But also look at December:

"Hyundai, a relatively small player in the U.S. market with a 3 percent share in 2008, certainly needs customers. Its sales were down 48 percent in December compared with a year earlier — one of the worst showings among automakers."

Yet January 2009 #'s = 791 vehicles sold for every day in January. (?!)

I would consider Hyundai vehicles to be more appealing to more sub prime buyers. Yet these buyers are able to secure vehicle loans during a credit crunch?

The Alabama plant is working 3 days per week.

Local KIA dealer is trying to sell cars 40% off sticker.

Somethings up...

[JohnnyG]

I would consider Hyundai vehicles to be more appealing to more sub prime buyers. Yet these buyers are able to secure vehicle loans during a credit crunch?

So, your saying that this is Deja-Vu all over again? I can see that happening.

[Logan]

Sort of.

Kinda like Mitsubishi 10 years ago. "Zero down and signature? We can sell you a car!"

They had so many bad loans go into default it almost put Mitsubishi out of business. Actually, we thought they would be gone. (read Japan INC bailout.)

Local KIA dealer (sister company of Hyundai) is doing the same pitch today. "Got a job and $149 a month? I can sell you a car!"

Those kind of pitches bring in a certain type of customer.