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What a strike in Korea could mean for US Hyundai and Kia buyers

A prolonged factory strike at Hyundai-Kia factories in South Korea could mean that US dealership inventory of certain vehicles, such as the South Korea-built Hyundai Accent and Kia Soul, could dry up in the coming months, depending on the length of the strike, reports Cars.com's blog, Kicking Tires. The two brands together rank sixth in US sales and fifth in global sales.
Kicking Tires gives fascinating insight into how a production stoppage in South Korea might affect vehicle sales in the US, considering Hyundai-Kia has two factories in the US that build the Kia Sorento and Optima/Optima Hybrid, and the Hyundai Elantra sedan/coupe/GT, Sonata/Sonata Hybrid and Santa Fe/Santa Fe Sport. The only one of these vehicles that's built solely in the US is the Kia Sorento, with the rest of them sharing production with South Korea.
Be sure to read the piece, especially if you're in the market for a Hyundai or Kia, or just interested in global economics.

2014 Hyundai Elantra

The reality of growing up and living in Detroit is an interesting one. You're essentially born with minute traces of gasoline in your veins and everyone you know is associated with the auto industry in some way. That's not an exaggeration. They might be the child of a line worker at the local auto plant, or they may hold down a job at a restaurant frequented by employees at a big supplier, but no matter what, everyone is part of the auto-industry ecosystem.
Because of this, the stories you may have heard about Detroiters and their distaste for foreign cars is, frustratingly, true. Simply put, Toyota and Honda are blatantly disliked by most, while BMW and Mercedes-Benz are merely tolerated. For a car reviewer who prides himself on making egalitarian recommendations, it's a frustrating environment to live in, particularly when friends and family ask that inevitable question - which is followed by an equally inevitable qualifier - "What should my next car be?" and "One more thing - it can't be foreign." It's this attitude that's perhaps the reason no one I know even considered buying a Hyundai Elantra.
Despite the fact that the compact sedan is built in Montgomery, AL and that Hyundai maintains a shiny, new, sprawling tech facility less than 45 minutes outside of downtown Detroit, the Elantra's status as a "foreign" car immediately precludes it from most Motown buyers' shopping lists. This is to their detriment, as I discovered during a week of testing the refreshed-for-2014 Hyundai Elantra.

Hyundai shocks Korea with mid-engined Veloster concept

There are many things we love here at Autoblog, but one of the quirkiest is the mid-engined hot hatch, whether it's the Renaultsport Clio V6 or the Volkswagen GTI W12-650 concept. Unfortunately, we can never seem to get our hands on one - the former never having made the transatlantic journey and the latter remained strictly a concept. And now we've got one more to salivate over.
It's called, simply enough, the Veloster Midship concept, and Hyundai is unveiling it this week at the Busan Motor Show in South Korea. As you might have guessed, it's essentially a Veloster with the engine - a 2.0-liter Theta turbo four producing 296 horsepower - mounted behind the two seats. It's also got a lightweight aluminum suspension, a reinforced chassis and extreme aero to help that mid-mounted turbo engine do its thing.
The project was undertaken by the same team that developed the initial i20 WRC rally car, but unfortunately as Hyundai itself says in the press release below (released with the solitary image above), "The Midship is a concept only to explore possibilities for the Veloster chassis and is currently not related to any future production model." Which is a bit of a shame, but hardly a surprise.