I thought you guys would like to see this review by the BBC's Top Gear of new small Pacific Rim cars entering the UK market in 2005. If you have like 10 mins to watch the entire clip its entertaining. They basically felt that the best of the bunch were just as expensive as the leaders in the segment and were better off with a VW.



You can click on the link above or this one:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...376&q=top+gear

 

I saw this a while ago. Its an awsome review. The part about the 3 cyl diesel hyundai is hilarious.

 

That whole thing was hilarious!!!

 

Jeremy Clarkson owns XD

 

I'm a Korean who lives in the states and this is just humiliating..
I admit that the Korean cars are not up to the level of Japanese
cars and European cars... but they basically make fun of the
cars without a detailed evaluation.
I mean, those are among the cheapest cars... under 10k what do they
expect?
They only tested the cheapest cars and concluded that the Korean cars are
dreadful.. well there are more expensive models just as Sonata, Tucson,
Santa Fe, etc..
It might seems like I'm defending Hyundai and Kia. (Maybe I am.)
The part when they brought a piece of junk made of microwaves and
refrigerators... They actually say it 'sounds better than Hyundai.'

 

Johs21,
I'm sorry you were bothered by the video clip. You are correct, the top gear test did not evaluate most of the cars they gathered. Most were eliminated on looks or strange things like the name of the car. I think you'll agree that they were trying to get laughs at the expense of the few cars they did feature.

But they (Top Gear) are pretty harsh on cars they don't like. One example is the review of the Ford F-150.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...703&q=top+gear

D

 

Dude -
I live in die hard Big 3 Auto Land Michigan and I'll tell you what it seems like every 5th new car on the road around here is Korean! and you should hear the pride their owners take in them
Plus I cook my lunch every day in a Korean assembled microwave and it does the job every time.
All I can say is Korea - it's not just the land of Kimchi anymore....

 

My current daily driver is an '06 Suzuki Reno. However, this car is really a Daewoo Lacetti in Korea. Add in a little cash from the General and you have the GMDAT (GM Daewoo Automotive Technologies). Since GM has a stake in Suzuki and Suzuki needed a small car in the us, you now have the Reno. This car is also marketed as the Chevrolet Optra in Canada and I believe in Australia as well.

To be quite honest, compared to my '00 VW Golf, '02 Civic SI, and my girlfriend's '03 Mini Cooper, the Daewoo (Suzuki, Chevy...) has been the least problematic of the bunch.

Toyota themselves has said that they are more worried about the Koreans than they are of GM or any US car company. And with cars like the Lacetti-fun to drive, frugal (relatively), and well made, I will not argue with them.

 

GM Daewoo pulled out of the Australian market last year. Holden which is General Motors Holden is now bringing all the Daewoos back into Australia rebadged as Holdens to replace the rebadged Opels they were using. No vehicles are marketed as Chevrolet in Australia but the Daewoos are rebadged as Chevrolets throughout the rest of Asia.

The quality of the Hyundais, Kias and Daewoos are improving with each model replacement but they are still more than a generation behind, sometimes 2 generations behind the equivalent Toyota, Honda and Mazda models. It will not be long before they have caught up but it hasn't happened quite yet.

Mainland China is the real big player. An emerging domestic market that will swamp the rest of the world combined, enormous manufacturing infrastructure and incredibly low production costs. Quality will improve over time as it has in Korea.

 

This is off topic, but with regards to production, I will agree with you regarding the capabilities of China.

I work for a bike company and I have heard from our designers that China will be a force to be reckoned with when it comes to manufacturing. He has personally visited sites where our bicycles are made and took pictures of all the presses and extrusion machinery and, at the mass production level (when it comes to bicycles), China has about 4 times as much capability compared to what we have in the US.

 

hey maybe this will make u proud to b korean

http://www.protomotors.com/index_eng.html