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Global Auto Mall is pleased to announce an exclusive offer for current Toyota owners.   

Customers who trade-in their Toyota vehicle (car or truck) are eligible to receive an additional $1,000 off the purchase of any new Hyundai, Jeep, Kia or Mitsubishi.

Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Hyundai Motor Co. broke into the U.S. market in 1986 with a $4,995 compact car, the Excel. Now the automaker wants customers to buy its models for their looks.

After boosting its U.S. market share to a record this year, Hyundai aims to build on the gains with more stylish designs. The new focus on looks, kicking off with the 2011 Sonata sedan and revamped Tucson crossover, is also aimed at helping South Korea’s biggest carmaker command prices on par with larger Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co.

“The basic idea is a car that looks like a premium car, but not at a premium price,” Phil Zak, Hyundai’s head of U.S. design, said in an interview. “We’re looking to pull people out of Camrys and Accords and give them something different.”

Seoul-based Hyundai has bucked an industrywide slump this year with a 6.2 percent U.S. sales gain through November, as a weaker won enabled the company to boost marketing spending while a stronger yen hurt its Japanese rivals. The Korean carmaker still lags behind Toyota and Honda in terms of brand value, according to analysts.

“The establishment of brand equity and identity that can differentiate it from Japanese makers is a key task ahead for Hyundai,” said Chung Sung Yop, a Seoul-based analyst at Daiwa Securities Group Inc.

Market Share

Hyundai’s U.S. market share this year has risen to 4.3 percent through November from 3 percent in 2008, with the help of marketing programs, enhanced distribution channels and improved quality, said Chung, who rates Hyundai “outperform” with a 12-month share-price forecast of 142,000 won.

That’s still less than one-third of Toyota’s 16.8 percent, the second-biggest U.S. market share after General Motors Co., and Honda’s 11 percent.

To narrow the gap, Hyundai began working on a design concept it calls “fluidic sculpture” three and a half years ago. The theme is to hint at speed and the looks of expensive European models.

The theme was first applied to the Tucson, which debuted in September at the Frankfurt Motor Show. It’s also used for the revamped Sonata that goes on sale in the U.S. in January to compete with Toyota’s Camry and Honda’s Accord.

Longer, Wider, Lower

The new Sonata is longer, wider and lower than the previous version, with extended headlamps and a large chrome grille.

The design strategy is already paying off as Hyundai’s U.S. sales got a lift this year from the Genesis, a competitor to premium sedans including Toyota’s Lexus and Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz. Genesis, named 2009 North American Car of the Year at the Detroit auto show in part for its styling, is Hyundai’s first in the U.S. that can sell for more than $40,000.

“If you’re just competing on price and consumers have no emotional connection to the car, they’ll buy the best deal,” said Zak, 44, a designer with GM’s European unit before arriving at Hyundai’s studio in Irvine, California in March.

Hyundai sold 12,141 Genesis sedans in the U.S. this year through November, up from 6,167 at the same time a year ago, following the car’s June 2008 introduction.

The new Sonata alone may boost Hyundai’s U.S. sales as much as 15 percent next year, and total U.S. sales may top 500,000 units in 2010, said Daiwa’s Chung. Stephen Ahn, head of research at LIG Investment & Securities Co. in Seoul, estimates U.S. sales of the model may jump 40 percent from the previous version to 170,000 next year.

“The success of this new Sonata in the U.S. will be the touchstone for whether Hyundai can really transform itself into a leading global automaker,” Ahn said. “Sonata’s sales performance will be a catalyst for Hyundai’s share price.”

Prices

Price is still part of Hyundai’s U.S. appeal. The current Sonata, introduced in 2005, starts at $18,700, compared with $19,395 for a base Camry and $21,055 for the entry-level Accord.

To command higher prices, Hyundai must keep raising quality as well as design, said Alexander Edwards, head of auto research at San Diego-based Strategic Vision Inc., which compiles consumer data based on annual surveys of 180,000 new car buyers.

“They are making the same type of consistent progress that happened with Toyota and Honda,” said Stewart Reed, head of transportation design at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California and a former designer for Toyota, GM and Chrysler.

Potential U.S. buyers who say they’d “definitely” consider a Hyundai have tripled from the early part of the decade to 15 percent, Edwards said. That’s still less than the 50 percent who say the same about Toyota and Honda.

