NEWS RELEASE
News media release Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Hyundai named 2006 Ideal Vehicle Brand by AutoPacific in US
- Inaugural study shows Hyundai best meets customer expectations
- Sonata and Santa Fe also win top category honours
Hyundai's kudos continue in the US where automotive researcher and consultant AutoPacific has named Hyundai its Ideal Vehicle Brand, and nominated Sonata and the prior Santa Fe as Ideal Vehicle Award class winners in their respective premium midsize car and standard midsize SUV classes in a new study.
AutoPacific's first-ever Ideal Vehicle Awards (IVA) ranked car makers for how closely their 2006 model year cars or recreational vehicles came to matching owners' expectations and criteria. Vehicles that customers said they would change the least were rated the most 'ideal'.
To determine the IVA winners, AutoPacific asked buyers and lessees of new vehicles acquired between September 2005 and January 2006 to rate them on how close they came to 'ideal' in exterior size, occupant and cargo room, driver's seat comfort and visibility, interior technology, power, ease of entry and exit, cabin storage places and wheels and tyres.
"With Hyundai being the top-rated brand in our first Ideal Vehicle Awards and having two vehicle class wins, it has outscored all other brands in the US market," said AutoPacific's president, George Peterson.
"Sonata hit the target for ideal exterior dimensions, passenger area and cargo space while Santa Fe came out ahead with solid numbers across the board. These results show that Hyundai's planners, engineers and designers have paid close attention to what their customers want," Mr Peterson said.
Theo van Doore, Hyundai Motor Co Australia's director of sales and marketing said: "This award is the result of Hyundai's laser focus on listening to customer needs - and meeting those needs in our new model designs.
"The Hyundai brand now stands for industry-leading quality, affordably offered superior safety technology and, as always, great value - and that's a recipe we'll continue to build on to meet and exceed the expectations of our growing customer base," Mr van Doore said.
AutoPacific is a future-oriented automotive marketing and product-consulting firm based in California and Detroit which annually publishes a wide variety of syndicated studies for the automotive industry. It also conducts extensive proprietary research and consulting for car makers, distributors, marketers and suppliers worldwide.
Earlier this month, US consumer research house J.D. Power and Associates rated Hyundai the top non-'premium' nameplate in its 2006 Initial Quality StudySM (IQS) and third among all nameplates after Porsche and Lexus. Hyundai owners had fewer problems with their vehicles than any other non-premium car or truck brand.
In the IQS, which measures 217 customer feedback attributes of design friendliness as well as build integrity, Hyundai's Tucson won the compact multi-activity vehicle segment while Sonata, Grandeur, Elantra and Tiburon each rated in the top three in their classes. The 2005 IQS rated Tucson the year's highest quality all-new model launched in the US car market.
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Further information:
Richard Power, General Manager-Public Relations
Hyundai Motor Company Australia Pty Ltd
T: 02-9763-3670
M: 0401-990-194
F: 02-9763-3433
E: richard_power@hyundai.com.au
W: www.hyundai.com