January shock: Hyundai sales increase 14.3%

Strong sales of the Sonata sedan and Santa Fe crossover helped out Hyundai stand with only two other brands in recording elevated U.S. sales in January when it’s compared with January 2008.

The other two gainers were Hyundai's sister brand, Kia, and Subaru.
Hyundai reported sales of 24,512 vehicles in January, a 14.3%augment over January 2008. Kia sales augmented up to 3.5 %. Merged, Hyundai and Kia were up 8.9% in a U.S. market that declined 37.1%.

The Sonata mid-sized sedan paved the way with sales of 8,508 units, up 85.5 % from 4,587 in the same month previous year. Hyundai sold 5,024 Santa Fes, up 35.2 % from 3,716 units previous year. Both on the whole car and light truck sales rose up.
Hyundai will start shipping the 2009 Santa Fe crossover to dealerships this following week. Production began last summer at Hyundai's Montgomery, Ala., plant, but delivery was belated as of a glut of 2008s. Strong inducements and publicity helped out the dealers move most of the 2008 units, says Dave Zuchowski, who is the sales chief at Hyundai Motor America.

Zuchowksi told that Hyundai’s new Assurance program which was launched in January offered a tremendous momentum. This makes their customers to return their novel vehicles if they are being terminated within a year. A group of journalists named Genesis Sedan as the ncar of the year and this too attracted the customer’s attention.

Zuchowski told that they would have been let down if their sales had been less than the sales of last January and added that he would like to be flat year by year though there is so much uncertainty in the market place.