Korea Car Sales By Brand : 2005-09

2009 Hyundai Sonata   

This five year period was good as far as car sales go. That is if you ignore Ssangyong going into receivership. Chinese Firm SAIC had owned it since 2004 and was accused of stealing hybrid technology from Ssangyong, something it denied. It was also felt promised investment was not met either by SAIC. Whatever the truth, it was bought by Indian company Mahindra in 2011 and is doing OK now.

Local: Hyundai/Kia made strong sales gains, something GM could only dream about. Samsung were solid without setting any records in sales gains.

Imports: German makes took the top four import spots in this period, with Lexus slipping out of that group. Honda made great gains, then imploded! Maybe Toyota and Nissan's arrival didn't help. Maserati and Ferrari disappeared but probably because they didn't give out the data anymore.

05	06	07	08	09	Make	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
1	1	1	1	1	Hyundai	415,337	427,488	458,945	439,318	547,967
2	2	2	2	2	Kia	213,603	220,949	222,727	275,760	366,533
3	3	4	4	3	Samsung	115,425	119,088	117,204	101,981	133,630
4	4	3	3	4	GM Korea	93,658	112,088	126,924	102,630	104,424
5	5	5	5	5	Ssangyong	75,527	56,068	60,616	39,165	22,189
7	7	6	7	6	BMW	5,786	6,101	7,618	8,396	9,652
8	8	9	8	7	Mercedes	4,012	5,026	5,533	7,230	8,915
10	9	10	11	8	Audi	2,698	3,987	4,780	4,754	6,664
12	11	12	10	9	VW	1,635	3,649	3,977	5,136	6,511
6	6	7	9	10	Lexus	5,840	6,581	7,520	6,065	5,053
9	10	8	6	11	Honda	2,709	3,912	7,109	12,356	4,905
13	15	17	15	12	Ford	1,353	1,688	2,022	2,543	2,957
11	12	13	12	13	Chrysler	2,158	2,606	3,901	3,860	2,717
17	14	14	13	14	Infiniti	531	1,712	3,004	3,230	2,569
-	-	-	-	16	Toyota	-	-	-	-	2,019
26	-	-	24	17	Nissan	38	-	-	196	1,998
14	13	16	16	18	Volvo	1,260	1,751	2,207	2,135	1,724
16	17	18	18	19	MINI	761	667	933	1,134	1,419
15	16	15	17	20	Peugeot	922	1,496	2,712	1,940	1,056
21	21	19	19	21	Land Rover	222	223	632	665	702
22	19	20	21	22	Jaguar	218	440	464	562	564
-	-	-	26	23	Mitsubishi	-	-	-	65	483
19	20	22	20	24	Cadillac	300	262	312	577	466
24	22	21	22	25	Porsche	136	209	363	423	402
20	23	23	23	26	Saab	284	195	185	275	123
-	25	24	25	27	Bentley	-	8	101	93	88
28	24	25	27	28	Maybach	11	9	11	7	4
29	26	26	28	29	Rolls Royce	5	8	6	6	2
25	-	-	-	-	Maserati	38	-	-	-	-
27	-	-	-	-	Ferrari	22	-	-	-	-
					Total Import	30,939	40,530	53,390	61,648	60,993
					Total	944,489	976,211	1,039,806	1,020,502	1,235,736

Data sources: Thanks to KAMA and KAIDA.

To see 2010-14, please click here.
To go to the first in the series (1985-89), simply click here.

Korea Car Sales By Brand : 2000-04

2004 Ssangyong Rexton 

Korea experienced economic downturn on this period as well, but not at a crisis level this time. Local car brands suffered although imports didn't, as they steadily made inroads, albeit at a low level of unit sales.

Local: The Hyundai Group clearly held top spot with both brands comfortably ensconced at the top. GM Korea had a steady downhill run through this period and was fending off Samsung for 5th spot.

Imports: Premium brands were now the main imported vehicles. Foreign cars must have been noticed with some regularity on Seoul roads by now. I got Mazda's figures years ago from somewhere, but they seem to have disappeared from sources now. How can car sales disappear? As 2005 showed no sales, this indicated they left the market.

00	01	02	03	04	Make	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
1	1	1	1	1	Hyundai	426,275	475,779	525,577	424,861	390,779
2	2	2	2	2	Kia	304,314	273,694	307,289	225,539	197,128
4	4	4	3	3	Ssangyong	78,192	93,389	134,430	125,176	97,851
3	3	3	4	4	GM Korea	221,977	151,651	141,121	116,049	89,999
5	5	5	5	5	Samsung	26,862	70,648	116,793	110,249	82,220
6	6	6	6	6	BMW	1,650	2,717	5,101	5,438	5,509
17	9	7	7	7	Lexus	24	841	2,968	3,774	5,362
8	7	8	8	8	Mercedes	665	1,216	2,142	3,124	3,188
7	8	9	10	9	Chrysler	704	896	1,508	1,341	1,736
-	19	18	18	10	Honda	-	73	101	209	1,475
9	11	10	9	11	Ford	328	470	1,247	1,580	1,388
10	10	11	12	12	Volvo	307	554	931	1,024	1,148
14	13	13	11	13	VW	86	272	685	1,048	929
15	12	12	13	14	Audi	56	338	749	886	807
-	23	22	19	15	Peugeot	-	13	28	156	528
12	16	15	16	16	Cadillac	182	136	214	251	385
11	14	16	14	17	Saab	207	149	213	382	357
-	20	23	23	18	Mazda	-	27	11	12	266
13	17	14	15	19	Land Rover	159	102	241	255	258
-	15	17	17	20	Nissan	-	144	135	222	196
16	21	20	21	21	Jaguar	26	34	73	126	143
-	18	19	20	22	Mitsubishi	-	81	77	144	115
-	22	21	22	23	Porsche	8	18	34	80	99
-	-	-	24	24	Ferrari	-	-	-	9	13
-	-	-	25	25	Maserati	-	-	-	7	8
-	-	-	-	26	Maybach	-	-	-	-	7
-	-	-	-	27	Rolls Royce	-	-	-	-	5
18	-	-	-	-	Citroen	12	-	-	-	-
					Total Import	4,414	8,081	16,458	20,068	23,922
					Total	1,062,034	1,073,242	1,241,668	1,021,942	881,899

Data sources: Thanks to KAMA and KAIDA.

To see 2005-09, please click here.
To go to the first in the series (1985-89), simply click here.