2013 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid Limited on 2040-cars

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Hyundai and Kia to hit record 8M sales for 2014

Hyundai and Kia are on a sales charge in 2014, and parent company Hyundai Motor Group is increasing projections to a record eight million combined units for the automakers by the end of the year – a bump over the original target of 7.86 million vehicles. According to Bloomberg, the key to the growth is beating expectations in Brazil, China and India, and strong crossover sales are also helping the bottom line. In the US, both automakers are doing well this year. In October, Hyundai saw a six percent dip in monthly sales, but through the first 10 months it sold 607,539 vehicles, compared to 601,773 at this point last year. Kia has done even better with 489,711 units sold from January to October, versus 456,137 for the period in 2013. The good news is a welcome antidote to negative headlines like investors' anger over Hyundai's $10 billion land purchase in Seoul, South Korea. The two automakers also had to pay a $300 million penalty to the Environmental Protection Agency for misstating fuel economy on some models. While sales may reach a new record, profits might not grow as much with them. The strong Korean won means that Hyundai and Kia have a tougher time keeping up profit margins compared to Japanese competitors with a weaker yen.

Hyundai, Buick dealer apologize in wake of Chinese baby social media incident

A very strange story out of China today, as Hyundai and a Chinese Buick dealer were forced to face allegations of using allusions to an infamous child murder on a social media site as a way of promoting the safety features of their respective vehicles.
The original sad tale goes something like this: On March 4, a man reported to police that he had left his infant child in a running Toyota RAV4 while he ran into a supermarket briefly. When he came back out, the vehicle and the child were gone. Later in the week a suspect turned himself in to the police; confessing to them that he had stolen a sport-utility vehicle, strangled the infant that was in it, and then buried the child in the snow.
As you might imagine, the gristly incident was covered massively in the Chinese media. (There was huge public outcry as well, as evidenced by the vigil scene, above.) "Changchun baby abduction" was very quickly amongst the highest ranking search teams of the China's Weibo social media site - an equivalent of Twitter in the English-speaking world.

First 2014 Hyundai Equus shipment adrift in Pacific Ocean

To all you Hyundai dealers and customers eager to plunk your posteriors into the broad, leather-lined seats of the redesigned 2014 Equus, we have some bad news: Your ship hasn't come in - literally. According to USA Today, a Korean freighter with the first 61 examples of the luxury sedan packed away in its belly has lost engine power in the western Pacific Ocean, and is adrift.
The ship, Morning Spruce, has apparently been without power for several days and is floating in the Sea of Okhotsk. It isn't clear when it will be repaired or reach US shores to divulge its contents. As a result of the wandering Spruce, Hyundai has reportedly had to reschedule some of its planned marketing efforts for the new model.
The 2014 Equus receives a suite of changes inside and out, including freshened styling, revamped center stack controls, a new instrument cluster and additional tech. Underneath, the rear-drive sedan gets a reworked suspension and a new sport mode to ease some of its nautical-by-nature handling. The 5.0-liter Tau V8 and eight-speed transmission - updates for 2012 - stay the course for 2014.