|
An increasing number of first-time car buyers in Korea are choosing mid-size sedans instead of small cars. This contrasts with a worldwide trend for small cars due to high-flying oil prices. Sales of small cars are also rising in advanced nations.
In a survey of 4,000 customers who bought a Hyundai last year as their first car, 20.6 percent purchased mid-size sedans, up 5.6 percentage points from 15.0 percent in 2006, Hyundai Motor said on Thursday.
The highest percentage of customers, 24.6 percent, bought semi-mid-size cars as their first. The third largest group, 13.8 percent, bought small cars, down 0.2 percentage points from the previous year. Ten percent bought small SUVs.
A Hyundai Motor official said, "With their income levels rising, an increasing number of customers are buying larger cars as their first cars. Mid-size sedans are no longer used exclusively by middle-class people who have won economic stability. Such cars are now gaining new status as the people's car."
Some pundits, however, point out that it is wrong for so many first-time buyers to choose mid-size sedans in a country that is almost totally reliant on imported oil.
Jeon Jae-wan, a researcher at the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade, said, "In Europe and Japan, compact and small cars account for more than half of all cars. Considering Korea's energy and environmental conditions, we should be driving small cars as people in advanced nations do."
(englishnews@chosun.com )
|
