Beautiful automobile. You don't get any more American than Alabama. It looks like Rush's Maybach,.. sorta.
Posted on 02/19/2011 1:15:34 PM PST by reaganaut1
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Few people in this city 800 miles south of Detroit cared much about the auto industry until Hyundai announced it would build cars here nine years ago.
These days, Montgomery cannot stop talking about it.
Hyundai and its sister company, Kia, which opened a plant last year just across the Georgia state line, have brought thousands of well-paying jobs to the region and even helped nurture a little Korean culture in Montgomery, the first capital of the old Confederacy. Hyundai is running its Montgomery plant almost nonstop. Rarely do more than a few weeks pass without word that another parts supplier has dozens of new positions to fill, typically offering good benefits and double the pay that the average Alabaman earns.
Hyundai, which will observe its 25th anniversary selling vehicles to American drivers on Sunday, was little more than an ambitious, second-tier brand when it chose to build its first United States car factory just south of Montgomery. But during the recent recession, the South Korean company thrived as Americans sought out cheap cars just as Hyundais were improving in quality.
In 2010, Hyundai and Kia each posted their highest sales in the United States and, taken together, surged ahead of Ford Motor to become fourth-largest automaker worldwide. Hyundai built 300,000 cars in Montgomery last year and sold most of them in the United States.
“If folks looked deeply at how far we’ve gone so quickly, from having no U.S. production five years ago to where we are today, it’s amazing,” John Krafcik, chief executive of Hyundai Motor America, said. “I don’t know that any company has gotten to such a high level of local assembly as Hyundai that fast.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Non-UAW?
Two words: No Unions.
I drive a 2005 Tucson. It has 72,000 miles and I have had no problems with it.
I wonder if the south has enough land to house all these people who need jobs.
They just built it there so management would have access to all those gorgeous golf courses...
Nice affordable cars for young families and retired folks to get around in.
Krafcik knows what he is doing.
I couldn't fit anything large in my Accord or BMW. I'm very glad that I bought it!
Mrs Buzzard drives a Hyundai Sonata.
I hear a very high percentage of Koreans are Christian.
Beautiful automobile. You don't get any more American than Alabama. It looks like Rush's Maybach,.. sorta.
I love my Elantra hatchback. There are a few minor things I don’t care for, like the funky “paperclip” mounts for the headlight bulbs. But in all the important areas - reliability, room, comfort - it’s been great.
This can’t be true. Just ask one of the senators from Washington (state) who said that the new Air Force tankers couldn’t be built in Alabama because we don’t have the intelligence to build technical products (that’s a paraphrase of what she said, but it is what she meant).
Have one of the older Sonata 6’s. Too bad they don’t make those anymore.
I’m on my 2nd Elantra. Both trouble free.
Those wire clamp headlight bulb mounts aren’t unique to Hyundai. I have them in a Toyota Corolla and a Subaru Legacy GT wagon. It’s apparently the new way, less weight and less cost.
The south is big, bigger than the north.
The south is big, bigger than the north.
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