HYUNDAI RECALLS NEW SONATA DUE TO LOCK FAULTS

98/lang/en
2010-02-24

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 24, ARMENPRESS. Hyundai Motor will recall 47,000
of its new Sonata sedans to fix faulty door latches, seeking to
avoid the damaging criticism Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp faces
for its handling of a series of safety problems, Armenpress reports
citing Reuters.

The South Korean automaker announced the voluntary recall after earlier
saying it would suspend U.S. sales of its 2011 Sonata, a move analysts
said was in contrast to Toyota’s sluggish response to concerns about
sudden unintended acceleration.

"Recalls have become a highly sensitive issue since Toyota’s recall,"
said Yim Eun-young, an analyst at Dongbu Securities.

"Hyundai seems to have decided to deal with these issues as fast as
they can."

Hyundai, which was the only major automaker to increase sales in
the battered U.S. market last year, has targeted Toyota customers
rattled by the acceleration problems linked to dozens of crashes and
the recall of more than 8.5 million vehicles.

Shares in Hyundai Motor fell as much as 4.3 percent in early Wednesday
trading and ended down 2.6 percent versus a 1 percent drop in the
wider market. The stock had risen 13 percent since Toyota’s recall
woes spiraled in January.

Stephen Ahn, auto analyst at LIG Investment & Securities in Seoul,
said the recall would undermine Hyundai’s image at a time when
customers were sensitive to quality follow.

"But given that the flawed part is a not a key function such as the
accelerator, powertrain or electronic controls, it will have little
impact on Hyundai’s sales," he said.

The Sonata and Elantra are the two top selling models for Hyundai,
the world’s No.4 carmaker with affiliate Kia Motors Corp.

"We have upgraded quality problems to a safety problem and decided
to make a voluntary recall," the company said in an emailed statement
in Korean.

The recall will affect about 1,300 of the 2011 Sonata sedans built
through February 16 at Hyundai’s plant in Alabama and sold to
customers, plus 46,000 YF Sonata units produced through December 6
in South Korea. The new model started to be sold from September 2009
in South Korea and this month in the United States.