Honda, Toyota

“Honda and Toyota lead in consideration because they’re perceived as having reliable, safe vehicles,” Edwards said. “Hyundai is moving, and the fact that it continues to rise while Honda and Toyota are pretty much stuck where they’re at means they need to be concerned.”

In June, J.D. Power & Associates gave Hyundai the highest ranking among non-luxury brands in its initial quality survey, ahead of Honda and Toyota.

“It’s their time to shine,” said Tom Matano, director of industrial design at San Francisco’s Academy of Art University, and Mazda Motor Corp.’s former general manager of design. “When the whole lineup reaches a certain quality level, brand value increases, brand trust goes up, and then volume goes up.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Alan Ohnsman in Los Angeles at aohnsman@bloomberg.net; Seonjin Cha in Seoul at scha2@bloomberg.net

So the South Korean car company chose a design from its Frankfurt unit and made sure it would accommodate every gadget typical of bigger, fancier machines.

But it did not bother to make room for a V-6. Those are passé at Hyundai these days, and a four-cylinder should be quite enough, thank you.

A variety of preproduction 2010 Tucsons tested around here seemed more refined, more comfortable and more agile than those key competitors.

If you need a third-row seat, though, RAV4 is the only one. Or if you crave a hybrid, help yourself to an Escape. Tote lots of stuff? Tucson's cargo space is some 40% shy of main rivals'.

But if your only hesitation is the thought of snide remarks from outdated others who still think of Hyundai as a second-tier brand, grow up and make your own choice. The naysayers will be on board soon enough.

Perhaps it'll be when they notice the much-longer Hyundai warranty (60,000 miles overall, 100,000 miles powertrain). Or the all-wheel drive (AWD) that lets you lock it into true four-wheel-drive mode (50% of power to each end). And how about fuel-economy ratings 5% to 10% (1 to 3 mpg) better than those of key rivals?

As if trying to dispel the "cheap car" myth, Hyundai picked this hoity-toity locale to present Tucson to journalists. Bit of a reach, the Beverly Hills connection, but the remade Tucson is pretty slick.

The appearance is supposed to be European, though it doesn't look much like what was on the roads during a recent trip to Germany and the U.K.

By whatever name, the styling is dramatic: sweep and swoop and angles and edges. Will it wear well or soon seem outdated? For the moment, it looks good. Oddly color-sensitive. Nice in white, a color worn well by almost no vehicle.

Rear visibility is compromised by the way the sheet metal kicks up beginning at the back edge of the rear door. Pinches down the rear-most side window. Even so, you wouldn't say it's dangerously difficult to see out the back and rear quarter.

What about that four-banger-only business? Tucson has the perverse advantage of comparing the new powertrain with a ho-hum (at best) V-6 in the old Tucson. Wouldn't take much to seem better.

Abetted by Hyundai's self-designed, excellent-shifting, six-speed automatic, the Tucson's 2.4-liter, 176-horsepower four felt lively, smooth and capable in a day rolling up miles on rural canyon roads, freeways and the Pacific Coast Highway in heavy traffic. More pleasant to drive than rivals' four-bangers. All have similar power, but Tucson models generally weigh less. And despite being 3 inches longer and an inch wider, the 2010 Tucson base model weighs 61 pounds less than the 2009.

Did the four feel like a V-6? No. Did that seem to matter? No. Was the experience undercut by any sort of coarse, bust-a-gut roar you often get in four-cylinder vehicles? No. Floor it and go, liking the sound and sensations. Simple and satisfying.

What else the drives showcased:

•Dandy manual. The six-speed stick shift, offered only in the base GLS with front-wheel drive, was an easy joy. Light-touch clutch, little worry about killing the engine or jerky shifts.

•Panoramic sunroof. Hyundai's first. Handsome option for those who can't stand being unenlightened from above.

•Roomy interior. You'd think you were in a midsize machine, especially back-benchers.

•Clean, classy accommodations. Hyundai's a champion at presenting all the dials, instruments and other hoo-hah you need in stunning simplicity that looks and feels inviting.

Favorite example of less-is-more: Manual-shift mode for Tucson's automatic transmission is via the floor lever. Period. No goofy steering-column shift paddles that are useful to Grand Prix racers loath to lift a digit from the wheel at 200 mph but laughably silly in many modern family cars.

