Hyundai and Kia drop the least in April

In a follow-up to this story in which Hyundai and Kia are doing quite well among Orange County car buyers, it looks like the two Korean makes are doing well around the country — or at least not as badly.

According to Bloomberg, Hyundai and Kia had the two best showings among the Asian automakers in the US car market. Hyundai dropped by only 14% from a year ago while Kia dropped by only 15%.

Other Japanese makes did not fare as well, and the overall market is doing quite badly:

Sales slid 25 percent for Honda and 14 percent for Hyundai, as the industry total tumbled 34 percent from a year earlier. Even as deliveries dropped 42 percent for Toyota and 38 percent for Nissan, the Asia-based companies raised their combined U.S. share 0.8 percentage point to 45.5 percent, Autodata Corp. said.

Once derided as a cheap car at a cheap price, Hyundai's image is becoming one of good value:

“Among Asian brands, Hyundai and Honda are in the best position,” Jesse Toprak, director of industry analysis for auto-research firm Edmunds.com in Santa Monica, California, said in an interview. “Hyundai’s value-brand image is helping them in these times when consumers are worried about money and jobs. Honda has the right product mix to be ready for any kind of change in consumer demand.”

Maybe I will go and take a look at that Hyundai Genesis Coupe.