Hyundai revs up charm offensive after sales dive
Hyundai Motor Co, mired in a sales slump, is turning on the charm offensive to combat decades of buyer frustration at America’s car dealers.
Dealerships in four US cities will implement reforms including posting more transparent price and discount information online and offering three-day money-back guarantees.
The programme also allows buyers to schedule a test-drive when and where they want and to complete most paperwork on the web to reduce time spent at the dealership.
“I don’t have to tell you we’re undergoing a paradigm shift when it comes to how people are buying cars,” Dean Evans, Hyundai Motor America’s chief marketing officer, said. The auto industry has been slow to respond to customers wanting “the Amazon experience” wherever they shop, he said. The campaign, which is first launching in select markets in Texas and Florida, seeks to rekindle the spark Hyundai generated in 1999 when its 10-year engine warranty helped convince American consumers of the advances the company made on quality.
Other automakers, dealers and retailing groups have offered bits and pieces of similar reforms in recent years, but Hyundai claims it will be the first to string these together into a nationwide campaign.
Hyundai’s US sales fell 13 per cent in the first nine months of this year, underperforming all other major automakers due to its ageing and sedan-heavy lineup in a market clamouring for sports utility vehicles.
The Seoul-based company is planning to introduce its Kona small SUV in the U.S. early next year, plus redesign its Santa Fe and Tucson models. “We’ll be swinging back hard next year on both the offerings and volume of our SUVs,” Evans said.
Hyundai will expand its Shopper Assurance programme to dealerships across the US by early next year. The automaker got a boost back in 2009 from a US campaign called Assur- ance, which pledged that the company would buy cars back if customers lost a job and were unable to make payments.