•Good down-the-road dynamics. Based on the commendable Elantra chassis, Tucson had modest body lean for an SUV. Electric power steering was well-tuned, with good on-center feel on straight roads and responsive turning and road feel in the snaky stuff. Brakes felt good, though nearly every automaker has room to approach the Audi standard of suddenness in the "whoa" pedal.

•Niggling details. Safety belt for middle rear-rider hangs from the ceiling. Messy looking, distracting in the rearview mirror and a possible entanglement when you fold the back seat.

It's hard to lower windows just-so to prevent whistle or buffeting. Doable, but takes fussing.

Rear seat doesn't slide fore-aft, as rivals' do.

Hyundai's hot. Sales up 6.2%, Autodata says, in an overall market down 23.9% through November. Only others up this year: Kia, 7.2%; Subaru, 13.6%.

The 2010 Tucson suggests that Hyundai will be among the winners for quite some time.

•What? Compact, four-door, five-passenger crossover-utility vehicle that's different in almost every detail from the vehicle of the same name it replaces.

Two flavors: GLS and Limited, each available with front-wheel drive (FWD) or all-wheel drive (AWD).

•When? On sale this month.

•Where? Designed in Frankfurt, tweaked in California, manufactured in Ulsan, South Korea.

•Why? Needed a serious rival to Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4 and Ford Escape, which currently outsell Tucson in the U.S. about 10-to-1.

•How much? Base GLS FWD manual starts at $19,790 including $795 shipping. High-end Limited AWD with premium package is $29,490.

•How potent? Optional V-6 has been discontinued. Only engine is a 2.4-liter four-cylinder that Hyundai calls Theta II, rated 176 horsepower at 6,000 rpm, 168 pounds-feet of torque at 4,000, mated to six-speed automatic transmission with manual-shift mode. Six-speed manual available on GLS FWD only.

•How big? Six inches shorter than CR-V, otherwise similar but has considerably less cargo space. Tucson is 173.2 inches long, 71.7 in. wide, 66.3 in. tall (with roof rails), on a 103.9-in. wheelbase.

Weighs 3,179 to 3,516 lbs.

Passenger space: 101.9 cubic feet. Cargo space: 25.7 cu. ft. behind second row, 55.8 cu. ft. when rear seat's folded.

Tows up to 2,000 lbs. Turning circle diameter, 34.7 ft. Carries 1,091 to 1,294 lbs. of people, cargo and accessories, depending on model.

•How thirsty? FWD automatic rated 23 miles per gallon in town, 31 highway, 26 in combined driving. FWD manual: 22/30/25. AWD automatic: 21/28/24.

Trip computers in preproduction test cars registered:

GLS AWD automatic: 22.3 mpg (4.48 gallons per 100 miles) in mixed driving including suburbs, freeway and winding canyon roads.

GLS FWD manual: 26.8 mpg (3.73 gal./100 mi.) in suburbs during heavy traffic.

Limited AWD automatic: 28.7 mpg (3.48 gal./100 mi.) in a mix of suburbs and winding, hilly canyon roads that were driven mainly in second and third gears.

Burns regular, holds 14.5 gallons.

•Overall: Could be the new champ among small SUVs.

· Monday, November 16 is the first day of official production at Kia’s Georgia plant. The exciting, all new, 2011 Sorento will start to roll off of the $1.2 billion assembly line. This event will be featured in a full page ad in USA Today, encourage all dealers to pick up copies for their showrooms, as well as a live webcast that dealerships and company personnel should tune into. This will truly be a historic event in the history of our company.

· Kia is going to Times Square! In support of the 2011 Sorento launch, our national team has purchased a 60’ x 40’ vinyl on 1 Times Sq, facing north (underneath where the New Year’s ball drops). Daily effective circulation (average number of people who will see it each day) is 1.5 million. That doesn’t count the hundreds of millions who will see it on New Year’s eve! This display should be up by Thanksgiving and remain through the first quarter of 2010. Please see the attachment.

· November 28, Georgia Tech vs. Georgia in Atlanta. This is expected to be a nationally televised game and a lucky fan will win an all new, 2011 Sorento! More great exposure prior to this critical launch.